Ontario’s per capita debt larger than California’s

There is surely a provincial election in the air when the Liberals drop $5 million in the Sudbury riding in one week.

This was once the unshakable Liberal riding that Rick Bartolucci came very close to losing the last time, despite his weekly, or was it daily, photo op cheque presentations to various groups from A to Z.

Of major significance to anyone still inexplicably sympathetic to the McGuinty/Wynne clan is a recent report from the Fraser Institute comparing the debt load of Ontario to debt-riddled California. It is simply staggering.

California, which has earned a very poor reputation for their financial affairs, has a gross debt load of $144.8 billion.

Under the Liberal government, once financially-stable Ontario has managed under the to increase its debt load (the amount it owes in government-issued bonds) to a staggering $267.5 billion.

California’s debt load is equal to 7.6 per cent of GNP, while Ontario’s is an unbelievable 40.9 per cent.

Looking at it from a more revealing individual viewpoint, that means that each man, woman and child in Ontario has a Liberal government debt load of $20,166, while Californians have only $3,844 each.

Ontarians’ individual debt load has become more than five times as great as a state known for its financial distress. No wonder we are losing so many people to Alberta and other provinces.

If you add the many other scandals of the McGuinty/Wynne government — Ornge, Hydro, wind turbines, Bill 191 the Far North Act, the $1.2 Billion gas plant cancellations to save a few Liberal ridings and the resulting alleged criminal cover-up by deleting the hard drive of many government computers, their reluctance to set a nomination meeting in Sudbury while hoping to appoint someone of their choice, not ours — the message is clear.

The people of Ontario cannot afford the cavernous debts incurred by this government, nor can we trust this inept party to competently govern our once great province.

Simon Guillet
Greater Sudbury