Dalton McGuinty and his government are a giant advertising machine, endlessly dreaming up grandiose names for their programs that make them sound more desirable than they are and hoping to boost their image, but not all succeed.

Their latest attempt is the Throne Speech in which he announced what he calls his plan for an Open Ontario, open to new ideas, investment, industries to replace those lost, education to provide the skills to work in them and growth, particularly in the north, where it has been lacking.

This name does not sound distinctive enough to capture public imagination like that, for instance, of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau’s promise to create a Just Society, which still stirs feelings when it is spoken of today.

Some of the names McGuinty created earlier also probably already are forgotten – who remembers his ReNew Ontario, Reaching Higher or Next Generation of Jobs programs?

The best remembered of McGuinty’s names probably is his Second Career program, which has had some success, but also teething troubles.

He set up the program in 2008 offering laid-off workers opportunities to switch to new careers through longer term than usual training in colleges and fairly generous funding, up to $28,000 for a two-year period.

Most applicants for it have lost jobs in the hard-hit manufacturing sector and hope to re-train for work in services, including community and social, bookkeeping, computer operating and many branches of medicine.

The program has been a success in attracting many applicants, more than the places available, and some have complained of difficulty getting accepted. Opposition parties have complained it primarily is a public relations gesture.

In ReNew Ontario, launched in 2005, the province provides money to build infrastructure, including roads, hospitals, bridges and transit, which in turn provide construction jobs, but it can be argued they would be built anyway and only the name is new.

McGuinty set up the Next Generation of Jobs Fund to invest provincial money in industries considered in need and worthy, including auto manufacturing, and prompt companies receiving it also to invest. The province has pumped substantial money into this, but probably few know what the name means.

The Liberals have created a Ministry of Research and Innovation to help innovators and entrepreneurs turn ideas into new products, businesses and jobs and show them Ontario is an attractive place to innovate.

They say this is the first ministry in any province dedicated to this role and have found financial support for some, but others claim they are slow coming up with cash.

The Liberals have created a program called Ideas for the Future – what name could better show they are forward looking? – that offers tax incentives to attract people with worthwhile ideas in high technology to set up businesses in Ontario, but there is no thorough report yet on what this has achieved.

They have established a program called OntarioBuys

one word) quickly after being elected in 2003 to encourage the broader public sector, including school boards, hospitals, colleges and universities to collaborate in buying goods and services to save money, again the first province to do this. But the auditor general in his most recent report found broader public sector institutions are not as willing to join together and take advantage of this service as expected.

The province has a program it calls Reaching Higher aimed at making higher education more accessible to lower-income students, but many have complained its cost leaves them with too much debt.

These are only a sampling. The Liberals have a Move Ontario program for public transit, a Growing Forward Initiative for farmers and a program called Eating Well Looks Good on You to promote nutritious eating in schools.

They also have a Fairness Commissioner trying to ensure professions such as doctors and accountants judge immigrants applying to practice here without bias and these names sound impressive, but not all live up to them.