''Twere to consider too curiously, to consider so.'

The title of my post today, taken from Act Five of Shakespeare's Hamlet, occurs in a graveyard. Hamlet begins musing on what may become of one's earthly remains, as even those of the most exalted in life, once their remains have fully decayed, may wind up as little more than a beer barrel stopper.

Horatio seems to feel that such speculation is a tad morbid and unhealthy.

Perhaps the same may be said about trying to dissect the mind of a politician, for fear of what we may discover.

In his column yesterday, The Star's Rick Salutin goes down that dark path in trying to understand the mind of outgoing Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, and while I realize that Ontario politics may be of little interest to people in other parts of the country, Salutin's observations seem pan-Canadian in application:

For the first time in his political career, McGuinty has become humanly interesting because he’s indecipherable. In the past he was politically interesting — for standing almost alone against the neo-con tide of his times, but personally uncomplicated. Now he’s taken all he stood for and could feel pride in: strong public schools, a positive role for government, political support he built — among teachers especially — and trashed it for no evident reason. Then he resigned, losing any chance he had to salvage the mess he made.

While he finds this more than passing strange, Salutin wonders whether the Premier is relying on a U.S. political consultant urging a hard-right mentality that ultimately sacrifices logic on the altar of demagoguery:

So Dalton tells the teachers: Sorry but you’re going to have to accept a two-year wage freeze. The teachers’ unions answer: OK, we accept a two-year wage freeze. Dalton stays on script and replies: Sorry, that’s unacceptable, you have to take a two-year wage freeze.

Indeed, the above scenario is eerily echoed in a piece in today's Star, excerpted from an interview to be broadcast today on Focus Ontario. In it, McGuinty reminds teachers of how good they have had it under his rule:

“There are some teachers who are saying: ‘We don’t accept that [wage restraint]. You must negotiate with us.’ We’re saying: ‘Listen, we’re prepared to negotiate, but we can’t negotiate a pay hike,’ ” the premier said. (Here of course, the Premiere is conveniently ignoring the fact that they did accept the wage freeze demanded.) “Some teachers have said we’ve taken away their rights, we took away their right to strike. Well, they’re striking now so obviously that is not true.” (Here the Premier conveniently ignores the fact that the anti-strike provisions of Bill 115 don't come into effect until the new year, when its provisions will likely be imposed.)

Perhaps attempts to understand the quirky minds of politicians is ultimately a waste of time, since those minds are obviously deeply influenced by the ethos of the organization that they serve, their political party. When they deviate from the formulae that bring them power, maybe the best we can do is accept something that Salutin reminds us of in his piece:

We’re deceived by the lucid, rational façade, by the facts we wear clothes and eat with cutlery, into thinking we’re not essentially primitive creatures whose conscious calculations are generally a fraction of what motivates us.

As Horatio says, in attempting to understand beyond that, ''Twere to consider too curiously, to consider so.'

Thomas Walkom's Perspective on Teacher Unrest

On this blog I have written periodically about unions in both a favourable and a critical light. I have argued both for their necessity to mitigate the depredations that employers are sometimes given to, and I have pilloried them when cronyism or malfeasance have undermined their effectiveness.

In the latter part of my teaching career, I felt that my union, the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation, had become far too political in the worst sense of the word, listening only to the privileged few in executive positions while largely ignoring the rank and file, i.e., the frontline workers. As well, becoming advocates for the Ontario Liberal government, I felt, was always a very bad idea because while governments and unions may sometimes have common goals, their interests are not usually congruent, a fact that has become egregiously evident with the McGuinty government's betrayal of collective bargaining principles when it comes to teacher contracts.

In this morning's Star, columnist Thomas Walkom argues that the current unrest, soon to erupt into strikes, is easy to understand, given that teachers have nothing to lose due to the absence of anything resembling free bargaining in the current climate:

For teachers, the choice given them by the provincial Liberal government amounts to no choice at all. The government urges the unions to bargain with local school boards. But it insists that the final results must fit a template that it has already pre-ordained.

Those that don’t voluntarily agree to this template contract — which includes wage freezes for some, cutbacks that amount to wage reductions for others and the elimination of some benefits — will, under extraordinary legislation passed this fall, have it imposed on them.

The unions are being told: “Yes, we have a gun to your head. But if you wish, you can pull the trigger yourself.”

It seems the teaching unions prefer that the government’s prints alone be on the weapon.

He goes on to say that the nature of the constitutional challenge being mounted to the legislation, Bill 115, will be undermined should too many teacher locals sign contracts under duress, leaving the government with the opportunity to argue that it can't be unconstitutional if groups have agreed to its restrictions.

