On June 12, 2014 another Liberal Majority government was
elected despite a record number of scandals that cost taxpayers billions of
dollars. What should have been a public shaming and humiliating defeat for the incumbent
has turned into a clean slate to pursue a policy of empowered paternalism.
How could this happen? I asked a prominent economist from the
University of Western Ontario for his opinion on why the Tories were failing to
catch fire with the electorate. His only answer was “it means that errors were
made” (by the Tories). The answer
could lie in an examination of those so called “errors”. The Tories had
campaigned with a moderate plan to create private sector jobs and stabilize the
fiscal deficit. They had called it the “Million Jobs” plan that would require a
slowing in the growth of government. The result was a tidal wave of alarmism
from public sector unions, and surprisingly from a few private sector labour
organizations such as the Journalist’s Union. The Tory plan was portrayed as a “slash and
burn” agenda that would, believe it or not, destroy the province's economy. Was
Tim Hudak’s error that he did not hide the fact that he believed something had
to be done about provincial spending? Was it a tactical error to endorse the
chopping of 100K public sector jobs? Was it a mistake to focus on Ontario’s competitiveness?
Some pundits think so. Yet, this is a reaction to a plan that focused on fiscal
responsibility (I would argue in a very
moderate manner) and its failure to attract support points to a much deeper
transition that has taken place within the province.
Over the past decade the Ontario government has aggressively
broadened its powers to influence and distort the economy. It has dramatically
increased the cost of energy with its draconian implementation of the Green
Energy Act. It has thwarted entrepreneurial growth within the health industry
by enforcing professional privilege that restricts less expensive resources
from providing services. It has mandated that automobile drivers should be harassed
with insurance services they don’t need and cannot opt out of, while forcing
them to comply with overbearing and expensive inspection requirements. It has
broadened the scale and cost of the education system so that children are drawn
into the system at a much younger age. The
government has also lavishly spent its treasure on computerized databases that
watch every detail of a citizen’s health status and drug purchases, driving
habits and other metadata intrusions. These incursions have contributed to the
explosive growth of Public Sector employment and Private Sector Cronies who are
funded in whole or in part by the government.
The growth of the Public Sector has a corollary growth in
the mandate for organizations that are designed to protect and expand the
incomes and jobs of those who work for the government. This mandate includes
political action in favour of more public spending. With the continuous growth
of the Public Sector it will soon reach a critical mass where this vested
interest has the power to elect the government it chooses. Ontario is now faced with the terrifying
prospect of being at the mercy of its own public infrastructure. It explains
why a Liberal Party that has been in power for almost a decade and has been
responsible for the most expensive scandals in the Province’s history can be
re-elected with a majority in the Legislature.
