Will Wynne McGuinty Scandal Trigger Spring Election in Ontario ? Letter from NDP Leader Andrea Horwath – March 27, 2014

jhorw

Premier Kathleen Wynne

Room 281 Legislative Building

Queen’s Park

Toronto, ON M7A 1A1

Dear Premier,

I wrote to you recently expressing my concern about the reckless waste of tax dollars by your government, and your ongoing attempts to make middle class families foot the bill for Liberal indiscretions.

 

Now, the people of this province are learning the police are pursuing an investigation into criminal breach of trust involving Liberal aides as part of an ongoing probe of your government by the Ontario Provincial Police anti-rackets squad following a decision by the Liberal campaign you co-chaired to cancel two gas plants – at a cost to Ontario families of more than $1-billion.

 

Detective Constable Andre Duval of the OPP’s anti-rackets section has detailed a deliberate attempt to destroy evidence of a scandal that has unfolded while you were a cabinet minister, campaign co-chair, and Premier.

 

Documents released by the Ontario Court of Justice containing new and explosive revelations detail a deliberate and orchestrated cover up involving numerous Liberal aides and members of your entourage, as part of an ongoing probe now focusing on questions about the period after you were sworn in and became Premier.

You have denied prior knowledge of these matters before learning about them from media reports, yet your present cabinet secretary – a public official whom you work with daily and is accountable to you – is cited more than 60 times in Detective Constable Duval’s account. Your cabinet secretary is not accused of wrong doing, but is identified by the anti-rackets squad as having extensive and detailed knowledge of the crimes being investigated.

 

This adds to questions that require explanations about your assertions that you have been in the dark at every stage as one of the most epic scandals and elaborate cover ups in the political history of Ontario unfolded on your watch.

 

It is simply not good enough to say: “I knew nothing about this.” For over two years, people have seen virtually every claim made by your party about this scandal proven to be false or misleading. The cancellation costs were $870 million higher than you claimed they were. What Liberal staff claimed was routine deletion of emails was, in fact, illegal. You claimed you had no personal role in the cancellation decision, yet you signed the decision on the Oakville plant. People just can’t take your word for this anymore.

 

There are questions that must be answered. As a first step, in light of these questions and ongoing revelations about a criminal investigation of Liberal attempts to conceal the truth, it is clear that a public inquiry into the cover up must be called immediately and that a special, independent prosecutor from outside the province be appointed to work with the OPP’s anti-rackets squad and ensure there is no scope for any tampering by your government with probes of this scandal. I first issued a call for an independent public inquiry last January. At that time, you insisted it would not be needed. The past year has proven you wrong.

 

Yours,

Andrea Horwath, MPP

Leader, Ontario’s New Democrats

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18 Comments

  1. Speaking about Winnie/McGuilty#2 you should read about Alberta’s Queen of High Flying spending as if she were royalty – yes that weird premier that they have who has been caught with her grubby paws in the cookie jar but not just once or twice but again. Canada will go into bankruptcy if these dirtbags are not pushed out of office pronto. Even someone commented in the blogs that we cannot afford the queen’s representative nor the senate and this crazy woman went down to South Africa in luxury for some man’s funeral. Who in the hell does she think she is? We have a ridiculous government right here in Ontario that pushed Ontario into a bankruptcy state. There is the old saying that “you deserve the government that you get” and yes that sure is true indeed. “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men and women do nothing,” Another is: “Freedom is never more than one generation from extinction.” and that is so very true as well. We have nothing but a bunch of liars and crooks and thieves in all layers of government and it just keeps on getting worse every time because people do not stand up and take them out. People just can’t sit down and let these evils take over or there will be nothing left at all.

  2. I somehow agree with Jules. In Ontario we seem to keep electing the same bozos over and over again. The last election would have been an opportune time to oust the Fiberals and McGuinty. But what do the voters do? They return McGuinty with a minority government. And what does McGuinty do when it’s time to fess u? He resigns as premier and his seat. Wynne is voted in by the party faithful, so don’t call her premier, she is acting premier until an election is called. The bad thing is Wynne continues McGuinty’s legacy of over-spending, lying to the taxpayers and unaccountability. She’s trying to distance herself from the McGuinty Legacy, but it won’t happen. She took over from McGuinty, so thus she inherits his mess. McGuinty had the gall to say that he didn’t know anything about deleted e-mails from hard drives in regard to the gas plant fiasco. A strange thing is that e-mails are stored on servers, not PC hard drives. And as premier he is responsible for what happened whether he wants to admit it or not. The man / woman at the top are responsible for everything the government does. You can run McGuinty, but you can’t hide. Hopefully he’ll either have a bout of truthfulness hit him and he’ll tell the truth or he’ll be charged with perjury. I’m hoping this mess causes an election; it’s time to get McGuinty Jr and the Fiberals out of there.

  3. If all emails and correspondence are stored on secure servers, why would cleaning up the hard drives on personal computers be a problem?
    @ Hugger. The Libs should have and could have been tossed out in the last election, and we all know why they weren’t. The voters couldn’t stomach the idea of having a poo-flinging weasel for a premier. And that hasn’t changed. The timing of the next election is entirely up to Wynne and Horwath. The government can only be defeated on a budget bill. Wynne gets to choose when a budget bill is introduced, and Horwath gets to decide whether to support it or not. Hudak can whine and squawk all he wants, but he is totally irrelevant for now.

