The Ontario Liberals have proven themselves neither managers of the Province\u2019s economic engine nor of our public purse. Their big government ways have placed Ontarians and future taxpayers and businessmen in a difficult position.<\/p>\n
The accumulated effect of the Liberal\u2019s big government ways over the past eight years have cost us dearly. Already, their economic policies have seen the Province gone from \u201chave\u201d to \u201chave-not\u201d status. \u00a0Liberals\u2019 focus on nanny-state priorities have left Ontarians initiative to drift. The once humming economic engine of Canada has become a sputtering, choked-off remnant of itself.<\/p>\n
Each second of Liberal economic management costs us $685. It\u2019s criminal that the Liberals have amassed a provincial debt that now totals over $224 billion. This works out to over $18,000 per person. It is a fact that in their two terms in office, the Liberals have accumulated more debt than all previous governments combined!<\/p>\n
How have the Liberals accumulated this debt in less than eight years? \u00a0It is Dalton McGuinty\u2019s systematic, underhanded approach to the management of public sector \u2013 an approach that can only be summed up in the phrase \u201clabour peace at any cost.\u201d\u00a0 Toronto Sun political reporter Christina Blizzard recently accounted for the Liberal\u2019s record in a column entitled: Ontario<\/em> has a debt crisis.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They\u2019ve increased spending on government programs by more than 70% and doubled the province\u2019s accumulated debt. <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Public sector salaries are out of control. With those salaries comes the ticking time bomb of cushy, defined benefit pensions.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Despite a stern finger-wagging from Finance Minister Dwight Duncan and a pledge to freeze civil servant salaries in the 2010 budget, only a handful of government workers actually had their pay frozen. Ontario provincial police, got an 8.5% pay hike \u2014 a deal that has municipalities across the province up in arms, as they know it sets a precedent for their forces. The government negotiated a secret deal with OPSEU that gave them 1.75% in 2009, 2% in 2010, 2% this year \u2014 and 3% next year. The big teacher unions weren\u2019t included in the pay hike. Their contracts, conveniently, aren\u2019t up until next year. Same with the province\u2019s doctors.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You only have to look at the annual so-called \u201cSunshine List,\u201d of people making more than $100,000 on the public dime to see how salaries have soared. When the Liberals took office eight years ago, 20,249 people were on that list. The latest list of 2010 salaries show that number has more than tripled \u2014 with 71,478 people on the list.<\/em><\/p>\n