Former Ontario Premier Mike Harris;
We cut personal, capital, corporate and other taxes almost 200 times, dramatically reduced the size of government, forced the broader public sector to become much more efficient and eliminated Ontario’s massive deficit. We scrapped Bob Rae’s job-killing labour law and gave people a hand-up, not a hand-out, by creating work-for-welfare. In doing so, we created an environment that led to unprecedented economic growth, the creation of almost a million new jobs and 700,000 fewer people trapped in the cycle of welfare dependency. In 2002, our economy was booming and we had a budget surplus. Ontario was the envy of the world and the foundation was in place to ensure our province’s future prosperity. As I said in one of my last speeches as premier, I only regret that we didn’t move faster, and push even harder, to make the changes we did.
Since then, the government of Ontario has slid back into its self-destructive old habits. Massive increases in public spending and the return of high taxes are dragging Ontario down and risking the economic future of our province. Ottawa’s recent declaration of our “have-not” status is the culmination of a five-year decline. This announcement proves that Ontario isn’t just on the edge of a fiscal and economic crisis — we’ve toppled over a cliff, and no one really knows how far down we might fall.
I love to watch petty partisan infighting while big kleptocratic government sends a once prosperous self sustaining private sector economy to its doom with collectivist greed and corporate welfare.
As far as I’m concerned you squabbling partisan asshats in Onterrible are just two sides of the same government dependent coin. Enjoy your collective poverty, you earned it.