Gap game is dangerous? Come on John McCallum! Ontario has been shortchanged for years. Where is Ontario's sponsorship program? Where is the Canoe Museum or the Human rights museum for Ontario? These two museums are in Quebec and Manitoba respectively.
What has Ottawa done for Toronto lately? Nothing except promise money for the Toronto waterfront that has done exactly nothing. Meanwhile the provincial government is struggling with escalating education and health costs while Ottawa is promising more and more money for new social programs.
McCallum also is running into very dangerous territory. Not only does he put down a fellow Liberal, Dalton McGuinty, but he also calls his own mother wrong. As a good son, you don't do that to your mother. Mother's are never wrong, they may seem wrong at the moment, but trust me mothers are usually right in the end. McCallum has put his own foot in his mouth. Many Ontario Liberal supporters have been backing McGuinty's charge for more transfer payments from Ottawa. After all, Premier Danny Williams of Newfoundland just got a sweatheart deal after protesting. So why not Ontario?
Because Ontario has been the non-complaining province for quite some time for the Liberals. There has been no case of "Ontario alienation" in recent years. Ontario has ben there through thick and thin during the Quebec referendum crises and the too many to count Liberal scandals. But only recently has Ontario started to call upon Ottawa to start negotiating a better deal. McCallum doesn't see it that way. McCallum just wants Ontario to be quiet and vote Liberal during the next election. After all, Ontario has been doing that for years for the Liberals, so the province already knows what it should do.
McCallum might find this theory might blow up in his and the Liberals' faces. Ontario, during the previous election, saw the Conservative vote pick up some power with the election of big names like Belinda Stronach and a couple of others. This Conservative threat in Ontario might be the tipping point to see the Conservatives pick up a minority government instead of the Liberals. This is because the west has been, for the most part, been voting for the Conservatives/Alliance party for quite some time. Quebec has been voting Liberal/Bloc Quebecois for the quite some time as well. The Maritimes has been mainly Liberal as well. Ontario has been where the Liberals have been maintaining power. But if the last election has been any indication, the Conservatives may be gaining steam.
Ontario is now getting sick of the Liberals in Ottawa. The sponsorship scandal and now McGuinty's push for more money may push many voters to vote out the Liberals by electing the Conservatives. With the deal making between the Liberals and the NDP over the current budget may only further aggravate the problem as well. Why would the Liberals try and negotiate with a party who Canadians thought was only the fourth best platform in the last election. Why not start with the negotiations with the Conservatives who were the second best option according to Canadians. These negotiations should be done on the basis of what Canadians want. Isn't that what we elect governments for, to do the will of most Canadians? McCallum, Paul Martin and the Liberal government seemed to have missed this in their desperation to hold onto power. Ontarioans may become sick in tired of this along with other Liberal misteps. So in the possible election, if the budget fails on a non-confidence vote, the question now is, how many seats in Ontario can the Liberals hold onto to prevent a possible Conservative minority?
Works Cited
Canadian Press. “Gap game 'dangerous,' Ottawa says.” Toronto Star. 28 April 2005. Online. Internet. 10 June 2005. Available: http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1114683931024&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home
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