McGuinty pleads to stay
fix
by Eric Dowd
Toronto -- Premier Dalton McGuinty has suggested one reason voters should keep him in next year’s election, but it is far from compelling and may even remind them too much of his past faults.
The Liberal premier, once dominating in polls, has fallen so dramatically behind the Progressive Conservatives, after a series of major mistakes with programs, he is asked constantly whether he will step down as leader and allow someone else to take over.
McGuinty’s latest, emotional response is he wants to stay because there is so much he wants to improve, and pointed to a newspaper’s exposure a few days earlier of conditions in a retirement home where seniors suffering from dementia were left lying in filth.
The premier said he remains passionate about righting wrongs in society and asked “what about that retirement home story -- what if that was your father or mother? There’s still more work to be done, obviously."
McGuinty claimed he still has the same enthusiasm, energy and idealism for solving problems, and being premier, as when he was first elected to the job in 2003.
But he has chosen possibly the poorest example on which to claim he will improve a program if he has more time.
Inadequate treatment and often abuse of residents in some, not all, retirement homes have been exposed for decades and successive governments of all parties have promised to end them, but done litttle.
McGuinty has been promising to improve conditions in the homes, as reports of abuse in them continued, since before he became premier.
The Liberals, painfully slowly, eventually introduced legislation this year supposed to protect residents.
But it is not yet in effect, because regulations still are being drawn up, and it still is uncertain how much the retirement homes industry rather than the public will supervise and investigate the homes, although more public influence can be expected because of the latest disclosures.
The questions about whether McGuinty will step down before the election are futile anyway and not merely because he has said many times he intends to lead his party in the vote.
Premiers’ assurances about their own future are notoriously unreliable, because they do not say they are leaving until the day their bags are packed, fearing otherwise they will be seen as lame ducks.
But McGuinty had said he will stay for the election many times when when his party was leading comfortably in the polls.
If he announced now he is stepping down before the election, it would be a sure sign he fears he will be defeated and he would be seen as running away, which would further dishearten and even panic his party.
McGuinty also has no readily identifiable successor. The closest to a front-runner was former attorney general Michael Bryant, who left elected politics when McGuinty showed he resented his breathing down his neck and, after a highly publicized traffic accident for which he was found not to blame, is unlikely to return.
None of his ministers has established much rapport with the public and the whole party is built around McGuinty and his name.
Additionally, although he has a steep hill to climb to win, it is by no means certain McGuinty is headed for defeat.
He has improved many programs. Examples include health by restraints on smoking and high drug costs and education by starting full-day kindergarten that eventually will improve the economy and testimonials from abroad show the Ontario school system is relatively strong.
He has improved the environment by closing some coal-fired generating stations and supporting green technology and public safety in many ways by such acts as bannning drivers talking on cell phones and curbing the most dangerous dogs.
McGuinty has improved some programs, but he has delayed so long on retirement homes there is no way for him to claim much credit as their Mr. Fix-it.
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