Left unsaid in his piece, however, is another reason I suspect the federations are refusing to be a further party to this charade. Because of the grave mistake they made in allying themselves with a political party, much of their effectiveness has been compromised over the past several years, to the point that their relevance, especially to younger teachers, is not readily apparent. I remember in the latter part of my career hearing some young teachers question the need for unions in general, and OSSTF in particular, never having witnessed them in their finest hours.

At least now, with the federations finally showing some backbone against government abuse of power, they will have an inkling of what unions are there for.

Lying Politicians

Given the level of odium in which the public holds politicians, the title of this post probably seems redundant. However, it is also appropriate given an article written by Lawrence Martin yesterday and a not-so-surprising revelation made in today's Toronto Star.

First, Martin's article, published yesterday in iPolitics, posits that our elected officials, and those vying for office, regularly lie because it works, one reason being that journalists let them get away with it:

In the news business anything that is expected, that happens often, is of declining news value. And so the media over time has lost its sense of outrage when politicians willfully distort or lie. The media don’t hold politicians to as a high as a standard as they used to.

And until they do, expect the bald-faced lies that pass for informed discourse to continue unabated.

Which segues nicely into one of the front-page stories in this morning's Star. Entitled Cost to move gas plant may reach $700M in the print edition, it reveals the lie that Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty has been propagating that $40 million would be the cost to taxpayers/electricity users for his cancellation of a gas-fired generator in Oakville to purchase a Liberal seat in the last election.

The plant, already well-under construction during the waning days of the provincial contest, is to be moved to the site of the Lennox generating station near Bath, 210 kilometres east of Toronto.

Energy consultant Bruce Sharp, who pegs the cost of the move at $700 million, says earlier estimates haven’t taken into account several huge items.

...the biggest hidden cost in the deal is the province’s agreement to accept the cost of what’s known as “gas delivery and management services” costs, which he figures could add $346 million to the bill.

And a further $200 million or more comes from the decision to move the plant hundreds of kilometres to the east.

Then factor in about $250 for the extra cost of transmission upgrades.

This will not be the first time that Premier McGuinty has played fast and loose with the electorate's money in his bald pursuit and exercise of power.

With more diligent journalism, however, perhaps it will be his last.

Pick On Someone Your Own Size, Premier McGuinty

Much rhetoric has been uttered of late about the need for everyone to 'share the pain' as Ontario's McGuinty government attacks the provincial deficit in a manner that many think is counterproductive, stripping away teachers collective bargaining rights being but one example.

However one may feel about such moves, those in the public service are at least positioned fairly well to weather this strategy. The same cannot be said for many others. Not all targets are created equal.

One such target of McGuinty's fervour are the poor. As Carol Goar reports in today's Star, a program called the community start-up and maintenance benefit (CSUMB) will be cut off at the end of 2012.

Goar writes:

For 20 years, this program has served as a lifeline for people at risk of homelessness. It’s an emergency allowance, available every two years, worth a maximum of $799. It enables the homeless to move into an apartment. It helps low-income tenants who can’t pay their utility bill keep the lights on; job applicants buy suitable clothes; families fumigate bedbug-infested apartments; and people facing eviction pay their rent arrears.

According to Naomi Berlyne of Houselink, it keeps a roof over hundreds of heads every year. “Without it, we’re going to have a disaster on our hands.”

I don't care how venal or self-centred people might be, I expect that most will be as outraged as I am over this development; I know I will be writing my MPP a letter protesting it.

Shame on the Premier for targeting the most vulnerable amongst us.

It is something that I will neither forgive nor forget at the next election.

McGuinty's Magical Thinking

“We’ve been through tough times before. This is one more.”

At his leadership review yesterday, that was Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty's rather understated response to his recent string of political misfires, misfires that include his costly efforts to win seats in the last election by shutting down two gas-fired power plants at great expense to the taxpayer, his failed attempt to bribe his way to a majority government in the Kitchener-Waterloo byelection, and his hamfisted and unnecessary strategy for reducing the provincial deficit by stripping teachers of their collective bargaining rights, despite the fact that teachers had offered a two-year wage freeze.

Apparently, Canada's answer to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker remains upbeat about future prospects, even though the teacher bill and the proposed broader public-sector wage freeze could prove very costly through court challenges to their constitutionality.

Indeed, it would seem that McGuinty's groundless optimism is infectious. As reported by Martin Regg Cohn,

Happily for the premier, a solid majority of party delegates (85.8 per cent) backed him in a mandatory leadership review — even as public opinion polls show he has the approval of less than a third of all Ontarians.

