Politically Incorrect
Ontario Premier grades himself:
Only gets a B
by Arthur Weinreb, Associate Editor,
October 21, 2004
After
a year in power, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty decided to issue a report card
on how he and his government are doing. Not only did he give himself a B but he
produced the results in a 16-page report for distribution throughout the
province. The 16-page, taxpayer-funded report is the same type of shameless
self promotion that former Opposition Leader McGuinty constantly whined about
when the previous Progressive Conservative government did it. What a difference
a year and a little bit of power makes. Can the education premier spell
hypocrisy?
The
Liberals, both provincial and federal, must be having some sort of contest to
see who can be the most arrogant. Dalton's sure giving it a good run. Perhaps
the politicos are planning a new reality show, "Canada's Most Arrogant" and the
Ontario premier is trying to ensure that he is not voted off the island. If
that is the case, he should worry more about being voted out of power in 2007,
which at the rate he's going looks highly likely. If Dalton somehow doesn't
make it as the most arrogant, it won't be for a lack of trying.
It is
difficult to see where he picked up the idea that it was okay to grade himself.
Perhaps he picked it up at Premier's School. Premier's School is where you go
to learn how to get elected by promising anything and everything to everybody.
And once you do get elected, you simply break all of those totally unrealistic
promises and blame the previous government. In those days, Dalton must have
gotten an A in that course.
After
he shows his colossal arrogance by deigning to grade himself, all he ends up
with is a lousy B. When I grade myself, I always end up with an A+. After all,
I get all the answers right and do everything correctly. At least I think I do.
If I didn't think it was right, I would have done something else or given
another answer. Of course much like the premier, I was living in another world
when I graded myself. When I was graded it was always done by someone else who
usually didn't see eye to eye with everything I did. But I would never have
given myself just a B – I think I'm worth an A+.
Dalton
no doubt is a hard worker--it's getting to be a full time job just reigning in
his Minister of Health, George Smitherman, who is quickly gaining a reputation
for terrorizing hospital and other medical personnel. When he came out with his
so-called report card, he has shown that all too common Canadian
trait--spending long hours striving for mediocrity. What ever happened to
excellence? The head of the Promise Breakers made so many promises that he
couldn't keep and told so many lies that he's spending so much time playing
defence that he can't properly focus on going forward. Come to think of it,
it's not even worth a C.
McGuinty
issued his report card in a cynical attempt to put a positive spin on what he
and his government have done during the past year. And while we are on the
subject of grading, Dalton deserves an A for being honest enough not to give
himself an A+--there may be some hope for him yet. Wow, this is a first--I
managed to put "Dalton" and "honest" in the same sentence. Eureka!!!
Of
course McGuinty's silly waste of taxpayers' money with his fudged up report
card, left it open for others to grade him. One of the ones who quickly jumped
into the fray was NDP leader Howard Hampton who promptly awarded McGuinty an F.
No
matter what you think of Howard Hampton, his party or his policies, Hampton has
a lot more credibility than the premier does. And that says it all. An F it is.
Arthur Weinreb is an author, columnist and Associate Editor of Canada Free Press. His work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Men's News Daily, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck and The Rant. Arthur can be reached at: letters@canadafreepress.com
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