The issue in this provincial election cannot be more clear.  Does the economy and taxes matter to you, the voter?

Yesterday, two stories were published that make the answer to that question seem unclear.  First, a new Ipsos-Reid shows McGuinty ahead in the polls.  Juxtapose that to yesterday’s Fraser Institute report that shows that Dalton McGuinty has the second worst economic record of all premiers.  Does that mean that Ontario voters like being second last?  I don’t think so.

The point is that the Liberal strategy is to promise spending programs to targeted groups during elections then taxing Ontario residents and businesses to help pay for it.  I say “help” because they still spend more than they take in and in the end, Ontario falls further behind.

There was debate last night in where Liberal Minister, Madeleine Meilleur tried to say that the Ontario deficits mimic the federal government recession spending and the plan is to be deficit free by 2017.  What she leaves out is that Ontario is trailing in economic growth compared to the rest of Canada and that the only way to raise the type of revenue they need is to tax more.

All I hear from the provincial Liberals is spend, spend, spend and no details on how they would pay for it.  But informed voters know how a Liberal government will try to pay for it: tax, tax, tax.  If Ontario voters don’t see this and don’t realize that Ontario’s economic future relies on replacing the McGuinty government, then we deserve to be the province that suffers as we fall towards Dalton McGuinty’s goal of making Ontario the worst economic province in Canada.