This completely underestimates the quantity of McGuinty spending.
There was a tidal wave of official government agency ads, strategically placed ahead of the campaign, a vast and shameful use of public funds for insider party benefit.
We had an idiotic 800-number for school bullying and another for drug safety review, both utterly wasteful ideas.
You can't solve bullying with 800-numbers to Bangalore India or Nova Scotia or anywhere else. And drug safety review is the everyday responsibility of family doctors and pharmacists.
We had ads about safe driving from the LCBO and we had absolutely meaningless, feel-good ads about kids getting off a school bus.
Plus more ads still, a disgraceful example of abuse of public trust that for some reason never caught the attention of the press. Of course, I'm sure individual members of the press were each hopeful for their share of the goodies.
McGuinty was able to do this owing to his fixed-date election ploy. Superficially, fixed-date elections sound fairer, in fact what they represent is the opportunity for the party in power to do just what McGuinty did.
McGuinty gave us a massive operation, planned in advance, of wasteful spending at public expense. The man has no shame and shares some of the dishonest personality traits of Richard Nixon. He has set a terrible precedent for our Ontario democracy.
