I confess that I didn’t have a lot of trust in Dalton McGuinty’s leadership when he won the Ontario Liberal convention in November of 1996 and I didn’t like the way he led the opposition against the Mike Harris government. I don’t know if I was wrong then or if he has grown into his job during his years as a premier. But the fact is, at the present time, he has shown competence and leadership and the irony is that he is in trouble exactly because of it.
Many Canadians and many of us in the media are accusing politicians of being incompetent, gutless, and opportunist. We say quite often that we don’t have politicians capable of showing leadership but, as soon as someone provides some, we all gang up and bring them down.
Take a look at what happened to British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell who resigned last week over the HST or to what many want to see happen to McGuinty.
McGuinty’s popularity is down dangerously in Ontario . In both cases, the reason is their decision to adopt the infamous HST, the new levy that combines the provincial tax and the federal tax.
I think we should take a deep breath and a fresh look at this initiative.
Many other industrialized countries have adopted this single tax. Here in Canada , it’s supported by the business community and by both the Liberals and the Conservatives. All are saying this reform will help to reduce fiscal pressure on companies, thus helping new investments and create new jobs.
In the short term, there are of course negative consequences on the taxpayers but, on the other end, did we ever meet someone who liked a tax increase? Furthermore, the Ontario government, like all other governments, is deep into a huge deficit after the billions of dollars pumped into the economy in order to fight the recession of two years ago.
Basically, the new taxation makes sense because it helps, even if in the long range, to create jobs, to make the province more competitive and, in the process, it helps the government to collect some money to phase out the huge deficit accumulated.
I’m not generalizing the behaviour of the McGuinty government over the last few years and I’m sure there are many wrong things he did. However, I’m also sure that among them was not the decision to change the Ontario taxation system. To me, going ahead with such a decision is real leadership.
But instead of Ontarians and British Columbians seeing that, what we have is a real riot against those who provide leadership in difficult times, and we will reward those who take advantage of the situation for political gain.
As I wrote some time ago, I don’t personally know Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak, but I’m not impressed by his decision not to support fiscal reform in the province and the harmonized sales tax.
His party has always supported this reform, his federal counterparts have always promoted it but, as soon as McGuinty’s Liberal government proposes it, they start a campaign against the policy they have always supported. In fact, still now they are saying that it is not a bad policy but are against the timing of its introduction.
I’m not saying the voters in Ontario shouldn’t vote for Hudak in the next provincial election in October 2011, but I would suggest finding a different motivation because the one over the HST doesn’t hold water. In fact, this legislation is a testimony to leadership capacity of Premier McGuinty.
Canadians must stop crying for politicians with leadership skills but penalize them as soon as they exercise leadership and reward hypocrisy and political expediency.
