McGuinty's standard Liberal Bait-and-Switch tactic used on energy as well as on health-care

The National Post, Nov.19, 2010, wrote in McGuinty's hydro bait and switch:

"Ontario's economic update is in -- and the provincial Liberals' desperation level clearly is up. In advance of the update, provincial Finance Minister Dwight Duncan already had leaked the Liberals' plan to cut Hydro bills by 10% for five years by using $1-billion in borrowed money. That populist sop would be ill-advised under any circumstances, but especially so given Ontario's projected 2010 deficit of $18.7-billion.

In 2003, Premier Dalton Mc-Guinty declared: "I won't lower your taxes, but I won't raise them either." Well, he kept the first promise; but as for the second -- not so much. In 2004, he subjected Ontarians to an annual health tax of up to $900 per family. Over the next few years, he increased various licensing fees, including those for cars, boats, hunting and fishing. In 2009, he instituted up-front "recycling fees" on a host of items, and in 2010 attempted to bring the second wave of his "ecotax" (which he had to withdraw amid howls of protest). And of course, he also introduced the Ontario HST, which has been calculated to cost the average family in the province an extra $480 a year.

And now there's the hydro bait-and-switch, which will be paid for by future taxpayers. If Mr. McGuinty thinks this shortsighted stunt will put the province's opposition Tories in a corner, he is wrong: Paying for this rate cut with borrowed money fools nobody."

Sadly, Ontario's Liberal Premier Liar and Serial Grifter Dalton McGuinty has fooled, and will continue to fool, many Ontarians with his con-artist duplicity.

Whether it's bait and switch Liberal energy policy, or bait and switch Liberal health care policy, these Liberal lies, deceptions, illusions and pretentions just endlessly roll on.

And according to Boyle's law, local Grit asshole Jim 'Kyodiot' Bradley - Ontario's chief Liberal climate-change agitator - has (amazingly) nothin' to do with this... nothin'... ya hear?!
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More on McGuinty's bait and switch energy policies with Ronald Zajac's report on Nov.19, 2010:

"The hydro rate cut in the Liberal government's fall economic update is a scam, Leeds-Grenville MPP Steve Clark said Friday.

"It's nothing but an attempted bait-and-switch on Ontario families," the Tory MPP said as he came out swinging against Thursday's fall fiscal outlook from Finance Minister Dwight Duncan.

"I don't think Ontarians are going to be fooled by getting a 10-per-cent reduction when hydro rates are going up by 46 per cent," said Clark.

Liberals defended the hydro rebate as way to help struggling Ontarians while aiming for cleaner energy.

The government will bring in the Ontario Clean Energy Benefit on Jan. 1, giving a 10-per-cent break on electricity rates to households, small businesses and farmers, but that will be more than offset by an expected 46-per-cent increase in the cost of hydro over the next five years.

In practice, the hydro rate cut will cost Ontario taxpayers $6.4 billion over the next five years, even as hydro ratepayers see their bills jump about 3.6 per cent annually on top of that over the same period.

The rate hike suggests an average household could pay an additional $50 in the first year alone with the bill going up every year.

According to the Ontario government, investments in modern and renewable energy will cause electricity prices to rise by 46 per cent over the next five years. After that, prices are expected to moderate once the province has completed most of the transition to cleaner, more reliable electricity.

As for the overall budget, the government does not expect to be back in the black until 2017-18, and Duncan's economic statement revealed the Ontario deficit this year will be $18.7 billion, a reduction of $1 billion from its original projection.

Coincidentally, the hydro rebates will cost the province about $1 billion in 2011.

The government credits a stronger-than-expected economy for a boost in Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) revenues of $326 million.

Clark said that HST benefit was achieved on the backs of families and business, and is barely a drop in the bucket of a still massive deficit.

In fact, said Clark, the combined deficit for the nine other provinces is $12.4 billion.

"Our deficit is over six billion dollars more than the rest of Canada combined," added Clark.

"That's ridiculous."

The Tory MPP reiterated his party's line that Premier Dalton McGuinty and his government have mismanaged the province's economy from the start.

"It was a desperate economic statement by a government that, we've said all along, is just making it up as it's going along," said Clark.

Nearby Liberal MPP John Gerretsen (Kingston and the Islands) defended the hydro rebate on Thursday.

"We've listened to the people and we're doing something about (rising hydro rates)," Gerretsen, the minister of consumer services, told QMI Agency. "Any time we have cleaner air and lower electricity rates is good news."

"We realize that electricity has gone up. Families at the lower end of the economic scale are affected most by energy rates," said Gerretsen.

The other piece of good news, said Gerretsen, was that as of October, Ontario had regained 75 per cent of the jobs lost during the global recession that hit in the fall of 2008.

Since May 2009, employment has increased by 2.9 per cent or 186,000 net new jobs.

Greg Best, president of the Leeds-Grenville Provincial Liberal Association, defended the controversial HST, saying the McGuinty Liberals are implementing the measure in conjunction with the federal Conservative government.

The HST aims to broaden the tax base "so we don't penalize manufacturing," said Best, adding the long-term gain from this politically difficult measure will be better-paying jobs as the province attracts industry."