While he may be denying he has an election fantasy playing in his mind, the PM’s deeds suggest otherwise. He has discovered Toronto and the GTA. While handing-out more than a billion dollars to improve public transit and air quality in Ontario, the PM even drew on his childhood memories of riding the Toronto subway to show how much of a local guy he his and how much he cares about Canada’s self-appointed business and economic capital.
The long over-due attention to the close to 3 million residents of the GTA comes late but we have to take what we can get. Successive Liberal and Progressive Conservative governments were able to take Toronto votes for granted and safely ignore the region’s needs for investment in infrastructure and for public policies intended to stimulate, rather than impair, economic prosperity. And for his first year in office, the PM continued the snub.
The Conservatives seems to be beginning to realise their hoped-for majority can’t be attained without a major shift in Ontarians’ voting habits. As a consequence, they have discovered the “environment” and, now, the need for infrastructure investment. It must pain them that the spending announcements also help Dalton McGuinty’s provincial Liberals (headed to the polls in October) by responding to months of pressure to treat Ontario fairly.
Funding for air quality and transit does not satisfy the collective wrongs of two decades, but it’s a start. Now if Ontario could get federal funding for post secondary education, policing, health care, etc,, at a level consistent with that provided to other provinces – that would be progress.
Ontario voters should also keep an eye on the upcoming federal budget – a couple of days before the Québec election – and compare the spoils with what is directed at the other side of the Ottawa River. Will it be a replay of Quebec gets 60% of the national total of federal largesse for less than 30% of the population (don’t even ask about the subsidies for Atlantic Canada!)?
The long over-due attention to the close to 3 million residents of the GTA comes late but we have to take what we can get. Successive Liberal and Progressive Conservative governments were able to take Toronto votes for granted and safely ignore the region’s needs for investment in infrastructure and for public policies intended to stimulate, rather than impair, economic prosperity. And for his first year in office, the PM continued the snub.
The Conservatives seems to be beginning to realise their hoped-for majority can’t be attained without a major shift in Ontarians’ voting habits. As a consequence, they have discovered the “environment” and, now, the need for infrastructure investment. It must pain them that the spending announcements also help Dalton McGuinty’s provincial Liberals (headed to the polls in October) by responding to months of pressure to treat Ontario fairly.
Funding for air quality and transit does not satisfy the collective wrongs of two decades, but it’s a start. Now if Ontario could get federal funding for post secondary education, policing, health care, etc,, at a level consistent with that provided to other provinces – that would be progress.
Ontario voters should also keep an eye on the upcoming federal budget – a couple of days before the Québec election – and compare the spoils with what is directed at the other side of the Ottawa River. Will it be a replay of Quebec gets 60% of the national total of federal largesse for less than 30% of the population (don’t even ask about the subsidies for Atlantic Canada!)?
