The news is there for all to see: Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty is the “Debt Devil”. In case readers didn’t believe it, there is an accompanying cover-cartoon depicting a red-coloured McGuinty with horns and a dollar-sign emblazoned pitchfork. In the article not-so-amusingly titled ‘Dalton’s Debt’, Christiana Blizzard uses such words as ‘whopping’, ‘skyrocketing’ and ‘soaring’ to describe Liberal (over)spending. Of course the article studiously avoids the detailed records of past Conservative provincial governments (easy to boast about Mike Harris – less easy to account for Ernie Eves and Walkerton) and the current Harper administration.
It is not that the article is filled with lies so much that it is economical – extremely economical – with the truth.
My favorite paragraph in Blizzard’s piece reads: “Education sector spending is projected to rise to $21.4 billion in 2010-11, a $700 million increase over the previous year. It’s projected to rise to $22.3 billion in 2011-12, and to $23 billion in 2013-13, an 11.5% increase since 2009-10.” Of course the assumption is this is a bad thing which is a highly questionable premise to begin with. For instance, would it be bad if the numbers were doubled? I’m not sure.
But wait, on the very page of the Ottawa Sun, Conservative Leader Tim Hudak (you know, the guy most Sun writers seem to thing is going to save us from the Dalton economic disaster in the upcoming election)* is quoted as saying: “Looking at my own school days, I know a well-rounded education includes extracurricular activities. We’ll increase the education budget by $2 billion annually.”
Needless to say this quotation passes without comment in the Blizzard article. One has to assume the difference here is that the benevolent Conservatives won’t, as with the sinister Liberals, be giving the money to bloated teacher’s unions but rather directly to sports-deprived children.
As I said, not exactly deceptions – more a case of budgeted truths.
* It is interesting to note that despite the clear Conservative favoritism, the Sun doesn’t think any of the Ontario leaders or parties are fiscally conservative enough to merit the paper’s overall endorsement.
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