Don Drummond

Wednesday February 22, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Wednesday February 22, 2012

McGuinty steers into troubled, unnavigated waters

When the legislature opens for business on Tuesday, Dalton McGuinty will confront one of the most troubled periods in provincial history.

With a $16-billion deficit, a debt of about $250 billion, a sputtering economy, a weak job market and the danger of a credit rating downgrade, the 40th Provincial Parliament couldn’t be sitting at a more important time.

The challenges facing Ontario would be daunting for a majority government. Throw a minority government into that volatile mix, with the Drummond report hanging over his head, and McGuinty’s task becomes herculean.

Analysts say McGuinty’s situation is unique. What voters conjured up last Oct. 6 last year, is not the minority of 1985 when Liberals and New Democrats signed an accord and took power from Conservative Frank Miller, giving government to David Peterson. Nor is it 1975 and 1977 when Bill Davis led two Conservative minorities with relative ease in the face of a divided opposition.

The political environment today is more fractured and more partisan, with the Opposition Progressive Conservatives and the NDP united in their determination to give the Liberals no breathing room.

Worse still, worries about the economy have left cranky Ontarians in no mood to cut the government any slack. McGuinty not only has to walk a political tightrope in the legislature, he has to make sure whatever tough medicine he prescribes to revive the economy doesn’t lead to social unrest.

With 53 seats to the PC’s 37 and 17 for the NDP, McGuinty may have a “strong minority,” but it is not enough to give him control of his own destiny. (Source: Ottawa Citizen)

 

Tuesday February 14, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Tuesday February 14, 2012

How Ontario’s ‘stimulus’ spending led to disaster

The fiscal mess in Ontario is now common knowledge across the country, thanks in part to a sensational report from the Conference Board of Canada demonstrating that unless the government slashes spending and/or raises taxes, health care and education will have to be decimated. The report was no surprise to people who tracked Premier Dalton McGuinty’s march into Keynesian fiscal stimulus spending.

If we can’t expect politicians to take the blame for following the Keynesian deficit-spending policies advocated by their economic advisors, shouldn’t we turn to the economic experts to get them to explain themselves? The same people who supported and advised the McGuinty Liberals — and the Obama Democrats, the Greek and Portuguese politicians, the French and Canadian governments — to run up spending to rescue the economy will spend the next decade telling governments how to get out of the mess they helped create.

Ontario’s current circumstances create a perfect opportunity to confront the economic establishment and lay blame for the fiscal disaster that is Ontario. Government spending has been soaring for years. It all looks good if growth rates stay strong. Where were the dire economic warnings through the last decade that the expansion in government activity cannot continue without hitting a wall?

A table on Ontario’s spending habits (above) captures the disconnect between the government and the people. While the personal income of the people dragged at 26% growth, government spending soared more than 60%.

On Wednesday, former TD Bank economist Don Drummond will deliver a set of tax and spending options to the McGuinty government, a road map on how the province can resolve its fiscal problems. (Source: Financial Post)