June 4: Three days remain before Ontarians head to the polls to elect a new Provincial government. By all accounts, it will be a close race with the Conservatives and the New Democrats virtually tied in popular support; how this plays out in actual seats in the legislature remains unclear. It is clear that voters are faced with stark alternatives between the contenders, yet we have absolutely minimal information upon which to weight options and make an intelligent choice.
I am by nature and profession a bit of a “policy wonk”. I believe that words have meaning and that sound policy is what guides government activity. So it is shocking and alarming to me that Doug Ford can simply spout slogans and facile statements and claim that they are policy upon which he will govern. It’s very clear that he really doesn’t understand how government operates, and I doubt that he has any real interest in learning. His “fully-costed” platform turns out to be little more than dollar amounts against his campaign promises, with no information on the expenditure cuts or revenue changes that would be necessary to implement them.
The New Democratic Party is little better. Although they have greater policy depth and a leader who has experience in the legislature, their policy proposals amount to around $10 Billion in additional expenditure without an indication of how that additional expenditure will ultimately be paid off.
This brings me to an issue that gets almost no attention during the campaign yet has significant and dire implications for every person living in Ontario and Canada as a whole: government debt. In a research bulletin published in 2017, the Fraser Institute concluded that net Federal ($287.6 Billion) and Provincial ($317.9 Billion) debt totaled $605.5 Billion or roughly $43,300 per person in the province. Not only has there been no insightful discussion of different policy options and the cost of their implementation, there has been nothing said by any of the parties about the true cost of their platform, and how they will pay for it.
All three parties propose deficit budgets with some effort made to return to a balanced budget only later in the term. The Liberals in particular have an atrocious record of managing government spending, having turned the Provincial electricity sector into a boondoggle of monumental proportions – one that we and our children will be paying to cover for decades. None of the parties offers any indication of what they might do should the economy suddenly tank, an event made increasingly likely given the current tariff tussle – apparently it’s not a war yet – going on in Washington.
How is a sensible and thoughtful citizen expected to make a reasonable choice with such limited information ? Without real debate on policy options, and a full understanding of what they will cost, it seems very much like guess work on election day. It should not be so. But perhaps, given most people’s complete lack of understanding or interest in politics, we get what we deserve.
https://www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/cost-of-government-debt-in-canada-2017.pdf