Posted by Randall Palmer on 5/19/2004, 9:57 pm, in reply to "McLiar's: We're hatin' it" Wed May 19, 2004 1:22 PM By Randall Palmer The Ontario Liberal government, which won election in October, admitted on Tuesday it was breaking a promise not to raise taxes when it handed down its first budget, arguing it had to do so to cut lengthy waiting lists in the public health system. But Ontario is also the stronghold of Martin's federal Liberals, and if he loses too many seats there in the June 28 national election he is expected to call on Sunday, he could lose his majority in Parliament. "Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty has handed Paul Martin a most unwelcome gift. He has just made Liberal tax hikes an election issue in Ontario," wrote conservative Globe and Mail columnist John Ibbitson. Outrage filled radio talk shows after Ontario announced the tax increase, with a new health-care premium ranging from C$300 ($220) to C$900 a year. "All he's doing is bleeding the people of this province," a caller named Steve said of McGuinty in a call to an Ottawa station. The federal Liberals insisted that the Ontario budget, which was responding to a multibillion-dollar deficit left over from the province's former Conservative government, would demonstrate the danger of Conservative economic policies. "Canadians have seen that tax cuts don't work. Tax cuts result in lower services," federal Liberal Member of Parliament Colleen Beaumier told CBC television. Nonetheless, it did make the whole issue of taxes suddenly topical. As Canadian finance minister in 2000, Martin cut the ground out from under his opponents by announcing C$100 billion in tax cuts just before the last federal election. Martin's team so far has rejected calls by federal Conservative leader Stephen Harper for further tax cuts, and the country's largest newspaper, the liberal Toronto Star, said McGuinty had made the right choice. "The Liberals chose to begin rebuilding Ontario. We call that a promise kept, not a promise broken," it said. Martin's Liberals are already struggling with the issue of trust because of a report in February that showed C$100 million in government advertising and sponsorship money went to Liberal-friendly ad firms, especially in Quebec. That slashed the Liberals' support in the polls, particularly in Quebec, and they had been counting on a strong showing in Ontario -- which has more than a third of the seats in Parliament -- to avoid slipping into a minority. Columnist Greg Weston of the conservative Sun Media chain argued Martin can no longer count on Ontario. "Paul Martin has nothing to fear more than an electorate that gets sufficiently peeved to turf his Liberal butt into oblivion," Weston wrote. "Yesterday's Ontario budget may just do the trick." ($1=$1.38 Canadian)
Ontario Tax Hike Seen Hitting Martin
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Rumbling anger over a sharp hike in Ontario's provincial taxes could hurt Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin in the upcoming federal election, media pundits said on Wednesday.
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