Gary Mason - Where Did Ontario Go?

Most of my relatives live in Ontario. Until 40 some years ago so did I. Some great memories. That first school trip to the Big City in the 60s when it really seemed like "Toronto the Good." Life in Ottawa in the 70s. A confident place with a buoyant economy. Then the province began to change and not for the better.

The Globe's Gary Mason is another born and raised Ontarian turned remote observer and on this election day he offers his own thoughts that eerily parallel my own.

It seems like forever since the rest of Canada sat up and took notice of a premier that an Ontario vote produced. From the perspective of the West, at least, that might have been Progressive Conservative Mike Harris, author of the Common Sense Revolution and ideological soulmate of Alberta premier Ralph Klein. 

But Mr. Harris eventually gave way to his Tory successor, the forgettable Ernie Eaves, who easily succumbed to Liberal Dalton McGuinty’s alluring message of hope and change. Although smart and affable, Mr. McGuinty had troubles in his decade-long tenure, and is notable for a legacy of unfathomable debt and questionable public policy decisions that left his successor, Kathleen Wynne, to clean up nearly insurmountable messes. She led the Liberals to re-election only because her main challenger, Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak, was a disaster.

Mr. Hudak gave way to Patrick Brown, whose political career exploded spectacularly amid sexual harassment allegations. This paved the way for, well, the person who could be the next premier – Doug Ford. Is it something in the water? Clearly, this is not the province of John Robarts and Bill Davis anymore. 

The decline in Ontario’s political class has mirrored a ceaseless deterioration in the influence the province once yielded nationally. As the country’s most populous jurisdiction, Ontario still has plenty of weight to throw around. But in many ways, economic and political power in Canada has been shifting westward, along with people. Ontario no longer has the voice everyone must listen to in the federation. Toronto is still the greatest city in the country, but beyond its borders, the province’s landscape is littered with towns and cities in deep, deep trouble. 

But it is amid this despair that Mr. Ford has, in part, found his support. His promise to make Ontario great again may echo Donald Trump, but it resonates with those who don’t necessarily pay attention to the finer details (or lack of them) of a party’s policy platform. Mr. Ford has spoken to hard-hit areas of the province in the same way Mr. Trump did to the rust belt in the Midwest. The Conservative Leader’s charge that the province’s standing in Canada, its clout and prosperity, have been undermined and squandered by corrupt elites, strikes home with people. 

 ...As someone born and raised in Ontario, it’s sad and perplexing to see what’s happened to my former province. The country is stronger when Ontario is stronger. The country is better when Ontario’s political leaders aren’t consumed by scandal and crisis and the fallout from major public policy misfires that have burdened future generations with debt levels seldom imagined. 

Ontario was once known for its stable, dependable leaders. It was a powerful and indomitable force that in many ways guided the political affairs of this country. Not these days. Today, from the outside at least, it looks like a province that has lost its way.

That's not to say that the rest of the provinces have been all that much better. Ralph Klein, "Special Ed" Stelmach, Alison Redford or Glenn Clark, Gordon Campbell and Christy Clark and let's not forget the criminal enterprise known as the Grant Devine Conservatives. But they were never Ontario.

The legends who built Ontario are gone and, from what we've seen spread over the province at least since the 80s, they're probably not coming back. They'll be nowhere to be seen when the votes are counted today.

"Thoughts and Prayers" Ontario.