Image
By Eric Dowd
Toronto
– Premier Dalton McGuinty is having trouble figuring out what he wants
his image to be two years before an election and he may be ignoring his
best bet.
The
Liberal premier a few months ago was trying to get himself known as `The
Education Premier,’ based on help he has given education including
increasing funding and keeping peace with teachers, but this never caught
on.
The
only people heard venturing it were Liberal ministers and aides and
certainly it was not a common talking point in barbershops and bus queues.
While
many feel deeply about education, it also may be too narrow an issue on
which to base an election.
McGuinty
is hampered in winning a positive image particularly because he broke a
promise not to increase taxes and more recently his finance minister, Greg
Sorbara, had to resign because he is being investigated by police.
In
his speech from the throne the premier reached out for another image, as a
leader who can assure economic prosperity.
He
titled the speech, although it covered many topics, Strengthening
Ontario’s Economic Advantage, and claimed that, while the province faces
challenges in the global economy, he has set it on courses that can
overcome them.
Liberals
need to suggest they can be good economic managers, because voters in many
elections have considered this their weak point and Progressive
Conservatives as having more business savvy, although they could not
always prove it.
But
McGuinty oddly keeps ignoring the best potential weapon the Liberals have,
that they have done more to protect residents on a wider range of issues,
sometimes treading on new ground, than any government in memory.
Among
many examples, they will ban smoking in all workplaces and enclosed public
spaces starting next June and are the first government in Canada to put
drastic curbs on pit bulls, which have caused horrific injuries.
They
will no longer accept residents being judged by religious law and, as part
of a campaign to make them fitter, will require elementary schools to
remove junk foods from vending machines and replace them with milk and
granola bars and give students more physical exercise.
They
will direct much future home-building toward city centres to restrain
urban sprawl which causes residents to drive too much and promotes
pollution and obesity, and prevent building on a huge areas of southern
Ontario to preserve a greenbelt.
They
are giving municipalities more powers to protect historic buildings for
the public benefit.
Among
new traffic safety measures, they require car safety seats for more
children and deter motorists passing school buses parked with their lights
flashing, which has caused deaths, by permitting police to charge owners
as well as drivers, and this list could go on.
The
Liberals have not gone as far in protecting as they should and their
failings include giving miserly increases in welfare benefits and the
minimum wage so many receiving them are not shielded from hardship.
But
it still is an impressive list of going further to protect than previous
governments, their only rivals being the New Democrats from l990-95, who
focused a little more narrowly on safeguarding organized labor.
McGuinty’s
biggest single theme by far has been protecting residents, but he has put
little effort into publicizing it and publicity his actions received often
has been through controversies they raised.
McGuinty
has never even collected them in a list and boasted this is what he has
done to protect people.
He
marked completing his second year as premier by giving interviews to news
media and never once mentioned protecting residents among his
accomplishments.
MxGuinty
employs hordes of public relations men to promote his policies and there
has to be a reason he has not emphasized the many ways he is protecting
people.
The
most likely is he worries some will accuse him of creating a
cradle-to-the-grave `nanny state,’ which can be a dangerous label these
days, but these are still policies that can help him win an election.
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