Perhaps the Premier's political instincts are failing him; at the leadership review, he seemed to think that a few platitudes about teachers would undo the political fallout of his folly as he reflected on “working with the best teachers anywhere — Ontario teachers.”

With his party now sitting at 20% in the polls, I suspect he is going to have to do a lot more than that to mend some seriously-damaged fences.

The Smiling Face of Dalton McGuinty

... one may smile, and smile, and be a villain— At least I am sure it may be so in Ontario.

Inconvenient Truths for the Corporate Sector

Given that recent reports have helped to puncture the myth of job-creation benefits arising from corporate tax cuts and corporate welfare, I was pleased to read Martin Regg Cohn's article in this morning's Star.

Entitled NDP leverages vote results to pressure big business to create jobs, the article discusses the current popularity of the provincial NDP in Ontario. Leader Andrea Horvath used her leverage in the last budget to both secure a tax hike on the income enjoyed by the wealthiest Ontarians and prevent another scheduled corporate tax reduction; the party also blocked Premier Dalton McGuinty's ruthless bid for a majority government in this month's by-election in Kitchener-Waterloo through the victory of NDP candidate Catherine Fife.

As Cohn reminds us, she also won McGuinty's pledge to look seriously at a job-creation tax credit that would reward companies for increasing their payrolls. Horwath argued her $250 million program, modelled on a similar U.S. plan, would deliver better value for taxpayers' money that is now doled out to corporations with no strings attached.

That pledge is about to come to fruition through McGuinty's new Jobs and Prosperity Council, chaired by Royal Bank CEO Gordon Nixon, hardly likely to be favorably disposed to such a notion. As Cohn makes clear, Nixon embodies the corporate welfare and tax leakage that the NDP condemns: Canada's banks benefited handsomely from a series of Liberal corporate tax cuts, reaping record profits without creating the kind of high-value jobs that merit taxpayer subsidies. He has, however, promised to hear Horwath out on her proposal

Let us hope that a clash of ideologies does not prevent some productive recommendations from emerging. I suspect that ignoring increasing public awareness of the injustice of unproductive tax cuts could prove politically costly to the beleaguered McGuinty.

Rick Salutin On Teacher Unions

We seem to be in the constant throes of anti-union sentiment during a time they are most needed. The right wing, including Ontario Conservative leader young Tim Hudak, seems to be especially enamored of the phrases "union bosses" and "workplace democracy," both thinly-disguised anti-union euphemisms. And now that teachers are taking their fight against Dalton McGuinty's theft of their collective bargaining rights into the schools, we can expect more self-serving pontifications from the usual suspects.

Amidst all of the hysterical propaganda, in his column today Rick Salutin offers a timely reminder of why teachers, who he describes as the only ones who can save our schools, need their unions to speak on their behalf.

Well-worth the read as a timely reminder to those who like to respond exclusively with their hearts instead of making a little room for their heads as well.

An Embargo On Ideas In The Offing?

One of the pleasures of my retired life is getting together for coffee on a regular basis with my friend Ray, a retired vice-principal and one of the rare 'good-guys' of administration that I encountered in my life as a teacher.

When we meet, we discuss a range of topics, many of them political, but also others that could be classified as philosophical, social, and metaphysical. On our most recent meeting, I told him how much I enjoy our exchanges, providing as they do not only an opportunity for the clarification of my own thoughts, but also an expansion of their scope and range.

In many ways, our discussions are what I used to enjoy most about university, back in the days of small classes, small tutorials, and small seminars. I attribute whatever critical thinking skills I possess largely to that education.

Unfortunately, over the years the notion of a post-secondary education as a means of cultivating one's ability to think has fallen into disfavour, devolving in Ontario to its nadir when that master of division and dissension, Mike Harris was our premier. He floated but never actually implemented the idea of funding universities based on the percentage of people who were able to get jobs six months after graduation, a notion perhaps not surprising coming from the man who showed such disdain for nuanced and complex thought.

While not quite so blatant, the neo-liberal reactionary agenda is again at work in Ontario under Dalton McGuinty's 'leadership.' Glen Murray, the minister of training, colleges and universities has proposed sweeping changes in how the province conducts the business of education, most, it seems to me, prompted by cost-cutting considerations.

Two of the most insidious proposals involve making the basic undergraduate degree a three-year-pursuit, and establishing an online-university that would require no real contact with one's professor and classmates, thereby eliminating the opportunity for the dynamic exchanges that are the key to achieving new ideas and perspectives. The fact that these proposals do not serve the cultivation of critical thinking skills, I can't help but consider in my more paranoid moments, are quite consistent with a corporate agenda that seems to value only compliant, unquestioning employees, not independent thinkers capable of seeing a broader picture.

