In their own words: Re-elected Wynne Liberals will hike taxes and pile onto debt
Wynne Liberal MPP on Tripling the Debt: “I would do it again and I would do it proudly.”
Once again, Mississauga-Streetsville Liberal MPP Bob Delaney found himself putting his foot in his mouth this past weekend. When asked by the Mississauga News about his government’s disastrous record on debt, Delaney had this to say:
“We have tripled (the debt) and we’re proud of it, because we can afford it. It’s the responsible thing to do. It’s the correct thing to do, it’s what people have asked us to do and I would do it again and I would do it proudly.”
“In no way is tripling our debt the ‘responsible’ thing to do,” said Ontario PC Finance Critic Vic Fedeli. “Ontario has the highest debt of any province or state in the world. This is crowding out the services we all depend on – like health care and education – and putting an unfair burden on our children and grandchildren.”
“One day the Liberals are talking about balancing the budget, and the next they’re plunging our province into a $6.7 billion deficit. It’s clear they will do or say anything to cling to power,” added Fedeli.
This morning, Bob Delaney went on AM640 and doubled down on his statements, saying:
- “The question is the only left palatable option than borrowing – I think it was around $150 billion over the ten years – would have been not borrowing it. That would have been completely irresponsible.”
- “We’re one of the better actors in the world [on debt].”
- Q: “Am I hearing you correctly in suggesting that you are proud?” A: “Yeah, we got something for the money…”
- “…we’re getting you back to balance in six years, and this is important, this says to the people who borrow with the province for ten long years you’re now first in line, and I am proud of that, and I will go to the doors with that.”
Not only did Delaney call tripling the debt the “responsible thing to do,” he has also advocated for higher taxes on hard-working families. In a blog posted to his website on August 25th, 2017, Delaney called on the federal government to raise the GST by 1 per cent, writing “the feds should restore one percentage point of the GST, removed during the previous decade, raising it to six percent…”
“If the Liberals win the next election, they are going to hike our taxes even higher and continue to pile onto our debt,” concluded Fedeli. “While we can’t trust Kathleen Wynne to tell us the truth before the election, it seems that backbenchers like Bob Delaney have loose enough lips to be honest about Liberal plans.”