Lies, damned lies and debates

Candidates will say the darndest things under the klieg lights. Our columnist with a reality check

Sep 22, 2007 04:30 AM

Ian Urquhart

Queen's Park columnist

There was a lot of truth-stretching during this week's televised leaders' debate in the provincial election campaign.In an attempt to gain a political advantage, each of the three party leaders embellished his own record and/or denigrated his opponents' with a combination of dubious facts and claims.

Here's a summary of some of what was said in the debate and the background reality:

Premier Dalton McGuinty

Re: labour peace in the schools: "During the course of the past four years, something unprecedented to my knowledge happened in Ontario: not a single child lost a single leaning day ... because of (a) work stoppage."

As the opposition parties were quick to point out, 8,000 elementary school students in North Bay lost a week of school last year due to a teachers' strike.

Re: Conservative Leader John Tory's proposal to extend public funding to private religious schools: "You are inviting Hindu kids to leave public schools and go to a separate tent."

Not exactly. Tory is proposing to bring those Hindu (or Muslim or Jewish or Christian) kids who are now attending private religious schools – some 50,000 in all – into the public tent by providing their schools with public funding. In exchange, the schools would have to meet certain conditions on faculty and curriculum. Of course, it can be argued that the very offer of funding would entice more parents to take their kids out of existing public schools and put them in the religious schools.

Conservative Leader, John Tory

Re: crime: "Seven out of 10 people accused of murder in Toronto last year were out on bail or probation at the time they were arrested ... Mr. McGuinty said he would deliver a safer Ontario. He hasn't. He hasn't fixed the justice system. It is under his watch that the crown attorneys have been agreeing to these bail deals, these plea bargaining deals and these sentencing deals that allow the criminals to thumb their noses at the rest of us."

The seven-out-of-10 figure comes from a newspaper story that appeared in the fall of 2006. According to government statistics for the full calendar year, less than half of those charged with murder in Toronto were out on bail or probation at the time of their arrest.

Furthermore, parole is a federal responsibility for those charged with serious crimes. As for bail, the McGuinty government has instructed crown attorneys to oppose it in gun-crime cases. The Conservatives say those instructions aren't tough enough. But in the final analysis, a judge – not the crown attorney – makes the decision whether to grant bail. The McGuinty government has pressed for a "reverse onus" law to make bail more difficult in serious cases, but that, too, is a federal responsibility.

Re: The McGuinty government's alleged failures on the transit file: "They (the public) are still driving their cars. They drive by the GO stations because there is no parking there, because you (McGuinty) haven't bothered to do anything about that in four years."

The Liberals say some 6,000 more parking spaces have been added at GO stations during their term. The Conservatives say that McGuinty promised to add at least 35,000 more spaces and has fallen well short of that goal.

Re: The province's electricity shortage: "You (McGuinty) spent four years during which you really didn't address this issue."

As McGuinty himself pointed out in the debate, some 3,000 megawatts of power – more than 10 per cent of capacity – have been added during his time in office.

NDP Leader Howard Hampton

Re: Education funding: "Mr. McGuinty says that his government has put (more than) $3 billion in(to) our public school system. In fact, that's just not the case, and much of the money that the McGuinty government has put into our schools has, in fact, gone to the government's pet projects."

Budget papers show that government spending has increased by exactly $3 billion in the McGuinty years, and that amount was topped up with another $182 million in August.
As for "pet projects," these include lower class sizes, more art and music teachers, more teachers focused on at-risk youth, and more books for libraries and classrooms.

Re: Liberal claims that they have invested an additional $6.2 billion in post-secondary education. "Only about $1 billion has flowed to universities and colleges. They're still struggling."

Budget papers show $5 billion of that $6.2 billion commitment has already been allocated to universities and colleges.

Re: McGuinty's salary: "Your priority over the last seven months was to give yourself a $40,000 pay raise."

Yes, McGuinty got a pay hike of about $40,000 last year, but it was part of an overall increase in MPPs' salaries, which had fallen badly behind not only the private sector but also other political pay packages.

City councillors in Toronto, Mississauga and Brampton, for example, were making more than MPPs, backbenchers in Ottawa more than cabinet ministers at Queen's Park, and the mayors of Toronto, Mississauga and Brampton more than the premier.

The pay hike was recommended by the integrity commissioner – an independent official – and was approved not by McGuinty himself but by the Legislature. Hampton and several of his NDP colleagues voted against it, but the vote was skipped by two NDP members who privately agreed with the pay hike.