Deja Blue

I've been having this recurring nightmare lately. The year is 1995, and a square-jawed former golf club pro and his battalion of like-minded scoundrels is turning Ontario into the land where the dreams of the working and lower classes go to die. A recessionary time it is; and the Premier with the iron fist is smashing every monument of perceived failure inherited from the previous government. Lousy pinkos, that bunch were. ;)

In short order, Iron Mike, and his crew of drop-outs, shysters, slimy used car salesmen, and assorted other narcissists undo everything they see as a threat to their quest to bring "common sense" to the masses. Ontario Hydro is privatized, a new toll highway is created in one of the most heavily-travelled corridors in the province, public sector employees who thought they had it rough when they were forced to take "Rae Days" find themselves in the unemployment line, and Ontario's teachers begin to feel the wrath of a former member of one of their own unions.

Scary times, they were, and I, as a young political studies major, felt a horrible, gut-wrenching sense of emptiness. How could everything I believed in be attacked by a party with a huge mandate from Ontario voters? Mike Harris put his agenda out there for all to see; and many Ontario voters bought it, hook, line, and sinker.

I can honestly say that the back-to-back majority governments of the Mike Harris era did more to push me away from a career in politics than any one person or party could every hope to accomplish before, or since. They left me cold, and disillusioned.

Alas, my recent nightmare isn't a dream at all. Nope, the Mike Harris era is back. It's everywhere I look in Canadian political circles right now. Nowhere is their influence more felt than right in their backyard. The current P.C. leadership race in Ontario has drawn not only Harrisite neo-cons like Tim Hudak into the ring, but the man himself. Yep, Iron Mike is somewhat quietly working in Tim Hudak's corner, as the latter attempts to remold the party in the same image it wore so successfully in the 1990's. And what a perfect time to do it: another recession, a Liberal government in Toronto that is getting grilled regularly for its recent missteps, and best of all, a Conservative government in Ottawa that has made no secret of its desire to turn conservatism into the ruling dogma of Canada's future. Harper and company would absolutely love a Harris-clone Ontario government.

In fact... they already do love one. It's already here. Dalton McGuinty, and his current crop of Liberal-in-name-only jellyfish are currently quivering like the mass of spineless organisms they are on the beach, while Harper et al deliver a monsoon of Tory measures to the doorstep of their suddenly-ramshackle beach house; a harmonized sales tax, meaningless infrastructure money to smooth the relationship, and a completely substance-free few extra pennies of E.I. equalization for Ontario.

And the Libs are buying in. They see themselves on thin ice, and in a recession, they've decided to hedge their bets and put on the Tory robes; try 'em on, see how they fit. Most importantly, see how the public likes the way they look in them.

The unveiling of the new School Information Finder, though, takes the cake. If ever there was a piece of dirty, hurtful, damaging, discriminatory, shameful garbage disguised as liberal policy, this is it. Take a gander there. You can find out all sorts of neat things about schools in your neighbourhood. If you want to avoid placing your children into a school with a high rate of special needs students; or students from low income families; or you want your kids to go where the highest proportion of offspring of university-educated parents are found, this site can help you find that particular institution.

An organization known as Parents for Education has sent a formal open letter to the Premier, and Education Minister admonishing them for including such data on this site, and I for one could not agree with them more. There is absolutely NO excuse, reason, logical rationale, or acceptable explanation for why anybody has the right to choose a school for their child(ren) based on discriminatory, negative, and suggestive socio-economic data. If you want to know about a particular school's performance in provincially-mandated academic testing, that is a fair request; however, to take that a step further and look at material that attempts to make every possible stereotype, from racial assumptions, to suggestions concerning special needs students, is disgusting.

I thought it was 2009, and we had a Liberal government in Ontario. I didn't realize we had returned to the knuckle-dragging of the mid-90's. Lately, though, the proof is in the pudding... and the pudding is coloured an unmistakeable Tory blue.