Unflappable character an aid to McGuinty
This is an image the Liberal premier does not fully deserve and it should not affect voters anyway, because they ought to judge politicians much more on their policies than their personal characteristics.
But the view of McGuinty as a nice guy has some basis in fact and has served him well, particularly in the past year, when he has been under perpetual attacks that mostly have been justified.
Opposition parties have hammered particularly at the huge waste in building a still incomplete electronic health records system, the failure to protect lottery ticket buyers from predatory retailers, Liberal insiders being allowed to gorge from the public trough, and planning but hiding a big tax increase, and there have been others.
But McGuinty has continued to win by-elections, including the two most recent. This can be explained partly by the Progressive Conservatives under leader Tim Hudak still finding their feet and hinting too much that they will return to extreme right-wing policies that have burdened their party recently.
Voters are disinclined even to consider bringing back the New Democrats after their brief flirtation with them in government in the 1990s, although they slog away undaunted and propose some policies that most would consider worthwhile.
Part of the Liberals’ continued popularity should be attributed to McGuinty’s personal style, although there hasn’t been a poll that showed how much it helps them.
McGuinty has been accused daily of being arrogant, dictatorial, deceitful, out of touch, secretive, responsible for boondoggles, arranging sweetheart deals and most recently bribing voters to win by-elections.
The latter also may have substance, because he kept open a hospital in Toronto that was scheduled to close, which helped him win votes and a by-election there, and promised to help mitigate pension losses of former Nortel employees in Ottawa, where a by-election will be held on March 4.
While both cases were deserving, it can be argued that the premier’s primary motive was to collect votes, but is difficult to prove his motives.
What is unarguable is throughout these and many other debates, among the most bitter in Ontario politics in years, McGuinty has remained calm and even-tempered, although at times shaken, and not responded with equally bitter counter-attacks that can come easy for a politician. He more often says his government has more work to do, but is doing its best in difficult economic
times.
A premier who has failed in some duties should not be praised because he preserves his equanimity, but it is a welcome change to find one not snarling back.
McGuinty also offers a refreshing contrast to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who constantly uses harsh terms to put down his opponents and shows an “imperial style” by closing down Parliament when he does not want it to provide a forum for criticizing his policies and drastically restricting opportunities for news media to question him.
Apart from asking TV and radio reporters not to thrust their cameras and microphones in his face because it interferes with his thinking, McGuinty has been reasonably accessible to the media.
His even-tempered style also is refreshingly different from that of the most-remembered Conservative premier of recent times, Mike Harris, who was admired for some policies, but was constantly in fights and mouthed across the legislature that a respected Liberal was an “ass----.”
McGuinty even has been pointed to as in style resembling the long-serving Conservative premier, William Davis, who often is cited as the model for all premiers and never got into an unnecessary argument.
John Tory, the Conservative opposition leader who retired last year and had worked for Davis, once conceded that McGuinty “handles things in an unflappable way, like Mr. Davis.”
Being unflappable by no means excuses McGuinty from all his sins, but it is helping him with voters when other issues are against him.
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