McGuinty, Smitherman, Miller, the Streetcars and the Jobs
”I do think that in these times you have to be a little bit careful about writing cheques that you don’t have the ability to back up, Smitherman said.” No streetcar budget: McGuinty – Toronto Sun, April 30th 2009
Isn’t this baffoon of a Minister a giant verbal cheque writer? You know, in the ‘don’t let your mouth write cheques your body can’t cash’ kind of way? His attack first, be thought for later, approach to public policy and governance has him backpedaling and side stepping his own piles of BS and embarrassment more than any other Minister in the cabinet.
I don’t know how the politics of this went down, I do see a mayoral ‘wannabe’ and the real Mayor lining up for a jousting match that affects millions of Ontarians. Who knows how it will end, but I’m with the Mayor on the purpose, and the benefits for regional development in two parts of the Province that badly need it.
For McGuinty to pretend he is showing any financial restraint, when he will literally double the debt over the course of the eight year tenure his government before they are defeated is almost laughable, if it wasn’t so serious for my generation. He will be the Premier who will go down in history is running the largest deficit this Province has ever seen, and adding more to it’s debt than any other Premier in the history of Ontario. I will likely be far past punditry or active involvement in politics before this Premier’s debt legacy is paid off. (Don’t say, but the melt down, the melt down, because he had been running deficits almost annually since 2003, while raising taxes and spending along the way.)
Maybe Miller just saw the piles of debt financed cash Smitherman and McGuinty were mindlessly shoveling out Queen’s Park, and genuinely thought he could get in on the fun without asking… I mean when you have Smitherman preaching about the need for ‘green’ everything and having billions upon billions for a ‘smart grid’ and for the folks who bought and paid for the Green Energy Act, could you hardly blame him? Public transit is one of the legitimate opportunities to address carbon dioxide emissions, considering 75% of Ontario’s existing electricity supply does not generate carbon dioxide, but certainly all those vehicles on the road do.
If it wasn’t discussed in advance, I can understand why the Premier and his rabid attack dog are upset (although I think Smitherman’s emotional range starts at ‘angry’). At the same time, it is a project with a whole lot of merit and even if toes were stepped on and rings weren’t kissed, the economic benefits, and environmental realities of this should not be ignored.
McGuinty sucks at looking tough, and if he chooses this as the issue to be the bad guy, he will vilify himself and give Miller a giant political two by four, even if there may be some cold hearted merit to what he would be trying to say. That being said this is the same Premier who yesterday said he wasn’t closing any emergency rooms in small communities, just ‘consolidating them’.
Tags: Dalton McGuinty, David Miller, George Smitherman, Ontario Support for TTC, Transit Funding Toronto, TTC, TTC Bombardier Contract
May 1st, 2009 at 9:51 pm
“If it wasn’t discussed in advance, I can understand why the Premier and his rabid attack dog are upset (although I think Smitherman’s emotional range starts at ‘angry’).”
John,
George Smitherman is a classic case of severe narcissistic personality disorder just read the book: “Aggression in Personality Disorders and Perversions” by Doctor Otto Kernberg MD.
If we were to have half decent psychiatric services in Ontario Furious George would never make it out of Medford (maximum security unit) at CAMH (formerly Clarke Institute of Psychiatry.
Poor Dalton is terrified by George and his army of spies. Miller on the other hand seems to have figured out a way how to eliminate George.
You see, George’s False Ego tripped by even silightest of provocations is very prone to explode in rage (short fuse syndrome). People like George have a great difficulty in coping with adversity so it is enough to piss him off couple of times and he will get into permanent state of Narcissistic Rage and enter into a death spiral.
You are doing very good job of provoking him and I hope that he reads your Blog. Every time you piss him off he cannot contain it so he has to take it out on his boys, and the chain reaction starts to go down and it soon spreads thru whole pyramid.
June 18th, 2009 at 11:35 am
I guess this is politics at it’s best.
Baird tells Miller to f off, Miller capitalises and streetcars worth $1.2 billion are bought and it happens. This contract makes ehealth look upright.
Thank goodness Toronto didn’t need any work done on bridges, sewers, parks and roads or anything else that could help the unemployed and help the city right now.