Who to Vote For in the Upcoming Election Part II: The Liberals

The Liberals, often referred to as the Lie-berals by those who don’t like them, is headed by Dalton McGuinty, and they are the party currently in power. McGuinty is running on a campaign of his record primarily, which is an interesting strategy considering the PC party is also running a campaign primarily on McGuinty’s record. In true Liberal fashion Dalton gave his platform document a flashy title, “Moving Forward Together”. This platform is broken down into five sections, the key issues according to Dalton:

1. A Smarter Ontario – Dalton’s Education Platform
2. A Stronger Ontario – Dalton’s Economic Platform
3. A Healthier Ontario – Dalton’s Health Care Platform
4. A Greener Ontario – Dalton’s environmental Platform
5. A Better Ontario for Families – Dalton’s platform on “Improving Quality of Live”

Basically Dalton is urging a continuation of his rule. Cut back on Private School tax credits, cut back funding of Separate School boards such as Catholic Schools, on the flip side supposed increase in public school funding.

As far as Amoralist issues, federally the Liberals are all for decriminalizing marijuana, though this is more of a cash grab for them then a freedoms issue, provincially there is no indication of what McGuinty’s stance is, although in 1999 he did state that decriminalization is the way to go.

Liberals Buying Votes

The Liberals announced that if they are re-elected to power in the upcoming October election they will add a new long weekend to the list of statutory holidays. Family day, as they have dubbed it, will be the third Monday of February. The Liberals say its focus will be to recognize the importance of Ontario families by giving everyone a day to spend with their families.

This is an obvious and blatant attempt to buy votes. Don’t get me wrong, Family Day is a good idea, we could all use a holiday to help cure the February blahs. I just don’t like the idea of so many people going out to vote for the wrong reasons. This type of vote-buying is wrong. Voting should be about the issues, not which party offers the best vote-buying package.

Ontario does indeed need some more holidays. The workers of Ontario have fewer holidays then almost anywhere else. A day for Ontario families is a great idea as well, Alberta already celebrates this day, and both Manitoba and Saskatchewan are working towards passing legislation to make it official in those provinces as well. So why then am I opposed to this plan of the Liberals? Sure it’s vote buying, sure it gets people voting for the wrong reasons, those are some very good reasons to be opposed to the creation of this holiday. What bothers me most about this is there is another day that continually gets mentioned as a possible addition as a statutory holiday that should get this recognition before a made up holiday. A day that constantly gets overlooked because government employees, including MP’s and MPP’s, already get off. Remembrance Day, this is still not a statutory holiday.

If the Liberals insist on campaigning on vote buying they should at least deal with days that should be holidays first before making up a new one. If you want to support the Liberals in their quest to make Family Day a reality, so be it, but please take the time to study the issues as well. Make sure your Liberal candidate is right for your area. Don’t allow McGuinty to buy your vote, make him earn it.