Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Fiberals fib again

McGuinty barred PC staff from his news conferences when he was opposition leader

Here’s the whopper du jour from Premier Pinocchio’s war room:

He [Liberal campaign spokesman Ben Chin] said the political parties have had an agreement for at least a decade to allow volunteers from the opposing parties to trail their rival leaders, documenting their speeches and public appearances.
--Ottawa Citizen, today

Actually, when McGuinty was opposition leader, he barred PC staffers from news conferences and other events he held in Liberal premises at Queen’s Park, such as his office. I believe the policy started after the 1999 election, went on for several years and was known to the Queen’s Park press gallery. I know because I worked for the PC caucus at the time. I believe it was resolved when the Premier’s Office was forced to bar the Liberals in retaliation. Of course, the Liberals pretended that we were the ones who initiated the whole drama.

I’m guessing McGuinty’s greyer henchpeople didn’t inform the guileless Ben Chin about this little bit of history. You have to feel for a man who’s being sent out to lie to the media.

Adding to the fun of this campaign are Dalton McGuinty’s many “vintage” whoppers – or should that be “Whoppers Classic” – i.e., the promises he made last time and hasn’t kept. The Ontario PCs are issuing regular releases highlighting various broken promises from McGuinty’s last election outing. Here’s today’s:

September 5, 2003: Dalton McGuinty makes another promise to the people of Ontario

“Ontario Liberals will introduce a hard cap of 20 students per class, in every classroom in the province during the critical first five years of a child's education.”

As of today, 35% of classrooms covered by Dalton McGuinty's promise have more than twenty-students in them.

You can receive news releases directly to your e-mail by signing up for Canada Newswire’s “Portfolio e-mail” at www.newswire.ca and subscribing to “John Tory 2007 Campaign” (you can also sign up for the other campaigns’ releases).

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