Dear Dalton

[bcholmes]

Dear Dalton,

I never expected much from you. I was mostly content with your government coming to power four years ago simply because you weren't Ernie Eves and you weren't Mike Harris. But I never really believed that you'd be a good government.

I also haven't really trusted you. I didn't really believe that you were an evil reptilian kitten-eater from another planet. But I remember when you stood against Bob Rae's same-sex marriage bill back in the early nineties. Oh, sure: you stood up to say a few nice words about how maybe we need to be respectful of queer folk, but you couldn't bring yourself to stand in favour of the bill because you "couldn't trust the Rae government", whatever that means.

But, for me, the crux of my annoyance with you has related to the province's utter failure to provide adequate funding for the city of Toronto. We've been in dire financial straits for the entire time of the Liberal provincial government and again and again you've said that you weren't going to do anything to help.

So now that your poll numbers are slipping, and people are saying that you're only gonna get a minority government, now you're finally ponying up some $936 million bucks for municipalities. Um, except that only $217 million is coming to Toronto.

Well, fuck you Dalton. Sure, I'm starting to lose my patience with the NDP, mostly because the federal party can't be bothered to think about what's going on in Haiti. But there's zero chance I'll vote for the Liberal candidate in my riding.

Screw you,
BC

Comments

[kat-chan.livejournal.com]

I am not sure if I should be repulsed that someone in the PCs called McGuinty that, or if I should be amused. But yeah, being Premier of Ontario probably isn't very easy. You spend on Toronto and the hinderlands complain about how all the government thinks about is TO. You spend on the hinterlands (which probably could use money, too) and then TO shows signs of neglect because of the lack of provincial funding.

In fact, some of the running themes in national politics are similar. The west get upset because the government seems to focus on Quebec and/or Ontario. Especially with regards to equalization. And now my one from from Oshawa is complaining because Quebec is getting additional funding from the government that Ontario isn't, and that Ontario is getting screwed over because of the red and orange on the representation map, while the PCs think that they can ride a blue wave to a majority government.

And I'm not sure why McGuinty didn't think he could trust an NDP government on a same-sex marriage bill. Did he think that it was going to be a veiled way of not allowing same-sex marriage? From the NDP??? Or would he just rather have it be so that the Liberals could claim to be the ones who brought same-sex marriage to Ontario (which, thanks to the federal government, can now be claimed)? I'd hate to think that his lack of trust was due to a "fear" that the Rae government's bill would open the door to polygamy and bestiality, like our friend Mr. Santorum argued here.