A return to responsible editorializing
Dear Editor,
It may also be time for change to responsible editorializing. From the wrong attribution of the opening quote to the final paragraphs, the editorial is redolent with lazy research and lack of critical thinking. However, the quote is a truism that might equally apply to average newspaper editors. Five minutes is enough for the reading of the editorial and revealing the ignorance and foolishness of that person.From that low point, the rest of the editorial is all downhill. Nothing is on view except the demonization of Kathleen Wynne, one of the most successful and progressive premiers in the history of the province and a repetition of the lies and false claims and promises of the false Conservatives.
To deal with just some of those: Ontario is not the most indebted sub-national government.It has greater debt than smaller jurisdictions but it has far lower per capita debt than a great many. More importantly, its debt to GDP ratio is also far lower. Then, all Parties promised to cancel the gas plants. The Liberals were compelled to do so because of the public clamour. Ontario’s hydro rates are close to the lowest in the world and they are far lower than in a number of American jurisdictions.The Liberals did not “sell off parts of itself” to pay the bills. It sold part of Hydro One on the advice of economists to provide for future, needed infrastructure investment.
I will not comment on your objection to the social safety net and healthcare system. The objection speaks volumes for the character of the complainant. The objection to a fair minimum wage is equally revealing. That increase would have brought that low wage group up to the level it was at 40 years ago in real dollars and ended the war on the poor by the right-wing.Blaming Mike Harris was appropriate and the blame is still warranted. The Liberals have made considerable ground in repairing the damage by that evil claque but there is still some way to go since the revenue base was destroyed and there has never been the money to fix it completely. Your churlish denigration of Bob Rae is in the same category of spiteful demonization. Rae governed during the worst recession since the 1930s, a world wide recession.
He responded with classical Keynesianism and steered this province to recovery faster than in many jurisdictions. He also managed to do that humanely, saving hundreds of thousands of jobs. And, there were not more and more taxes. It was indeed time to examine the choices and, in a reprehensible misrepresentation of those you aided and abetted the election of Harris redux with its mix of self-serving Harrisites and Harperites under the leadership of Ford. What Ontario will not have in the foreseeable future is Pharmacare, dental care, or childcare. What it may have is deep poverty, a transfer of wealth to higher income groups due to the phoney and, for many, the non-existent tax cuts, cuts that help only high income earners.Some choice.
John Peate