^It still doesn't side step that McGuinty - while he did bring Ontario back into sound policy of expanding health services, helping teachers and students tremendously before the budget issues, and with big thinking, he did make a mistake by not just sticking to his — and going through with Oakville's gas generation plant. It may have been unpopular, but it would have been better to have proceeded with that. It would have avoided the mess right now of the fallout.
But I look at it through a different lens: no matter how big of a misstep we believe or don't believe it is, I give the OLP big credit for thinking big.
e.g. huge investments into renewables and wind energy over the past decade, even though eHealth didn't work out as planned an IT infrastructure did get created for medical records and other things. He implemented the GST even though it was controversial, which does help attract business and unify the taxes to make it simpler for the headache that people go through filing it. And whether or not people disagree with the exemptions that were taken away (like the extra tax on fuel) it did save Ontarians by avoiding double taxation.
McGuinty was faced with the worst possible scenario in the past decade: a total destruction of the manufacturing sector due to worldwide economic pressure outside of local control, and the 2008 worldwide economic disaster. So given the circumstances I'm not entirely sure how anyone can yap so strongly at the budget.
They've been pragmatic: over the past decade teachers got serious pay increases when they could afford it, now that the budget is tight they've tried to clamp down on over-expenditures.
You can't always have your cake and eat it too, I think overall McGuinty's missteps are small on a scale of large successes.
Transit is just one issue where the OLP was a partner with Toronto, now if the city of Toronto would just clean up its act and get behind a solid transit plan that's another story.
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