McGuinty and Wynne along with every single one of their fellow MPP’s has treated Rural Ontario with the most disrespect that anyone has ever experienced in their history!
This Government wouldn’t find one single rural resident using their name in a conversation without adding a foul word to describe them!
Now Wynne has announced in a most patronizing way that she will also be “Agriculture Minister” along with being “Premier”!
Of course in her mind along with every other MPP at Queen’s Park, the “country hicks” aren’t capable of thinking for themselves let alone know what being “patronizing” really is!
Right! That’s why Rural Ontario has ripped the guts out of this Party and is willing to reinforce that once again when an election is called!
Wynne is toast here in rural Ontario; we just can’t understand how the urban dwellers can stomach the smell coming from Queen’s Park……………..I guess the smell of cow manure in the rural badlands is just an honest odour!
Tokenism rules Liberals’ rural dealings
By Jim Merriam
Saturday, March 16, 2013 3:14:01 EDT AM
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, right, speaks to reporters with Elmer Buchanan and John Snobelen in this file photo. (QMI Agency files)
The question I’ve been asked by some politicians is this: “What is it that rural Ontario really wants?” The answer: “Treat us fairly or leave us alone.”
The latter obviously is not going to happen and the former rarely happens. Here’s a recent example: The Liberal government has reached a transitional funding deal with four more racetracks in the province. That means six of
14 tracks have a short-term survival deal, in this case three years. Negotiations for others are continuing.
But here’s where the manure flies from the spreader: Kathleen Wynne, premier and agriculture minister, said, “The reality is the industry is going to be smaller than it was and we’ve said that all along: A sustainable horse racing industry is going to be smaller.”
When the government started mucking with horse racing, the industry employed some 30,000 with perhaps another 30,000 full- and part-time jobs dependent on it.
Rural Ontario, where the industry is based, stampeded at the news, prompting deals such as Wynne’s announcement for three-year transitional funding for tracks in Elora, London, Clinton and Hanover. Woodbine and Mohawk tracks previously signed transitional deals. However, this is nothing more than tokenism.
The issue was raised when the government and the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. (OLG) announced that slot machines would be pulled from racetracks in favour of a new casino strategy that it turns out will be undertaken in partnership with one or more international gambling concerns.
Instead of splitting revenues with the people of Ontario under the deal with racetracks, OLG and Queen’s Park are now going to send a share of the money across the 49th parallel.
As if that weren’t bad enough, the government under Dalton McGuinty played fast and loose with the truth, saying the slots were a direct subsidy for the horse racing industry.
In fact, the tracks received a share of profits for providing infrastructure to house and support the slots. The real issue, of course, is OLG’s blue-sky dreaming about higher gambling returns — thus giving the government more money to throw away.
The essence of the issue is this: If the government in these tough economic times decided that any given urban-only industry “is going to be smaller” strictly because of government actions, the hue and cry would create enough hot air to sway the CN Tower.
The Big Green Lie 