Rug
By Eric Dowd
Toronto – The federal Liberals are complaining their Ontario
party is not showing much them brotherly love in an election, but they
should not expect to be treated as part of one big, happy family.
The
Liberals in Ottawa are upset because Premier Dalton McGuinty in his first
budget introduced premiums to pay for healthcare, breaking a promise to
avoid new taxes and angering many in the province.
This
will make it more difficult for Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin to win
votes in Ontario, which is essential if he is to hold on to government.
Liberal
candidates have found some voters hostile because of the premiums and
Martin first excused McGuinty as having little choice, because the
preceding Progressive Conservative government cut taxes drastically and
left him needing to restore services.
Martin
has since raised a note of criticism, saying McGuinty dealt with the issue
in his way, but `my way would be different.’
But
the federal Liberals have a long history of looking after only their own
interests when in government, which has been most of the time, and not
caring how much this hurt their less successful Ontario party in
elections.
When
McGuinty was gearing up for an election last year, as a minor example, the
federal Liberals got embroiled in such bitterness and backstabbing in
changing leaders he had to ask them to turn it to down to avoid deterring
his Liberals from working together and harming his chances.
In
the 1999 election McGuinty lost to Tory premier Mike Harris, several
federal Liberal backbenchers praised Harris for his tax cuts and one even
asked `why should I help McGuinty?’
The
federal Liberal government also increased transfer payments to provinces
and it would not have been proper to delay the announcement to help its
Ontario party, but its minister in charge of the treasury board could have
avoided saying this was `a coup for Harris.’
In
the 1995 Ontario election, when the federal Liberals cut transfer
payments, Ontario Liberal leader Lyn McLeod was persuaded to praise them
as fair and able to make tough decisions, and this was held against her
throughout a campaign Harris won.
Before
this, the federal Liberals had a rare layoff from government and their
Ontario counterparts got into office for five years and it is no
coincidence they did it while there was no Liberal government in Ottawa to
let them down.
Before
the 1985 election, the federal Liberals lured four of the Ontario
party’s most promising MPPs, including Sheila Copps, to run for them,
leaving it without a sitting woman or Francophone and looking
unrepresentative, and prompting it to complain the federal party was
raiding it.
In
1981 Liberal prime minister Pierre Trudeau was unable to restrain his
praise for Tory premier William Davis for his efforts to secure a new
Constitution and helped Davis win.
The
Ontario Liberals seemed to have a real chance in 1975 until federal
finance minister John Turner resigned only eight days before the vote
saying he had policy differences with Trudeau.
This
enabled Davis to win by claiming the federal Liberals were confused on how
to improve the economy and strong leadership was crucial in Ontario and
many wondered why Turner could not wait.
The
federal Liberals were so dominating and said so much on Ontario issues
Davis won four elections and in each was helped by suggesting if the
Liberals won, the province would become a branch plant run by the prime
minister’s office and the powerful federal Liberal organizer Keith Davey
was `in this with both feet.’
A
federal Liberal minister of health and welfare, Judy LaMarsh, used an
Ontario election campaign in 1963 as a platform to accuse Tory premier
John Robarts of hindering her setting up a national pension plan, but she
was so strident it backfired.
Federal
Liberals have hurt their Ontario party so often in elections it has become
as routine as dropping the writ, so the federal Liberals are merely
getting a taste of their own medicine.
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