An Open Letter to Bill Walker, M.P.P.
or
Why I No Longer Believe You, Bill Walker, and Your Progressive Conservatives

I’m writing this letter to you, Bill Walker, because I’m confused. You say that everything you and your party are doing on our behalf is within the mandate you received from us — at least the forty percent of us that voted for your party — last election. You say that the cuts you have been forced to make are in our best interest for the future. They are painful: painful, but necessary for the good of the province. And so you cut and cut: a million here, a couple of million there.

The platform your Progressive Conservatives ran on was somewhat vague on details. I’ve read (and agreed with) some of the five ‘clear priorities’ promised on your webpage. Of these, it’s the fourth one I think you’ll agree you and your party like best. It’s the easiest to use as you reshape the province because it’s so broad. In case you don’t recall it, I’ll quote:

“Order a line-by-line audit of government spending to bring an end to the culture of waste and mismanagement in government.”

The question that comes to my mind, Bill, is: how (as you and your government are doing your ‘line-by-line audit’) could you miss a one and a half billion dollar savings? According to a Global News (June 6, 2018 — you can Google it, Bill, if you don’t believe me) article, that is how much we could save if we went to one public education system. From the same article, a much under-reported poll noted 56% of Ontarians wanted to go to one public system. To put that in perspective, Bill, that’s more than a whole point above your victory in Bruce-Grey Owen Sound, and 16 points above your party’s.

So here we have a course of action that would save the taxpayer a significant amount of money and is popular with the majority of Ontarians. Yet you, Bill and company, refuse to even consider the possibility. So you’ll excuse me if I don’t believe you when you say you’re cutting funding — in health care, education, conservation, or whatever programme you (and your party) want to see eliminated — because of a vague promise made to save money. After all, if you’re willing to have us continue to overspend in education by a billion and a half dollars a year, saving money is not your priority … despite what you would have us believe.

Jake Bates,
Owen Sound, Ontario

source: letter