  4. Author

    Our internals are showing a Minority NDP gov’t next election for Ontario.

  5. Furtz, that’s what has me baffled. Some Liberal staff member had her b/f clean the HDD of PC’s, that would NOT wipe out any e-mails. Something is fishy here.

    The government can be defeated on any bill that they bring forward, not just budget bills. Opposition parties prefer to do it on budget bills as the budget then becomes the topic of the election.

  6. Mine too Jamie, or a possible majority. Way too soon to call.

  7. Jamie (Admin) it is possible that your staff is right about the NDP minority. I saw something of that woman speak in the town of Chatham and she seems to have their support. NDP has always represented the little people but things sure took a turn for the worst when turn coat Bob Rae came in and turned his coat tails on everyone. I think that if the NDP came it that it would be a minority government. People are mighty fed up with the lying libtard/fiberals and the spineless cons of a leader that they have in now who is a cousin to McGuilty #1 and we sure don’t want to see any of them back in again.

  8. Author

    I don’t see a majority Furtz, of any party at this point.

  9. As I said Jamie, it’s way too soon to call. Right now, the Libs are in the doghouse for good reason. The Cons are unelectable because of Hudak, and Horwath is looking good. Totally boggles my mind why the Cons would choose Hudak for a leader the first time. They couldn’t have chosen a more repulsive leader. And then they keep him on to fight and lose a second election! As a long-time lefty, I really like Hudak a lot.

  10. Hugger1

    It wasn’t just “Some Liberal staff member” it was Premier Dalton McGuinty’s former CHIEF of Staff David Livingston ,who put this plan in action.(allegedly)

    It was Prime Minister Steven Harper’s CHIEF of Staff Nigel Wright, who secretly wrote a personal cheque for $90,000 to Sen. Mike Duffy.(Allegedly)

    Shades of Watergate where Washington Post reporters Woodward and Bernstein proved with outstanding investigative reporting…that the coverup was worse than the crime

    Watergate
    But while other newspapers ignored the story and voters gave Nixon a huge majority in November 1972, the White House continued to denounce The Post’s coverage as biased and misleading. Post publisher Katharine Graham worried about the administration’s “unveiled threats and harassment.”

  11. Furtz….you really like confusing us older folk, don’t you?

    At one point in your previous comment you said “The Cons are unelectable because of Hudak, ….Totally boggles my mind why the Cons would choose Hudak for a leader the first time. They couldn’t have chosen a more repulsive leader. And then they keep him on to fight and lose a second election!” Then further on you say ” As a long-time lefty, I really like Hudak a lot.” I’m confused, do you like Hudak or not?

  12. No there will be no majority no matter who gets in and if you look up to a politician then you have no self worth. The whole bunch is bought and paid for and they are there for their own gain. It is up to you to be your own leader in this life. Politicians are there to give you the illusion that everything is right with the world – HUH – some illusion alright. One would have to be asleep to believe their illusion. I don’t believe in any political party at all and if I were to vote I would only vote for the person. Forget politics. Poli is Latin for many and tics are bugs so you wind up with many bugs and that sure is true and the proof is in the pudding. You want a leader take a good look in the mirror at yourselves and see what you can do for your own community to try and improve it and throw out the bums that are sucking you all dry to the bone and not paying any taxes in town – all those rats jumped ship and left you all holding the bag.

  13. One more thing to add here and that is don’t think that voting for a woman will change anything and we saw that in McGuilty #2 Winnie. It is like voting for the three witches of MacBeth.

  14. The irony of the Ontario political situation is that regardless of which party ( socialists, liberals or conservatives ) wins the right to form the next government the taxpayers have already lost. The province never recovered from the blow dealt by the NDP under Bob Rae and the devastation at the hands of the McGuinty/Wynn liberals may not be fully tabulated for a decade to come and the Cons are powerless as long as no show Hudak retards the progress of his party. Rhinos could be the only real choice .

  15. Author

    David I now practice “Hyper Non-Partisan” which means I go election by election and vote for the candidate/party that best represents me at any given moment. I will never again sign up with any party or practice partisan politics. My vote and support will have to be earned each and every time.

    That being said I’m totally unsure where to put my vote in the next provincial election. Locally I don’t see being given a fair shake by any of the three party candidates and at higher levels there is a tiny glimmer of hope. It’s quite a conundrum for me personally.

  16. @ Hugger. Because I’m not in any way a Conservative supporter, I really like that Hudak is their leader.
    @ David. The current crop of Ontario Cons aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed, but at least they’ve finally realized that the more people see Hudak, the less they like him. When the election is called, they’d be wise to have him campaign with a sock in his mouth and a bag over his head.

  17. Peter Jenkin….it doesn’t matter who did it. What they did was illegal. I still don’t understand how wiping a PC’s HDD does NOT wipe out e-mails. E-mails are stored on servers, not PC HDD’s.

    Jules….as the saying goes if you don’t vote you have no right to complain about the political process.

    David Oldham…Agreed. It’s going to take us decades to get out of the mess McGuinty et al got us in to.

  18. Admin I have always voted for the party whose leaderships values and political strategy best represented who I am and what I believe in. So I have never been much of a party faithful since the leadership bangs the drum. All three parties in Ontario at this time, in my opinion, share a common need in the leadership department and each for very different reasons. I give up my right to a political opinion if I do not exercise my right to vote, so I will vote. The problem currently is that the fence is hurting my ass.

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