05) ONTARIO VOTERS WANT NEW ELECTION

     A survey conducted for the Ontario Federation of Labour has found voters from every riding in the province are solidly opposed to the unfairness of McGuinty's March 27 budget, and ready to go back to the polls to demand fair taxation.

     "This poll bears out what I've been hearing right across political spectrum: that people are jaded, tired and disappointed with the McGuinty Liberals," said OFL President Sid Ryan. "People are appalled by the gross unfairness of a budget that exclusively targets working families, children, seniors and people on welfare and disability pensions while corporations get a free ride."

     An interactive voice response telephone poll of 843 people across the province, conducted by Public Polling Inc. on March 29, found that over two thirds of respondents - 68 percent - would like to see corporations pay their fair share to help reduce the provincial deficit, with 19 percent opposed and 13 percent uncertain. Almost as strongly, 58 percent of Ontarians supported returning corporate tax rates to 14 percent and 74 percent said they support raising taxes for individuals earning over $250,000 a year. But perhaps most concerning to the McGuinty Liberals, and most telling for opposition parties, is the fact that 58 percent of Ontarians support taking the issue of fair taxation to a provincial election.

     "This is troubling news for the McGuinty Liberals because they have misjudged public opinion and Ontarian's appetite for corporate tax cuts, but it is even more worrisome for Tim Hudak because the Conservatives have been campaigning on making taxation even more unequal. If an election were called tomorrow, the party that with the most to gain is Andrea Horwath and the NDP," said Ryan.

     The survey bolsters the OFL's campaign against the devastating recommendations for deep cuts to jobs and public services that were released in the report of the Drummond Commission in mid‑February. The next major step in the campaign will be a mass Day of Action at Queen's Park on April 21.

     At a time when Ontarians are in desperate need of economic recovery, warns the OFL, "the McGuinty government is planning cuts that will jeopardize every aspect of society: from health care to child care to pensions.

     No public service is safe. However, in his reckless plan to balance Ontario's books by putting more people out of work and destroying the social safety net, McGuinty refuses to roll‑back corporate tax cuts that are starving the province of billions of dollars."

     The President's Report to the April 2 OFL Executive Meeting says the campaign "is designed to be a multi‑year, multi‑union effort to galvanize public opposition to public spending cuts by crafting a coordinated message to expose the government's so‑called austerity measures as a threat to job growth and economic recovery."

     The "Ontario Day of Action Against Cuts" has already received nearly 60 endorsements to date from labour and community groups all over the province. Supporters of the groups "will mobilize at Queen's Park to send a strong message to Premier McGuinty that he cannot cut his way to economic prosperity and it is time for banks and corporations to pay their fair share."

     Affiliates are being asked to mobilize their members to fill buses to Toronto for the 3:00 pm rally. For more information, visit www.ofl.ca.

(The above article is from the April 16-30, 2012, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)