HOW ONTARIO GOT A ONE- ISSUE CAMPAIGN Robin V. Sears Contributing Writer Robin Sears looks back on the Ontario election and wonders how, with all the challenges the province faces, it was transformed into a one-issue campaign on the public funding of private faith-based schools. And in a province where confessional schools have historically been a tinder-box issue, how and why did Conservative leader John Tory allow himself to be trapped on this question, making the campaign about one of his promises rather than his opponent's record? Dalton McGuinty's Liberals successfully “conjured up the prospect of immigrants with strange religions and foreign tongues...” writes Sears, while the Conservatives were never warned by their own research “how damaging a promise this could become,” derailing their entire campaign. Dans son compte rendu des élections ontariennes, notre collaborateur Robin Sears se demande comment la campagne en est venue à se focaliser sur le financement des écoles confessionnelles privées dans une province qui a tant d’autres défis à relever. Historiquement, la question a toujours été explosive, d’où cette seconde interrogation : comment le chef conservateur John Tory a-t- il pu se laisser piéger en axant toute sa campagne sur la promesse de financer ces écoles plutôt que sur le bilan de son rival ? Si les libéraux de Dalton McGuinty ont réussi à s’en tirer sur cette question délicate, les conservateurs n’ont pas su voir à quel point une promesse du genre pouvait leur nuire. Et faire dérailler toute leur campagne. hen they called this election, few cared and wrenching economic transition and, according to ana- fewer came. What is going on? Not since 1923 lysts, on the cusp of a wrenching recession. That they W have so few Ontarians bothered to vote. For were in the midst of choosing a new government was the first time nearly a majority of citizens said “none of almost invisible until the closing days. Lost pet stories the above” — 47.2 percent voted with their feet. In fact, it often trumped election coverage in small-town dailies. was 22 percent of Ontarians that gave Dalton McGuinty The Liberals were reduced to buying a front-page his two-thirds seat majority. Not that it should have been endorsement from one of the Toronto throwaway com- a surprise. This was the most soporific election in almost muter papers to get attention. as long a time. One would have to reach back to post-war Why voters were so sanguine was, on the surface, a puz- Ontario to find a more somnolent campaign, to the days zle. Consider: Ontario when Leslie Frost wandered the fall fairs spinning homi- ● is rapidly running out of electricity, a crisis for which no lies about strong families and good roads to win three party had a credible answer; majorities in a row. ● has endured two years of the smoggiest, most heavily Perhaps it was the foolishness of a fixed-term election polluted days in every major city; date, a carbuncle on the body of a parliamentary democracy. ● is facing the most punishing round of public sector It had been anticipated so long that even the parties failed to strikes in a decade within months — as teachers, nurses do the usual rhetorical ramp-up and activist mobilization of and public servants line up to test a famously strike-shy a pre-election period. It was a lovely long hot summer. The government; electorate was not thrilled with the government, unimpressed ● has dropped to last in child poverty and post-secondary by its leader, but underwhelmed by the available options. education funding stats; A visiting foreigner could be excused for failing to ● faces a middle-class property tax revolt postponed only see signs that the citizenry were in the midst of a by the promise of unlikely government relief; POLICY OPTIONS 17 NOVEMBER 2007 Robin V. Sears ● has a manufacturing economy in fter the overheated rhetoric and NDP leader Howard Hampton serious decline, with the auto sec- A ferocious partisan assaults of the attacked the current premier, the for- tor suffering its first trade imbal- Peterson/Rae/Harris years, Ontario’s mer premier and long-ago premiers ance in a generation; political leaders appeared determined Peterson and his former boss, Bob Rae. ● watches its economic engine and to bore the electorate into submission. At a time when the province is los- political capital, Toronto, facing a There were occasional eruptions of ing its manufacturing base at the half-billion-dollar deficit next partisan attack, usually tied to evoca- fastest rate since the Great Depression, spring; and on and on. tions of the good old days of blood a stranger listening to Liberal leader The political elite’s slap in the face sport politics. Dalton McGuinty would think he had by Ontario voters should not have In British Columbia visitors are landed in Lotusland. Several