Coyle: Premier's last shot to shape legacy?
October 28, 2009
Jim Coyle
It might well be that Premier Dalton McGuinty had his last good day on Tuesday, as he announced his government's plan for full-day kindergarten to start next fall.
At Roden Public School in Toronto's east end, the premier played Lego with the boys, learned about pumpkin cultivation from the girls, joshed with 'em all – the very picture of his typically sanguine self, hardly the image of a man facing a double-whammy of woe.
With a $24.7 billion deficit certain to define the last two years of his mandate, McGuinty will be short on similar chances to boast of promises kept, of programs launched, of progressive credentials burnished.
With a plunge in polls that, in some soundings, have put him behind the Progressive Conservative opposition, he is no longer living the most charmed existence in Canadian politics.
There were, naturally, skeptical questions – especially after news last week of Ontario's record deficit – about an initiative that will cost more, take longer to implement, deliver less in terms of class sizes and compromise more with powerful teachers' unions than some had imagined.
Surprisingly, or maybe not, the premier's responses echoed lines often used by former premier Bob Rae. The perfect is the enemy of the good, Rae liked to say. And if not now, when?
Actually, McGuinty said, the most important question in public policy is "not the what, not the where, not the when, not the how, but why?
"Why are we doing this? Especially now, given our economic circumstances."
Well, he said, speaking the language of his newly met young friends, for "a whole bunch of reasons." First, all parents want their children to have the best possible opportunity to achieve their potential – and in education, as in other endeavours, strong starts lead to strong finishes.
Second, the knowledge-based global economy makes it essential "to invest in the younger generation to ensure that we build a powerful workforce that can compete and win against the best anywhere on this planet."
The premier said everyone from economists, to the authors of recent Ontario reports on poverty reduction, the roots of youth violence and the full-day kindergarten initiative itself, agree "this is the absolutely essential road for us to go down."
The mathematical equation of failing to give the young the education they need is unforgiving, he said. "Low skills equals low wages equals low standard of living equals low quality of life."
As to whether this stood as his legacy project, or a centrepiece of his re-election campaign in 2011, McGuinty was content, he said, to leave such judgments to others.
"I'm just wanting to do every day what I think needs doing."
Still, there's no question this program was a statement for the premier and his government.
"We're planting our flag on full-day learning for 4- and 5-year-olds. We're absolutely committed to this. ... There is nobody else in North America (who) is prepared to do this as a society and as an economy. We are."
The challenges he faces did not seem lost on the premier. Neither was the fact there will be days ahead with far more outrage than applause.
"We can't have everything," he said. "Because we're doing this, it means we won't be able to do some other things. And it may mean we may do less of some things we're doing right now."
Still, what McGuinty likes to use as a litmus test at such times is to ask if, once something is done, any future government would be likely to undo it.
On this, he's probably confident of the answer.
Jim Coyle's provincial affairs column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Toronto Star