The head of the Ipperwash inquiry has ruled that former premier Mike Harris told a high-level meeting on the day Dudley George was killed that "I want the f---ing Indians out of the park." But Justice Sidney Linden also found that while Harris's comment was "racist" and the premier was critical of police, Harris did not interfere or give inappropriate directions to the police at Ipperwash.

 Premier Process

Dalton McGuinty was the very personification of a genially avuncular politician.  That is, as long as he had a majority in the legislature with which to enable him to play around with the state of affairs in the province.  And under his reign things certainly changed.  There were some successes and then there were an awful lot of whopping failures.  The state of the province's education and health enterprises improved slightly.

In the process, however, inclusive of a global financial crisis and evaporating factory floor jobs, the province's deficit ballooned from the $5-billion when Premier McGuinty took over government to its current $15-billion.  And on the way from yesterday to today Ontario turned from its historical presence as the engine of the Canadian economy to a have-not province which now receives annual transfer payments.

During the two majority legislatures and the one that just squeaked under a majority the premier made some pretty unworkable decisions.  Fearful of a confrontation that would label him just as Mike Harris was in popular public perception as an interfering mismanager whom the Ipperwash enquiry zeroed in on for his statement, "I want the f---ing Indians out of the park",( though he was cleared of ordering the police in an inappropriate manner, and not responsible for the death of Dudley George).

Lesson learned, though, and the Liberal premier kept a hands-off policy, ordering the OPP to stand back and do nothing to further enrage native warrior protesters at Caledonia, allowing criminal activities, lawlessness, intimidation, threats and violence to go unchecked.  Faint of heart was he to become involved and bear the consequences, in the process preferring to leave the citizens of Caledonia in an unbearable situation.

His poor judgement evidenced itself in many ways, from the eHealth spending fiasco that contributed nothing useful to the health portfolio, to his embrace of green energy leading to soaring electricity costs for Ontarians, along with an electricity fiasco that forced the province to virtually give away at bargain prices energy to consumers in New York while Ontarians got stiffed. 

The health surtax which wasn't really a tax at all because the premier had made a pre-election promise that he would impose no new taxes, was one amazing surprise.  But he grinned so boyishly and promised to behave afterward, that all was forgiven.  It was just that the last pre-election antics with the cancellation of a gas plant to gain the Etobicoke seat was too obvious and too expensive a ploy to maintain power.

And Dalton McGuinty just doesn't appreciate having his tender feet held to the fire of public censure and opposition baiting.  So he decided that if he couldn't continue in his comfortable position as the man in charge without the inconvenience of being answerable to the opposition lest the rug be pulled out from under, he would be proactive, and simply resign.  When little girls do that kind of thing, we say they're pouting.

Only it wasn't that simple, since he also prorogued the legislature.  And now all those elected legislators who are quite well compensated for their time and energies have nothing of any real substance to occupy themselves with.  And the people of Ontario who have every right to expect that those whom they elect to represent their interests be active and engaged in the legislature, now see no government business taking place at all.

Overall, quite the legacy.