In any event, Heather Mallick has written a thought-provoking piece in today's Star which suggests that nothing good can come out of these proposed changes.

Uncommon Wisdom From The 'Common' People

That is the best way to assess the fact that last night, despite all of his gerrymandering, Dalton NcGuinty was decisively thwarted in his ruthless drive for the majority government he had been denied in the last general provincial election.

Thanks to the people of Kitchener-Waterloo, both he and the leader of the Official Opposition, young Tim Hudak of the Conservatives, are looking decidedly vulnerable today. A good analysis of that vulnerability can be found in Martin Regg Cohn's column in this morning's Star.

And just before I leave the topic of politicians who forget who they are elected to serve, I am reproducing a letter I came across yesterday in The Spectator. The observations made by the writer, Mark Kikot of Burlington, are ones that our arrogant political 'masters' would be wise to bear in mind the next time they contemplate the bald pursuit of power at the expense of the electorate.

McGuinty scapegoats public-sector workers

Premier Dalton McGuinty is demonstrating through his current strategy for dealing with the deficit that behaving like a conservative government is easier than being a liberal government, and that behaving like a corporation is easier than being a government.

Those Ontarians who have accepted the corporate mindset as the controlling metaphor in their lives, and the corporate structure as an inescapable reality, would argue that any responsible government should function like a business. Costs that cannot be sustained must be offset by cuts in order to produce a supposedly more efficient, hopefully more effective, and clearly more profit-driven organization; in other words, the ideal model for governance is the lean mean machine.

While any sensible person should acknowledge that we cannot continue to live beyond our means, any sensible person should also recognize that the debt incurred by a government must be shared by all the sectors of the society that that government represents.

By targeting primarily the public sector, and the educational sector in particular, in its attempt to balance the books, the McGuinty government has made scapegoats of those public sector workers who provide social services that improve the quality of life for all Ontarians. In adopting this politically convenient strategy, McGuinty has created the impression that the deficit is entirely an in-house problem, instead of a problem for which the private sector is also responsible. It is unreasonable and unjust to expect the deficit to be reduced almost exclusively at the expense of public sector employees who make on average much less than $100,000 a year, while private sector employees who make between $100,000 and $500,000 a year pay taxes at pre-deficit rates, and corporations continue to be granted privileged tax status in the hope that they will create jobs.

The McGuinty government in its bull-headed idiocy is moving forward with legislation that ignores the collective bargaining process and imposes working conditions, not negotiated contracts, on teachers and other educational workers. There can be no social contract without contractual agreements.

Mark Kikot, Burlington

McGuinty's Gambit Fails

At least I can sleep well tonight.

Dalton McGuinty: A Man Running Or On The Run?

I have to admit, I find the imagery extraordinarily pleasing.

Like a man on trial for criminal offences entering the courthouse via an underground passage to avoid the media glare, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty stole through the back door during a Wednesday evening stop at the campaign headquarters of Liberal lawyer Eric Davis, who is vying to give McGuinty his majority as he runs in the Kitchener-Waterloo byelection today.

Davis is trailing the NDP candidate badly, but that was not the reason for the premier's covert entrance. It was to avoid protesters out front angry at plans to privatize the Ontario Northland Transportation Corporation.

A photo showing an agitated electorate would not be consistent with the image the unflappable McGuinty likes to project of competent and trusted leadership.

It kind of reminds me of his school photo-op the other day, when he toured École élémentaire Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau, whose teachers belong to a union that has settled its contract. The potential for unwanted publicity would have been too great had he made an appearance at a school whose teachers are members of either the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario or the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, given that their collective bargaining rights are being stripped away by McGuinty's government.

It is a fact, among many others, I suspect the voters of Kitchener-Waterloo will keep in mind as they cast their ballots today.

Thursday's Ontario Byelections -Updated

Compelling reasons to hope that Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty does not secure his majority government via Thursday's byelections:

The Ornge scandal, and his refusal to appear before the Legislative committee to explain his role in it.

The $180 million taxpayers are on the hook for because McGuinty cancelled the gas-fired power plant under construction in Oakville in order to win the seat during the last general election.

His use of bribery to persuade Tory Liz Witmer to vacate her seat in Kitchener-Waterloo so he could hold a byelection for her seat.

His unnecessary and politically-motivated legislation that has robbed Ontario teachers of their collective-bargaining rights.

The Premier has amply demonstrated, from the above and a myriad of other acts, that he neither deserves nor can be trusted with a majority government.

UPDATES: Apparently Mr. McGuinty's refusal to come clean at the Ornge committee hearings is contagious.

Also, it seems like I am not the only one who doesn't believe he should achieve a majority government via unnecessary byelections.