Dalton McGuinty sure does have a cynical approach to politics. He is always willing to spend truckloads of our money getting his favourite candidates elected.
Remember the end days of the 2011 provincial election? The vote was on Oct. 6. McGuinty was in his third election as Liberal leader. He wasn’t doing well. He’d won majority governments in 2003 and 2007 but was in a sharp decline in 2011.
It was apparent to his campaign advisors that he was heading to a minority government at best, or a defeat at worst. They had to do something dramatic.
As luck would have it, the government had started constructing a new power plant at the Mississauga – Etobicoke border. It would generate enough electricity to keep that little part of Ontario lit up. The people living there didn’t want it. They wanted the power, but not the plant. Mississauga had raised an objection to the project on zoning grounds but was overruled by the Ontario Municipal Board. That wasn’t the premier’s biggest worry.
Of greater concern was the fate of three incumbent Liberal MPPs and one strong Liberal candidate in the region. On Sept. 24, less than two weeks before the vote, he stopped the project. Halted construction in its tracks.
All four Liberals were elected and McGuinty salvaged a minority government. The political salvage operation came at a hefty cost. He is now spending an extra $180 million to relocate the power plant to Sarnia.
Here we are 11 months later and McGuinty is trying to get his majority back through a by-election on Sept. 6. The campaign for Kitchener-Waterloo is an uphill slog for him. The Conservatives have held it since 1990.
When times get tough, McGuinty is happy to thrust his hand into your pocket and pull out your cheque book. He’s promising to spend $300 million to build a spanking new four-lane divided highway through the lush farmland between Guelph and Kitchener-Waterloo.
That’s what it was priced at in 2007. It will have gone up since then.
The condition of Highway 7 is bad, but it’s not a crisis. I did that daily commute from 1977 to 1999 and it was as bad then. It plugs up during the morning and afternoon rush hours, and loosens off in between.
A better and more cost effective solution would be to widen and straighten the existing highway. A couple of extended passing lanes in each direction could do the job just as well. Especially with the addition of traffic circles at Wellington Road 32 and at Shantz Station Road.
It is astonishing that while governments preach restraint, they practice profligacy. Even more bewildering is that people who complain mightily about government wastefulness are enamoured by these extravagances.
A sensible, low profile solution to traffic congestion doesn’t have enough dramatic impact to affect the outcome of an election. At least, the campaign strategists don’t think so, and they’re paid big bucks to read and understand the minds of the people.
When all is said and done, buying votes in Waterloo will cause a lot of collateral damage to Guelph’s capital budget. The new highway, as planned, will require an expensive interchange at Silvercreek and Woodlawn to connect it to the Hanlon.
Then the Hanlon itself will need to be modernized. We’ll be on the hook for part of the cost, just as we are with the Laird Road interchange.
But what the heck. A hundred and eighty here. Three hundred there. It’s only millions. If that’s what it takes to elect a Liberal, McGuinty has the moxie to get it done.