Dalton McGuinty's legacy could be a big bill: Snobelen

Source: Toronto Sun


There comes a time when premiers and prime ministers start to think about their legacy. Generally this is not good for your wallet.

For better or worse, political leaders get a lot of attention. Gallons of ink. Hours of TV time. Their names inevitably become synonymous with the issues of their day.

It’s those daily issues that drive the agenda of governments. Like a large corporation endlessly reacting to the daily fluctuations in stock prices, governments react to headlines.

H1N1. Global warming. Detainees. The urgent news of the day spurs governments to action. Looking back over the history of a government is like looking at the tracks of a car that has careened left and right trying to avoid pot holes. Sometimes it’s impossible to figure out where the driver intended to go.

Headlines and issues morph and change and eventually evaporate. H1N1 was the most important story of all time. For about a month. Global warming is headed for a U-turn at breakneck speed. Governments that don’t have a clear sense of direction often pass themselves as they reverse policy course.

All of which is the reason most prime ministers and premiers don’t leave much of a legacy. Their moment on the public stage is spent dogging issues they can’t control or influence. Inevitably their legacy is really just a score card of good or bad reactions to the events of the day.

Now and then a leader creates something that, for better or worse, endures and changes the province or the country. Think Bill Davis and Catholic education and community colleges. Brian Mulroney and free trade. Pierre Trudeau and the constitution. John A. Macdonald and the railroad. Enduring stuff.

Long after the political spin stops and the issues of the day are forgotten the influence of some leaders endures. It’s the stuff countries are made of.

Legacy shows up over time. Time has a way of stripping the important from the urgent and revealing what is durable.

Mike Harris was an unreasonable leader. Unreasonable leaders are able to resist the urge to bend to the headlines. His legacy will transcend the issues of his time. Doubling Ontario’s parkland. The common curriculum and province-wide student testing. The City of Toronto. Big, enduring stuff.

Premier Dalton McGuinty, on the other hand, prides himself on being reasonable. The boy-scout premier. And his record is a testament to the smooth political sailing that comes from tacking with the wind of current issues. Banning pit bulls and cellphones. Freezing sushi. Family day.

This is not the stuff of legacy and McGuinty knows it. Lately he has turned his attention, and your wallet, to building a legacy. You should be very, very afraid.

The “education premier” has recently cut the ribbon on full-day kindergarten. But it’s not the robust vision of child care offered by his own advisor, Charles Pascal.

McGuinty’s legacy will be a half-hearted extension of kindergarten and a nod to some of the daycare needs of some parents. The legacy part of this dismal policy will be the contribution to the massive debt you and I will have to pay for years.

But McGuinty’s search for a legacy is not limited to the “education premier” thing. He wants to be remembered as a green premier. That’s why he recently signed a deal worth billions with the Korean company, Samsung, and committed Ontarians to decades of exorbitant energy costs.

All of which begs the question — how much more of our money will McGuinty spend searching for his legacy?

john.snobelen@sunmedia.ca