Why the federal election seems so provincial: Cohn
An Ontario voter’s guide to game-playing by federal politicians leading up to the Oct. 19 election.

TheStar.com
Sept. 22, 2015
Martin Regg Cohn

Ontario looms as the biggest battleground in a federal election that is increasingly being fought on provincial territory.

Beyond the fact that Ontario boasts the biggest stash of seats still up for grabs, Queen’s Park has also emerged as the main target for federal Tories taking provincial potshots. They are obsessing over sex, lies and red tape — while obfuscating over red ink and greenhouse gases.

Here is an Ontario voter’s guide to game-playing by federal politicians leading up to the Oct. 19 election:

• Many aspiring Conservative MPs keep trying to seduce suburban voters with salacious talk about the nitty gritty of sex education in our schools. Ask them why they are even running in a federal election. Remind your candidate that education is an entirely provincial responsibility, and that there is no excuse — no matter what your position — for political voyeurism. Tell them to enter the next Ontario election in 2018.

• All that sex talk might be titillating for Tories, but the real infidelity — the big lie — is on pensions. Prime Minister Stephen Harper keeps pretending that Ontario’s plan to expand public pensions is a “job killing payroll tax.” Yet any reputable economist — even those who oppose pension expansion — will tell you that it cannot possibly be a tax, because the money isn’t going into government coffers. Like the arm’s-length CPP, the new Ontario plan would be segregated from government, with the investment returns paid out in pension cheques. That’s not a tax.

• Harper’s anti-pension obsession will generate red tape that adds to business costs because he petulantly rejected Ontario’s routine request to streamline administrative functions. Ottawa co-operates with provincial pensions run by Quebec and Saskatchewan, so why not Ontario? The Liberals and New Democrats are proposing an enhanced CPP that would reduce overall costs (and the need for an Ontario plan), but have offered few details.

• Another prime ministerial pathology is deficit fighting. Yes, Ontario’s Liberals forfeited their budget surpluses during the 2008 economic crisis, just as the federal Tories did. Flush with revenues from oil-rich provinces, Ottawa was able to reach balance faster. The bigger problem is Ontario’s cumulative debt hangover, not its current deficit.

• Infrastructure spending also explains the differences on deficits. While Queen’s Park has allocated tens of billions in spending — investments that will pay dividends by underpinning private economic growth — the federal government has skimped (or played politics by wasting money on a Scarborough subway that entangled all levels of government against their better judgment). The federal NDP has promised to spend more, but mostly in later years because they are sticking to balanced budgets. The federal Liberals would make infrastructure a bigger priority, with higher deficits.

• Pharmacare was supported by the federal Conservatives in a previous election platform. But when Ontario convened a ministerial meeting this summer, Ottawa stayed away. The Tory reticence is curious given the enormous cost savings that could be reaped through pooled procurement of major pharmaceuticals, as economists of all ideologies have noted.

• Global warming has generated a big chill within our own borders, as the provinces go their own way against a backdrop of conspicuous federal inaction. B.C., Quebec and (belatedly) Ontario have adopted different approaches to carbon pricing that will require federal leadership to ensure a coherent national strategy.

• Child care remains in its infancy at the federal level. The Conservatives persist in handing out baby bonus cheques to everyone, regardless of need, which are later taxed back from the rich (and don’t deliver much child care to the poor). The NDP is too frightened to cancel those cheques, lest it lose votes, and pretends it can make the provinces cough up much of the money. The federal Liberals want to target child care funds more selectively, but have been criticized for past efforts that were too little, too late.

• Ontario and Ottawa are at cross-purposes on refugee resettlement. At the height of the crisis in Europe, while the Conservatives were defending their inertia, Queen’s Park joined other provinces in allocating millions of dollars to relocating refugees. Belatedly, the Tories loosened restrictions this week.

Bad enough that the three parties are talking over each other, rival politicians at the federal and provincial level remain on different wavelengths. The only constant is that none of the federal leaders seems willing to revisit Ontario’s longstanding complaint that it gets shortchanged by an outdated equalization formula, and out-of-balance transfer payments, that cost the province more than $11 billion a year.

It makes for a very provincial federal election.