More (sigh) Of The Same

"If you come and change everybody, you'll have to start all over again and she doesn't have time.
Wynne now has a bunch of ministers who can hit the ground running, and keep going."
Pollster John Wright

They might find themselves running in place.  Racing to get nowhere. This is the recycled Ontario Liberal Party. It is the very same party, the same crew, the same intelligence, the same game plan, the same limitations as the one before it. This is the political party that has governed for the past nine years and under whose careful restructuring of the province's economy and services has given us a $12-billion deficit.

We're not quite on life-support, but we are now, receiving transfer payments from the federal government, where traditionally we have been one of the major has-been provinces whose profitability has enriched the provincial giveaway pot. Now, Newfoundland is helping us to stay afloat.

This is the government that saw green and liked what it saw, and initiated an energy plan that has the province groaning under expensive energy rates and so much energy it cannot all be used, and must be sold at cost or less to clients in the United States. But Ontarians pay through their winter-cold noses, alas.

We now have a new premier, and are congratulating ourselves for the fact that we're so open-minded, we scarcely have taken note that she is a white female, a gay grandmother. But very good credentials. Assured of herself and her ability to present the Liberal Party in a new light, with an expanded cabinet of 27, up from McGuinty's 22. That'll cost us, too.

"Kathleen Wynne's cabinet is larger than the third party - the NDP. It is too big. At a time when we should be reducing government spending, she just went on a spending spree, appointing ministers here, there, everywhere. If you thought McGuinty wasted taxpayers dollars, you haven't met Kathleen Wynne", said MPP Lisa MacLeod, waxing eloquent.

Let's see, under the Liberal Party, we've enjoyed the unusual and lively spectacle of the Six Nations standoff at Caledonia, with the Ontario Provincial Police standing by, doing nothing as First Nations 'warriors' contested the use of treaty land by a private developer and made life a living nightmare for unsuspecting buyers.

And yes, there's the ehealth debacle that cost us $1-billion in wasted treasury, and the Ornge imbroglio with money flying out the window in helicopter scams and executive prerogatives. Right, almost forgot; the two gas plants cancelled to entice the public to vote Liberal last time around, and the cost of that cancellation penalty is around a half-billion.

Ontario had labour peace under Premier Dalton McGuinty because he had a fondness for teachers, since it was a family tradition, and he settled rich contracts for the province's teachers, and they loved him, even helped him get re-elected. And now they're striking, though not striking, just making life tough for schoolkids because they're mighty mad over the government peeling back their perks.

And so, a new Premier, Kathleen Wynne, steeped in centre-left politics is going off on a new tangent, and everything will be just fine. No taint of former scandals to be linked to her 'new' government, her 'new' cabinet, her plans for the province's future.