Ask
By Eric Dowd
Toronto – Premier Dalton McGuinty has asked almost everyone for advice except Dear Abby and the lonely-hearts columnist may be next on his list.
The Liberal premier has set a record for asking others what he should do. He has called on the high and the mighty, or at least those who have been at the top in Ontario politics.
McGuinty brought back former New Democrat premier Bob Rae to study the needs of universities and colleges and former Progressive Conservative premier William Davis to a panel advising Rae.
McGuinty resuscitated former Liberal premier David Peterson to negotiate sharing gambling revenue with First Nations and could shrug off could charges of patronage by saying he has brought in advisers from different parties.
The only ex-premiers McGuinty has not called on are Tories Mike Harris and Ernie Eves, but in opposition he knocked both so hard he would have difficulty suddenly discovering they have ideas worth grasping.
McGuinty revived Elinor Caplan, a health minister under Peterson, to review the way contracts for home-care are awarded and the constant changeovers that impair treatment.
He has exhumed former NDP ministers Marion Boyd to study whether Islamic sharia law should be allowed to settle domestic disputes between Muslims and Dave Cooke to look into school closings in northern Ontario.
McGuinty had former federal Liberal finance minister John Manley, a longtime friend with whom he shared riding boundaries in Ottawa, study the future of Ontario Power Generation, the main provider of electricity.
McGuinty also has called often on ordinary citizens to jog his thoughts and toured the province, holding meetings where he asked participants for their views, on a scale unprecedented for a premier.
Unfortunately, a large number of them appeared to be Liberals, questions were restricted and reaction was largely hostile.
McGuinty asked the province’s employees for tips on how to save and they produced some useful suggestions such as sharing locations for services with the federal government.
McGuiinty says he will allow `juries’ picked from residents to recommend changes in election laws and has a committee from both sides discussing issues involving the justice system and news media.
Among other attempts to obtain input from residents, he has held public forums to look into concerns about the privatized Highway 407, particularly high tolls, and asked the public how the Canadian National Exhibition and Ontario Place on Toronto’s waterfront can be joined to make a world-class attraction.
He also is asking, after the horse has bolted, what the public wants to do with the Leslie M. Frost Natural Resources Centre, which provided outdoor education for six decades before he closed it without consulting anyone.
McGuinty’s main motive in his unprecedented search for others’ views is to give the impression his government is open and responsive, in keeping with his claim to bring more democracy to governing.
He also has taken some of the focus off his early failures to keep promises, after being left with a massive deficit he argues he could not have foreseen.
He additionally has given jobs to friends and weakened opposition parties by luring away some of their leading figures.
But McGuinty is now also at the point where he looks unsure of himself and afraid to act unless he polls almost everyone first.
One group he is not consulting enough is his large caucus of 70 MPPs who are experienced in public life and, while they do not have answers to everything, are constantly in touch with views in their ridings.
By repeatedly asking outsiders, McGuinty is belittling his elected members and reinforcing the view they are nobodies once they get a few feet from the legislature.
Elected politicians also are supposed to lead, not ask everyone else what to do – if they did not lead, Canada might still have capital punishment.
Dear Abby might well tell McGuinty voters like a leader who seems firm and decisive and he is not calling on some who could help him.
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