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On April 4, 2000, the Premier of Ontario, Mr Harris made the following motion in the Ontario Legislature:
Five years ago yesterday, on April 12, 2000, after days of debate in which the government was accused of having passed the buck and used alleged federal underfunding as a distraction, a recorded vote was held on the motion. Among the 'Nays': Dalton McGuinty, George Smithman, and other Liberal MPPs. (see http://www.ontla.on.ca/hansard/house_debates/37_parl/session1/L041.htm#P71_16304) With adscam testimony already sending federal Liberal polling numbers into a free-fall, the Premier yesterday - on April 12, 2005 - seized the opportunity to pass the buck and use alleged federal underfunding as a distraction: the Premier suggested that the Prime Minister's refusal to kick $5-billion of federal revenues into provincial coffers means that the federal government has lost touch with the people. Specifically, the Premier said that "One of the things you've got to do is stay in touch with your electorate, and the people of Ontario are saying we have an issue here...I find it rather puzzling that an issue that resonates really well with the people of Ontario has yet to resonate well with the federal Liberal Party." It was right for Mr. McGuinty's Liberals (and the NDP) not to help the Ontario's Progressive Conservative government to deflect responsibility for healthcare's woes in 2000. Having voted correctly on the motion in 2000, one can only hope that Premier McGuinty has taken a moment on the fifth anniversary of that vote to recognize the hypocrisy of his current, misguided course of political action. And, one can only hope that Ontario opposition leader John Tory will take a moment to read Hansard in respect of the April 4, 2000 motion and to re-consider his similarly misguided advocacy of a raid on the federal purse. Freedom Party has posted the full text of the several days of debate on Premier Harris' April 4, 2000 motion on its web site at: https://freedomparty.on.ca/12.04.2000.motion.htm This media release has been sent to all major print, radio, and television media. For further information, contact Freedom Party of Ontario's leader, Paul McKeever: Office: 905-721-9772
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Freedom
Party of Ontario |