Dalton denies Liberal links to Union-fronted election ads

Re: “No link between Liberals, television ads, premier says”, St. Catharines Standard, Aug. 25, 2007

How sad it is to hear Liberal premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty, pretend that the cabal of unions, including the CAW, which make up the ‘Working Families Coalition’, is totally independent from the Liberals. Has Dalton ever lied to Ontarians before?

Ontario Election officials can easily find out that, for example, Buzz Hargrove uses his authority, as president of the CAW, to openly support the McGuinty Liberals, even as recently as Aug. 22, 2007, according to a story in the Chatham Daily News. As the Windsor Star reported, July 11, 2007, Hargrove was expelled from the Ontario NDP in Feb. 2006 “for his open support of the Liberals.” The Toronto Star, Jun.15, 2007, reported Buzz Hargrove saying: “Our goal is to make sure the Tories don’t get elected here…We’re trying to make sure we don’t end up with another Mike Harris government.”

The case can certainly be made that this cobbled coalition is simply a partisan, third-party advertising front, a Trojan-horse attempting to sway Ontario voters prior to an election. This is a well-greased attack on Ontario’s election spending laws by well-financed special- interest groups, already Liberal insiders, attempting to peddle their influence to gain power.

If McGuinty (obviously the beneficiary of this scheme) had any spine whatsoever, he would have condemned the mechanics of this blatant propaganda machine, where all the players conveniently deny that there is any connection to the others’ uncommonly similar campaigns! Is that conspiracy or just coincidence? Who’s pulling the puppet-strings here in this little political marriage of convenience between blatant Buzz and demure Dalton? During an election, I believe that polling stations should not be held on the property of non-impartial lobbyists such as the CAW, as that is a conflict of interest which could be intimidating to voters.

Hopefully, Elections Ontario will act swiftly to put this charade in its place, seeing that time is of the essence, and that the premier of this great province is shamefully reluctant to challenge the impropriety of this transparently pro-Liberal coalitions’ tactics.

Will smoke-and-mirror McGuinty and his fifth-columnists bamboozle Ontarians again with their pre-election bag of tricks? No, not this time, Dalton. Not only should Hargrove buzz off, but McGuinty should flick off as well.