A BUMPY BEGINNING

At first, it must have seemed like a dream come true. Having toiled in opposition ranks as a Progressive Conservative for 12 years, Nepean MPP Lisa MacLeod is now a senior player at Queen’s Park and the Ontario government’s point-person for our region.

But the new minister of children, community and social services is off to a choppy start. Already, she’s struggling with challenges that will define her political legacy.

MacLeod is a good soldier, and we’ve no doubt she’ll diligently and loyally follow the directives of her boss, Premier Doug Ford. But that won’t make for smooth sailing.

Start with the immigration and refugee file. With the most recent Angus Reid Institute poll suggesting Canadians perceive the numbers of asylum-seekers as a crisis (two-thirds of Ontarians think this), all provinces have faced pressure on housing and social services. But Ontario’s main solution, so far, has been to throw up its hands, blame the federal Liberals and send out MacLeod to demand $200 million.

Blame games are inevitable in federal-provincial politics; unfortunately they don’t solve problems. At some point, MacLeod will have to do more than bleat about those misguided feds. Ontarians will expect a plan.

Likewise with this week’s abrupt announcement from MacLeod that Ontario will cancel its pilot project on Guaranteed Basic Income. We’re not necessarily persuaded of the merits of the program, but that’s exactly why there is a pilot project: to obtain good data for assessment. Combine the cancellation with promises from the PCs during the election that they would not scuttle the program, and you have both a compassion deficit and a credibility problem for the new minister.

(MacLeod made it a worse by denying that the PCs had ever agreed to await results from the pilot program, when in fact they had.)

Then there was her early press conference at which clapping staffers drowning out media questions. To her credit, MacLeod apologized, sort of, which presumably means she’ll provide serious answers when professional journalists pose them in future. Fingers crossed.

The challenge for the minister — indeed for the government — is not one of philosophy; the PCs were not elected to be Liberals or New Democrats, after all. The challenge is to replace ideas and programs they don’t like with credible alternatives, clearly explained to taxpayers. So far, the minister hasn’t done this.

We hope Ottawa’s senior person in cabinet soon finds her footing. She earned the job; now she needs to show Ontarians she has concrete plans to confront serious social issues.