More Liberal Smoke & Mirrors

In Rob Ferguson's April 6, 2007 Toronto Star report, “Nuclear deal too costly: Auditor”, Tom Adams of Energy Probe said, "The government's reputation as a defender of the ratepayer has suffered a serious blow here".

I disagree. This particular government has richly earned a reputation of being incapable of conducting business in a responsible manner, and this is just one more example.

To whit, they made irresponsible election promises in 2003 that they knew they couldn’t or wouldn't keep. Now with another election looming, they are scurrying to look like they’ve actually done something, and their lack of vision, planning and business acumen leads to bad deals like this.

Secondly, they "created an artificially low price at the beginning" of the Bruce deal so they won’t have to run as the party that increased hydro prices 44%. In fact, this government routinely makes “blue-sky” predictions far into the future to both embellish their meager accomplishments, and obfuscate their considerable shortcomings.

For example, their much-ballyhooed Business Education Tax cut doesn't even start until 2008 (at just $15 M), and doesn’t fully kick in until 2014, but they trumpeted the entire final estimated $540 M tax cut as a key plank in their 2007 budget. If it’s that good for business and jobs, it should be both real, and immediate. 2014 is two elections into the future, and such “announcements” are thus completely dishonest.

I will grant the McGuinty Liberals one thing. At least they are consistent.

Ralph Klein might describe their adopted business model as "Big Hat - No Cattle".