My latest unpublished "letter" to the Markham Economist

This letter was NOT published in the Markham Economist. Who can read the mind of an editor? Because I am a potential candidate in the upcoming election, the editor chose not to publish this. I understand. So why is it with just days to go before the writ is dropped the local Liberal incumbents are prominently featured in the print editions? Fair is fair.   

Re: Liberals have done positive things Aug. 13, 2011

The glowingly partisan letter from Nima Basharat with just weeks to go before the provincial election distorts the record of Michael Chan and the Liberal Party over the past eight years.

Mr. Basharat outlines some of the “positive things” that Mr. Chan and the Liberals have done for special interest groups with regard to job creation, a discounted energy benefit designed to entice voters, and other minor tweaks that are so easy to do while spending other people’s money.

Make no mistake the Liberals have become very adept at spending other people’s money. When they took office in 2003 Ontario’s debt load was around $140 billion. The Liberal debt projection in the most recent budget is $240 billion in 2011. This is a 70% increase in money spent and owed by the people of Ontario.

What else has had so dramatic an increase in the last eight years? Inflation? No. Your income, I doubt it? How about services? Have schools improved by 70%? No. How about medical services, are the wait lists shorter and the doctors more plentiful? No.
There is one thing that Mr. Basharat and I do agree on. The potential alternatives, PC Leader Tim Hudak and NDP Leader Andrea Horvath, will be just as bad as the Liberals have been.
So where does that leave the Ontario voter? There needs to be a fundamental change in our thinking about the functions of government, otherwise Ontario will follow the European nations and the US into a fiscal crisis that will not end well.