Canadian Politics
Dalton "Actionman" McGuinty
By Arthur Weinreb, Associate Editor,
Friday, August 5, 2005
After
the latest evening of multiple shootings in Toronto and the GTA (at least the
latest at the time of this writing), the spate of violent gun crime finally got
the attention of Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty. A group of people were
sitting outside their homes on a hot summer night when they became the victims
of a drive-by shooting. Included amongst the casualties was a 4-year-old boy
who was shot in the leg and hip.
McGuinty
seemed to have been rattled by the shooting of the 4-year-old. Well, at least
this is some progress for our illustrious premier – the child wasn't even
his kid. The last time McGuinty got excited about a young person being the
victim of a violent crime it was when one of his sons became the victim of an
Ottawa mugging.
After
expressing his sympathies to the victims of the escalating gun violence, the
premier, stuttering and stammering, said that it's time for a "rethink" about
the laws. A rethink?
While
Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair set up a task force to redeploy officers to
areas of the city where most of the gang related shootings are taking place,
Dalton has decided to think. Perhaps after all this thinking is done, some
action might be taken to combat the nights of multiple shootings in Toronto
that have recently become all too common.
About
the only specific thing that McGuinty said was that he intends to take up the
matter of illegal guns with the American Ambassador. He seems to be taking a
page from Toronto mayor David Miller who blames the United States for shootings
and murders committed in Canada by home grown Canadian criminals. Since
becoming mayor, David Miller has refused to take any responsibility for any
problems that occur in his city, preferring to blame the federal government,
the provincial government and now the United States. But we expect more from
the premier who is sinking quickly to the level of the Toronto mayor.
The
notion that talking to the Americans is somehow going to get them to change
their entire gun culture is totally absurd. And if McGuinty truly wanted to do
something to stop American guns from being brought across the border, the
premier would be talking to the federal government that is responsible for the
border, not the American Ambassador.
Dalton
McGuinty had promised to fund an additional 1,000 police officers for the
province but that promise seems to be just lying around until it can officially
declared "broken" as most of his other major promises have been.
McGuinty's
undertaking a "rethink" and wanting to talk to the U.S. Ambassador while the
streets of Toronto are being shot up on what seems to be a nightly basis proves
that he is totally incapable of dealing with problems that don't fit into his
special pet interests.
The
premier's reaction to crime is not unlike the way he is treating the province's
electricity shortage. The record setting heat is straining the electricity
system and the hot weather makes it difficult to even import power from other
jurisdictions. But not to worry. Dalton says that after a few more summers of
crisis, 9,000 megawatts of power will be added to Ontario's power grid. In the
meantime, Ontarians will just have to turn their air conditioners down when the
temperature sores and everything will be okay. It doesn't seem to matter to the
premier that using power to run air conditioners is important to the health of
many people.
While
the lack of electricity generation capacity cannot be pinned solely on the
current premier, he's had two years to take action. Instead, he concentrated on
playing to the anti-nuclear crowd while planning to close coal fire generation
stations without taking corresponding steps to increase capacity.
In
other words, McGuinty has told Ontario residents that there will be a risk of
brownouts and blackouts for the next two or three years. Get used to it.
And
McGuinty's "rethinking" about gun laws while wanting to talk to the American
Ambassador will do nothing to stem violent crime.
Multiple
shootings – get used to that too.
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: aweinreb@rogers.com
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