For the minority Liberals, itching to transform themselves into a majority government in two coming byelections, this is not looking like a winning strategy
Dalton McGuinty has long derived his strength from teachers. The premier is not only wedded to one, he wooed teachers’ unions to win power — rewarding them with a cumulative 25 per cent pay hike since taking office in 2003.
By recalling the legislature this week to ban strikes while imposing a wage freeze, McGuinty has dealt a death blow to his nine-year love affair with teachers. His wife Terri is standing by her man, but thousands of others were lampooning and lambasting him on the front lawn Tuesday.
McGuinty has done himself more harm than good with his latest back-to-school gambit. It didn’t have to end this way.
By sacrificing teachers for a bungled byelection strategy, the Liberals have undermined a pillar of their traditional electoral coalition: teachers contributed heavily to Working Families, a coalition of like-minded labour unions that helped elect Liberals with massive anti-Tory ad campaigns.
Now, the unions have signalled an end to that alliance by vowing to campaign for the NDP in the byelections. When the votes are counted next Thursday in Vaughan (a Liberal stronghold) and Kitchener—Waterloo (up for grabs), McGuinty may learn his lesson.
One clear miscalculation: Creating a contrived crisis with anti-strike legislation when no one was walking out.
In mid-summer, the Catholic and francophone teachers’ unions negotiated a pay freeze (and three unpaid days), in recognition of the $14.8-billion deficit. After a predictable war of attrition, it’s likely the other holdout unions would have seen the writing on the wall.
Yet without any clear and present danger of strikes — now or in future — the government mounted a pre-emptive strike of its own. Teachers’ unions have likened this to the premier throwing them under a school bus; a more apt image is of McGuinty rubbing their noses in the dirt — humiliating teachers rather than waiting them out.
The real imperative: manufacture a crisis that would make McGuinty look decisive and responsive in the eyes of parents wondering whether classes would resume after Labour Day. The strategy would pay extra dividends on the doorsteps of Kitchener—Waterloo if the opposition tried to thwart the legislation.
But Tory Leader Tim Hudak didn’t take the bait. By promising smooth passage, the PCs neutralized McGuinty’s pitch — that he needed a restored majority so he could sidestep opposition squabbling and deal decisively with fiscal restraint.
The Liberal game plan has no obvious upside, and a significant downside.
By all accounts, voters in Kitchener—Waterloo are more focused on the economy than education. And angry teachers across Ontario are now more focused on economics than education.
It’s not as if the premier doesn’t know the difference. Nine years ago, as opposition leader, he excoriated the governing Tories in similar circumstances.
“This has nothing to do with returning Toronto kids to their classroom. It has everything to do with political opportunism and . . . the next election,” he thundered at the time.
“I know that you wanted to feed this crisis because you believed it would help your political fortunes . . . but you have to be especially careful if you want to introduce back-to-work legislation. It has to be clean, it has to be honest.”
Sound advice from the politician who is now premier, even if he hasn’t learned his own lesson.
Original Article
Source: the star
Author: Martin Regg Cohn
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