ONTARIO THRONE SPEECH SETS UP STARK OPTIONS FOR VOTERS.
Lots of room at ideological centre: pollster
As the Ontario Liberals’ hastily arranged speech from the throne unfurled Monday, so too did the bald choice that voters seemingly face in the province’s June election.
Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government provided sketchy details of what’s already being billed as a deficit budget next week — increased spending on everything from pharmacare to free post-secondary tuition.
The speech came just two hours after Andrea Horwath staked out similar ground on the left. The NDP leader outlined a $ 1.2- billion program to provide dental coverage for everyone, and revealed she would both bring in a deficit and raise taxes on big business and the rich.
Doug Ford, the new Conservative l eader, was absent Monday as the Queen’s representative, Elizabeth Dowdeswell, read Wynne’s words to the l egislature. But he has pledged a much different approach to governing, including almost $ 6 billion in budget cuts, less red tape and various tax reductions.
As election season unofficially kicks off, room at the i deological centre seems comparatively vacant.
“Doug Ford’s natural inclination is to lean right,” says pollster Lorne Bozinoff of Forum Research. “So I think the Liberals are using that to their advantage, thinking they’re going to come out with this progressive agenda. There is a vacuum in the centre, but they don’t think Doug Ford is going to claim that vacuum.”
The government unexpectedly announced last week that it was proroguing the house, and starting a new session with the throne speech. It also revealed that next Wednesday’s budget would include an $ 8- billion deficit, signalling major new spending.
Hints of that l argesse came through in Monday’s speech.
The Liberals promised to make “significant investments” in hospitals and home care, improve mental health services and reduce the cost of child care. They also pledged to expand the program that already provides prescription drugs free to young people, make more Ontarians eligible for nocost post- secondary education and fund additional apprenticeships.
“After delivering a balanced budget this year, your government has made a deliberate choice to make more investments in the care and the services that the people of this province rely on,” the speech said.
Both opposition parties lambasted the Liberals for what they called a desperate ploy by an unpopular government.
“They will say and promise anything to s t ay in power,” Ford said in a statement, noting that the party already oversees the largest debt in the world for a nonnational government. “Today, the premier wrote a lot of cheques. Having looked at the finances, I can tell the people of Ontario that these cheques are going to bounce.”
Horwath and her staff earlier outlined a plan to provide dental treatment to the third of Ontarians with no coverage now.
Her government would require all employers that don’t already have dental plans to enrol their employees in a government- administered program. Companies would pay 75 per cent of the cost — estimated at about $ 900 per person yearly — and workers 25 per cent.
Subsidies would make the plans free for those earning less than $30,000 a year, and at a reduced cost for people making between $ 30,000 and $50,000.
The province would also fund dental care for uninsured senior citizens and welfare recipients.
Horwath had previously announced her party would also campaign on a universal pharmacare program.
The NDP leader brushed off a suggestion that Wynne may be trying to outflank her party on the left with a similar platform.
“What New Democrats are offering is change for the better and we’re excited to show people that they don’t have to keep choosing between bad and worse,” she said.
“They don’t have to settle for either Liberals or Conservatives.”
Ford has no seat in the legislature and can’t take part in the debates there, but was scheduled to appear at a “unity rally” with his three f ormer l eadership rivals Monday night.