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<\/p>\n(October 30, 2017)<\/p>\n
By: Adrienne Batra, Toronto Sun<\/p>\n
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Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne tours the Niagara Catholic District School Board’s Niagara Launch Centre located at Seaway Mall in Welland on October 12, 2017.<\/span>Michelle Allenberg\/Welland Tribune\/Postmedia Network<\/span><\/p>\n Here\u2019s a not-so-hidden secret, the Ontario Liberals are going to use your money to ensure they get re-elected in 2018.<\/p>\n It will be through grandiose funding announcements, spending all over the province and they will use language such as \u201cinvestments in our future\u201d while at the same time racking up Ontario\u2019s already unwieldy $312 billion debt.<\/p>\n The Liberals won\u2019t be particularly subtle about their spending either, frankly they don\u2019t have to be \u2014 they currently have a majority government and can use the public purse as they see fit, no matter how fiscally irresponsible they have been.<\/p>\n However it\u2019s still worth pointing out the initiatives they announce are dripping with political opportunism.<\/p>\n Take the latest from embattled Health Minister Eric Hoskins for example. The Liberals providing temporary funding for over 1,200 hospital beds sounds great \u2014 but doesn\u2019t come close to addressing the long-term crisis of bed shortages.<\/p>\n Even the Ontario Health Coalition, as Antonella Artuso reported, sees right through this obvious election ploy referring to it as \u201ccynical\u201d while pointing out the funding will likely decrease after the election is over.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s a clever move, even if it\u2019s temporary funding.<\/p>\n The Liberals are likely working on an advertising campaign designed to tout their benevolence while simultaneously scare Ontarians from voting for Patrick Brown\u2019s Progressive Conservatives, who consistently beat the Liberals in public opinion polling.<\/p>\n It will go something like this: \u201cYour Ontario Liberals are committed to patients, and are \u2018investing\u2019 millions of dollars in health care \u2014 but the PCs will cut this funding if elected! Vote Liberal!\u201d<\/p>\n And speaking of cynical, how about the Fair Hydro Plan which Ontario\u2019s Auditor General just ripped to shreds.<\/p>\n The \u201cplan\u201d will cost nearly $40 billion, and artificially keeps electricity rates down. Here\u2019s the election kicker \u2014 just in time for the 2018 campaign, the rates will be the lowest, then will increase every year following. How convenient. Those campaign commercials practically write themselves.<\/p>\n Earlier this year the Liberals bought themselves labour peace till after the next election offering contact extensions for teachers and education workers and two of the biggest unions representing thousands of public servants across Ontario.<\/p>\n And they vote \u2014 in droves. They know having a Liberal government in the pink palace is in their respective unions\u2019s best interest, so why not keep them there? After all, Premier Kathleen Wynne and Dalton McGuinty before her, weren\u2019t coy about keeping the unions happy.<\/p>\n But the one thing that is going to likely hurt young workers and those who aren\u2019t as highly skilled the most, was the ramming through of the increased minimum wage.<\/p>\n Study after study has shown that with increased labour costs and regulations, employers will hire less. Not to mention industry will respond to governments obscene financial demands by being more innovative and use technology to replace workers.<\/p>\n None of these facts seem to matter though, the Liberals needed an issue to take away from their left flank \u2014 the NDP \u2014 and this was it.<\/p>\n So the Liberals have kicked in their re-election strategy, the question is \u2014 will Ontarians be fooled into buying what they are selling us, using our own money?<\/p>\n abatra@postmedia.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n