Wynne missed chance to press reset button

Re How Wynne and the Liberals can save them

selves, Regg Cohn, March 28 Is the electorate prepared to forgive and forget “all the excess baggage from nearly 14 years of Liberal rule?”

Their green-energy debacle is only the tip of the iceberg from a government whose defining characteristic has been incompetence at a level unprecedented in Canada. A 25-per-cent reduction in hydro prices fixes nothing, as hydro costs will remain unchanged; it merely transfers the fiscal consequences of the Liberals’ folly to future generations.

The loss of more than 300,000 manufacturing jobs and the creation of more than 300,000 public-sector jobs during the tenure of this government has created an unsustainable fiscal environment.

Teachers becoming the fourth-highest paid in the OECD, rural OPP officers paid more than New York City cops and a doubled debt that is now the highest in the world for any sub-sovereign government are all part of their legacy.

Wynne and the Ontario Liberals were given a chance in 2014 to press the reset button and they chose not to. Instead, they made a bad situation worse. So in 2018, it will be time to finally jettison Wynne and her 14 years of baggage. Unfortunately, it will take at least a generation to undo all the damage. Jonathan Household, Niagara-on-the-Lake Loved Cohn’s comedy piece about what the Ontario Liberals can do to have a good chance in the next election.

Wynne is a boat anchor for the Liberals. As the face of scandal and government wastage, she needs to go. She has lost the room but, as Cohn points out, there is no one waiting in the wings as a potential shiny new replacement.

He does discuss how the PCs made mistakes and lost the last election they should have won, but I think the coming election will be different. Fifteen years of McGuinty is enough for many Ontarians and the shine of Justin the saviour is wearing off on many Canadians, which won’t help the Ontario Liberals.

Unless the PCs make some serious errors, I think the Ontario Liberals could be in for a serious pasting. Andrew Frise, Orangeville, Ont.