Can Bonnie Crombie rejuvenate Ontario Liberals?
That could be quite a chore, but she is very capable and should enjoy some success.
As it stands today, Doug Ford’s Conservatives have 83 seats in the Ontario legislature and the leaderless Liberals have 8 seats, too few to form the official opposition which is held by New Democrats with 31 seats. Liberals will elect a leader using a ranked ballot over the next few weeks.
Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie is the front runner in the Ontario Liberal Party leadership race, and with the other candidates was interviewed by Steven Paikin on a TVO Today show last week. Competitors include Nate Erskine-Smith, Ted Hsu and Yasir Naqvi. Only Hsu is a sitting member of the Ontario legislature, while Erskine-Smith and Naqvi are both members of Parliament. Crombie distinguished herself from the other candidates by making it clear she thought all candidates were competent and would make good leaders of the almost moribund Liberals and that they had a lot in common. Decisions by two members of the Liberal government in Ottawa to run for leadership of the Ontario Liberals is evidence of the weakness of Trudeau’s Liberal government which seems virtually certain to be run out of Ottawa on a rail in the next federal election, based on polls assembled by 338 Canada.
What the four candidates to lead Ontario Liberals had in common for certain was a desire to spend a lot more taxpayer money and to pretend the “Greenbelt” was somehow more important than buildng enough homes to house Ontarians currently facing both a severe housing shortage and home prices well out of reach of most younger Ontarians. Canada has 1.4 billion acres of boreal forest and the “Greenbelt” comprises 2 million acres, sufficient to build 8 million homes at a density of four homes per acre. That could house almost every Canadian and the Ford proposal (since abandoned) made use of only a small fraction of that Greenbelt. The time wasted by these candidates discussing the Greenbelt issue, already history, shows they think that is all they have as a foundation for their next campaigns. They may be right.
Each of the candidates seemed to used the phrase “invest more” as a euphemism for increasing spending with no mention of where the money will come from as they build their case for more government spending on doctors, nurses, teachers, childcare, infrastructure and government intrusion into the private sector. That is typical of both the Liberal and NDP parties in Ontario - completely out of touch with what is important.
Liberals can see that families are struggling but think government spending will help them without facing the reality that higher taxes offset any benefit and government’s have a terrible track record of controlling expenditures and higher borrowing just shifts the burden to future generations. Free tuition, smaller class sizes, more government subsidy of childcare and increased public sector employment all sound great but have to be funded and this crowd doesn’t mention where they think they will find the money to fund their ideas. The likely unspoken source will be higher corporate taxes (which are in effect a tax on the poorest in society since corporations necessarily pass on higher taxes in price to stay in business), more borrowing, and the usual leftist trope of “taxing the rich” who already pay the bulk of all taxes collected and higher tax rates for higher income earners have had little success in adding to Ontario government revenues as those income earners adjust their economic activity by saving less, investing less in businesses and business expansion and in some cases just leaving the jurisdiction1. The marginal tax rate for Ontario’s highest income bracket is already 53.53% and beyond that a higher rate is typically counterproductive.
Crombie proudly boasted that the Ontario Liberal Party had 100,000 members and claimed that was more than any other party. Well, more than any other party except possibly the Conservatives that have 133,000 members, according to Wikipedia2 (although those are 2018 data). Whether Crombie was right or wrong about which party had the most members, what is striking is how few members they have between them in a Province that has 14.7 million residents of which 85% are voting age.
Crombie is impressive. She is bright, beautiful, articulate and exudes common sense and charm. It is too bad she is a Liberal.
Liberals and Conservatives have many policies in common and voters need to consider where they differ. The table below sets out the major differences between their publicly disclosed policies, which may change under new leadership.
The fundamental difference boils down to the size of government and the level of spending. Liberals want more government, more regulation, and more spending. Conservatives want smaller government, less regulations, and lower taxes. With Ontarians having trouble keeping a roof over their head and putting food on the table in an environment of higher inflation, higher interest rates and big government in Ottawa interfering in the free market at an extraordinary level, it will be an interesting election regardless of who becomes Liberal leader. But in my opinion, Liberals will fare better with Bonnie Crosbie as leader than with any of the alternatives. She would make a great alternative to Doug Ford if she walked across the aisle, if elected.
Fraser Institute study.
very enoyable article. I liked the layout of the comparison of the 2 parties