The Liberal Victory: Will the Rule of the Public become the Rule of the Privileged?
Gary Morton

     Ontario Provincial Election 2007 is now an historic election. It will draw deeper comment in the future when the real importance of the vote is fully realized.

    Fewer Ontarians voted even though the contentious issue of funding for faith-based schools dominated the campaign. The declining popular vote should be partially blamed on pollsters. End polls showed a large Liberal victory and because a generic result was known many voters probably stayed at home and defied attempts through legislation and Elections Ontario to get them to the polls. 

   The election began with the faith-based issue. I opposed it, then later, as a low-income person decided to support the NDP and a higher minimum wage. Poverty issues have always been my concern but many Ontarians are doing well and many others are well to do. The rule of the people or the public involves the rich, middle class and poor and the issue that caught on was faith-based funding, and to the extent that most other issues ended up on the back burner. 

   The Liberals became the champions of the public and PC leader John Tory the champion of the privileged. The people clearly spoke and said that privilege is something that will cost money, but public schools are for all. They saw Dalton McGuinty as the Man of the Common People. I say that because most Ontarians, even the well off, aren’t all that vain and remember their humble roots. 

    So that was it … the issue was defined and most voted by that trend. Those more politically educated saw that faith-based had died during the campaign and leaned to other issues. The NDP gained in popular vote with their campaign to raise up the working poor. They also gained because of the death of a close race. The Greens have been rising nationally and if you look at the redistribution of the popular vote they have bitten the Liberals for a big share and taken some from the PCs and NDP. Pundits for some reason see a Green versus NDP battle, and miss the actual truth that the Greens have taken aim at the Liberals and PCs. They lack a green left element that would kill the NDP, and it is clear from the words of their candidates that they plan to organize on the ground and use the increase in popular vote to gain celebrity candidates. That means that this election is historic as it marks the rise of the Green Party and a new attempt by them to actually box with the bigger parties for seats. 

   The NDP did well and gained some … with the seat count better than the last election. There were bloggers and a couple pundits predicting the final demise of the NDP … it didn’t’ happen … they will be there in the future as their efforts in regards to the working poor, and in dying industrial areas, have paid off. Like the other parties they face at least a partial challenge from the Greens. The Greens have picked up on issues like a higher minimum wage and so on, but they lack any real internal socialist element that would take them into NDP territory. 

    We now come to the PCs and my opinion of them, and that opinion is that we don’t need a PC party any more. These people have proven that they can screw Ontario in victory and defeat. The Harris/Eves years and their bills and policies stand as the worst in Ontario’s history. Yet even when they pick a moderate like John Tory he proves to have muscles for brains. He killed his party, the issues, and the aspirations of many with his faith-based funding campaign. In victory Tories kill us, in defeat they kill us. I believe that even Dalton McGuinty and the Liberals wanted to fight a genuine campaign on the issues, and instead got John Tory and a crazed media. 

   Howard Hampton got hit with a broadside by Tory and his PCs. Hampton had a well planned campaign for the Working Poor that would have resonated with the voters and brought the NDP up. Tory killed it by taking all media attention to faith-based schools … it would best be said that Tory first shot Hampton in the leg and then himself in the head. 

   The referendum … it was simply a muddle … all of the people I talked to were confused by it. It didn’t go through … I personally supported it … and was glad it didn’t’ go through … because if that would have happened it would have been from support from voters that didn’t understand the issue. Change yes, but people have to know what they are voting for or against. 

    And to End, Why did I title this “The Victory: Will the Rule of the Public become the Rule of the Privileged?”

   The reason is that Dalton McGuinty now has an historic and renewed majority. There isn’t a genuine official opposition. The PCs are a dead and stinking body in the water. It doesn’t matter whether Tory stays or leaves, the Liberals no longer have any respect for the Tories, nor do they believe they have any credibility, power of the people or common sense. The election of a new and dynamic PC leader will make no difference as the Liberals will believe that once an election comes the new leader will blow it like Tory. The PCs are now seen as the muscles for brains people. Because of it the Liberals will likely grow arrogant and corrupt. They may well forget the poor altogether and become the party of the privileged, believing all they do is right. It all depends … on how close an eye they keep on the Greens and the NDP. It’s a four party system now that the Greens have eight percent of the popular vote. The strangest thing is that the Greens lack a seat, yet they may have more power and respect than the Tories. John Tory killed off all esteem for the PCs. Now Howard Hampton will be an aging stick handler trying to hold the oncoming Liberals to account in a legislature where the official opposition is a dead body. 

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