times a been surprising. This was an insulting often bewildered by the ritual damna- day, the Premier would recite statistics campaign free of vision or new ideas. tion of the politicians long gone, some- demonstrating record spending on schools, record numbers of The combination of Church of England United Empire Loyalists, hips replaced and record Ulster Orangemen and various Low Church Protestants nearly numbers of cops, nurses, scuppered Confederation over the issue. They yielded teachers and rodent inspec- tors hired. It all had an grudgingly to a typically Canadian subtle and complex “Another Record Cuban constitutional deal at the London Conference of 1866. The issue Sugar Cane Harvest!” quali- faded throughout the 20th century until the government ty about it. decided to extend Catholic school funding to the end of high Their advertising guru admitted that the boredom school. Bill Davis’s decision in 1984 to extend the terms of that was intentional, bragging to original deal contributed to the defeat of his successor the confidants that their strate- following year, and left a time bomb for his successors. gy was to “sleepwalk the voters to another majority.” Each party merely recycled policy times even dead. Dave Barrett, premier planks that had been around for years, three decades ago, and W.A.C. (Wacky) t worked like a treat, and then they in some cases decades. Bennett, dead nearly as long, are still I got an assist from God. The National regularly blamed for current ills by Post cartoonist framed the outcome ow novelty in politics is not all, angry socialists and sulky conservatives. perfectly the morning after: Dalton N and some issues never go away, At their most lustful, good grey McGuinty, hands raised in rapture, but this is a new century with a gener- Ontario politicians are no competition shouting, “Thank you, Jesus!” ation of voters raised on a new set of for the political fireworks of Canada’s The story of religion in schools is stimuli and issues. Voters raised on the left coast, but they are acquiring the as close as the province comes to pas- wide frontiers of personal choice, same “back-to-the-future” weakness. sion in politics. While Ontario has immediate wiki proofs, precisely tai- The sins of the Harris government never risked the civil conflict to which lored products and service delivered were featured in creepy Fox-News-style the “Schools Question” nearly drove instantly by the Net are too savvy to be “reality TV” ads from the Liberal war Manitoba, anti-popery is close to the seduced by a politician offering better room, complete with “arrest photos” surface in Ontario to this day. What transit — 15 years from now. They are of the former premier. (Harris was was more surprising and depressing too suspicious of institutional claims of elected 12 years ago, in another centu- was how close to the surface lay an eas- loyalty by church and employer, let ry.) The Tory campaign used a rolling ily provoked anti-Muslim itch. alone political parties or governments, text ad with a similarly hideous photo The combination of Church of to respond to blather such as “Get of the Premier. Perhaps the ad gurus’ England United Empire Loyalists, Orange” — New Democrats’ peculiar theory is that unflattering photos are Ulster Orangemen and various Low appeal. Progressive Conservative leader more powerful political ammunition Church Protestants nearly scuppered John Tory, despite the Liberal war room than dumb policy? Confederation over the issue. They brats’ attempt to tag him as “Richie Not to be outdone, newspaper pun- yielded grudgingly to a typically Rich” is the leader with the closest per- dits regularly blamed Bill Davis for John Canadian subtle and complex consti- sonal engagement with youth causes Tory’s faith-based schools nightmare. tutional deal at the London and exposure to the bitterness of urban (Davis was elected when the current pre- Conference of 1866. The issue faded poverty. He had an opportunity to turn mier was an unremarkable student at throughout the 20th century until the that connection into a powerful politi- Ottawa’s St. Patrick Catholic High government decided to extend cal message and didn’t. School, and retired 22 years ago in 1985.) Catholic school funding to the end of 18 OPTIONS POLITIQUES NOVEMBRE 2007 Robin V. Sears high school. Bill Davis’s decision in strongly that he could not back down Ontario, and suggesting that Ontario 1984 to extend the terms of that origi- on his commitment, as it was central would suffer the same fate as “London nal deal contributed to the defeat of to his vision of inclusiveness, and and Paris” if the policy were adopted. In his successor the following year, and because he had given his word to the a clear appeal to Islamophobia they suc- left a time bomb for his successors.