Dalton McGuinty resigns as Ontario Premier

Embattled leader exits just ahead of scandal.

from Inside Queen's Park, Special Edition

Dalton McGuinty resigns after 16 years as Liberal leader and 9 years as Premier

Dalton McGuinty's resignation as Ontario premier, announced early yesterday evening at a very unusual joint meeting of the Liberal Caucus and Queen's Park Press Gallery, was certainly a tactical surprise.

In strategic terms McGuinty's departure sometime soon was not completely unexpected  though it must be acknowledged that the punditti (certainly including this writer), did not see it coming just now. McGuinty's resignation is as audacious as his failed October 6 bid to win the Kitchener-Waterloo by-election so as to edge one seat closer to a majority government. That did not work but this very well might.

Costing the gas plants

If so, the government will be escaping a trap which it laid for itself by closing the now infamous gas plants for electoral purposes, dragging its heels in responding to a committee call for "papers", inviting Mr Speaker Levac to rule that they must be divulged and therefore triggering a contempt motion against Energy minister Chris Bentley. Their slowness to comply with the Speaker's ruling plunged Queen's Park into crisis and permitted the opposition to bring the Legislature to a halt.

Falling 36 percent short

This awkward predicament was made worse when, despite its protestations to have complied fully and comprehensively with Mr Speaker's ruling requiring disclosure of some 36,000 sheets of documentation, it was acknowledged October 15 that the government had not forked over another 20,000 sheets of paper which should have been provided at the outset. Thus more than a third of the original documents had not been divulged. And it was also revealed yesterday that the government had known of that failure to respond fully before the end of September  just a few days after the original package was delivered. Bentley rose yesterday to correct his record by confessing to the failure to table the second, 20,000-sheet tranche, which further eroded his credibility and intensified the force of the opposition onslaught.

Heavy baggage, some flammable

The political landscape is now strewn with enough damaging documents to fuel a fire-storm. McGuinty's skill at speechifying could not turn away this wrath, and his appeal to the Liberal's core supporters could not erase their fury over interference in the collective bargaining process and the revised (but still hated) wage freeze legislation. The hike of $450M in revenue announced in Finance minister Dwight Duncan's Fiscal Update revenue, also delivered yesterday, leaves the expenditure size of the deficit very challenging. That deficit cannot be wished away but McGuinty can take ownership of some key measures so that his successor is not impossibly burdened by baggage, that scourge of second- and third-term governments.

That's "prorogation"

Premier McGuinty's announcement of his departure was preceded by a visit to Lieutenant-Governor David Onley to request that His Honour prorogue the Legislature. This extraordinary step to suspend the operation of Queen's Park will shut down the daily question period, kill off bills in process and stifle all committee activities while the Liberals conduct the leadership contest to fill McGuinty's shoes  which could take as much as six months. The PCs and NDP can play the minority government card, insisting that people want the pink palace to be operating, not taking a six-month furlough to replace the premier. Public outrage may well ensue, as happened when the Harper federal government adopted the same procedural ploy. But the fact that Harper's party won the next election suggests that the force of public outrage can be somewhat overrated. It is not clear that opposition parties have any recourse under the Standing Orders.

Out of the provincial pan and into the federal fire?

Perhaps the most amazing element of this most unorthodox resignation of a premier is the widespread supposition that Ontario's premier has contrived to escape from his current governmental role in order to take on the leadership of the third-place federal party. The Liberals are notorious for seeking leadership messiahs. But why on earth would McGuinty want to accept, let alone seek, such an uninviting demotion? And why would Terri McGuinty countenance or permit so unwelcome a transition? Her husband has pledged already to remain MPP for Ottawa South until the next election as well as to continue to discharge his duties as premier. IQP is picking a tasty hat to eat.

Following in his shoes

The line-up of anticipated provincial leadership contenders already totals more than ten (in alpha order): Chris Bentley; Michael Bryant; Dwight Duncan; Dr Eric Hoskins; Deb Matthews; Glen R. Murray; Yasir Naqvi; Sandra Pupatello; George Smitherman; Charles Sousa; Kathleen O Wynne. It is striking that this line-up includes MPPs and ex-MPPs first elected in a range from 1995 to post-2007 by-elections. Expect some of the starting 11 to scratch.

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