Duncan versus Flawerty - Ontario shows how it should be done

Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan kicked the crap out of Federal Finance Idiot Jim Flawerty on Tuesday when he brought in a provincial budget that was a model of how good governments do business.

Canada was treated to the spectacle of a federal finance minister who at the very least is immature and irresponsible and at the worst is in need of psychiatric care. Flawerty took the unprecedented step of criticizing the Ontario budget a full 24 hours before he or anyone else had any idea of what was in it. Not that this in itself is a surprise - Flawerty is well known to Ontarians as being a part of the Mike Harris government, infamous in this province as a gang who never knew what they were talking about, especially when it came to economics, health, education, fiscal policy, governance, safety - you name it, Flawerty and Baird and Clements and Harris set new standards of criminal stupidity and ignorance in the political arena. Ontario owes every Canadian an apology for sending these Mutt and Jeffs to Ottawa to wreak havoc on the entire country instead of just one province.

Flawerty once heard James Carvel say "it's the economy stupid" and took it as a message intended specifically for himself. Stupid is as stupid does and Flawerty grabbed the George W Bush intellectual approach to the economy, wrapped it firmly around his own scrawny intellect and has been spouting "tax cuts" ever since. As a way to manage the economy and serve the best interests of all Canadians, tax cuts is on a par with saying twinkle twinkle little star fully explains astronomy.

Duncan has done an excellent job of balancing the need to help those impacted by the serious loss of manufacturing jobs with the need to maintain support of health, education, transportation and other aspects of the infrastructure with the simultaneous need to balance the budget. It is not a perfect budget but citizens neither expect nor want perfection. What they do want is responsible, caring government which puts the needs and interests of its most vulnerable citizens ahead of political bullshit - and that doesn't use tax cuts to line the pockets of those who line their political coffers at election time.

McGuinty and Duncan have provided an example for all Canadians of how good governments function; their measured, temperate response to the lunacy of Flawerty and Harpoon reflects very well on Ontario and reaffirms the intelligence of Ontario voters in sending McGuinty back for a second term. At the rate the Alliance and the Ontario Tories are going, this could be the start of a Liberal dynasty that could match or surpass the Conservative era in Ontario from Frost to Davis.