These days, most Ontarians are watching every dollar they spend and saving their pennies for a rainy day. Most Ontarians that is, except for Dalton McGuinty. 

Mr. McGuinty has a spending problem. Since coming to office in 2003, his government has raked in unprecedented revenue from taxes and federal transfers – yet somehow, he’s managed to squander it all.

Instead, our once mighty province is facing a record deficit, we’re near or at the bottom of every economic list and as of April 1, Ontario will officially become a ‘have-not’ province for the first time since Confederation.

In the last six years, we’ve seen Ontario’s renowned competitive advantage squandered by this high-taxing, big-spending Premier. Families are struggling, with many losing their jobs and fighting to pay the bills and get by each month while far too many home-grown businesses are being forced to close up shop. That’s the difference. Dalton McGuinty’s irresponsible spending practices are hurting us all. He has increased total program spending unsustainably, a whopping $28.3 billion or 48 per cent since coming to office in 2003.

At first glance, this might not seem so alarming.

Take a closer look though and you’ll see that until this year, program spending grew at an average annual rate of eight per cent. Under Dalton McGuinty’s watch program spending grew at four times the average rate of GDP growth over the same period and over two times the average rate of inflation and population growth combined.

In 2008 for example, program spending grew by 10.5 per cent, nearly five times the combined rate of inflation and 105 times real GDP growth of 0.1 per cent. No wonder Ontario is so deep in the hole.

Even if the McGuinty Liberals had increased government spending at a still generous rate of inflation plus population growth, Ontario would have had a $17 billion cushion to reduce taxes or invest in infrastructure during these tough economic times. Instead, Ontarians are left facing the prospect of a deficit worse than any other we’ve seen before. To go from surplus to deficit all in a matter of weeks is nothing short of an extraordinary failure of leadership on Dalton McGuinty’s part.

While it’s easy as the Opposition to criticize, our Party has done much more than that. Over the course of the last year, we’ve put forward a number of sensible, relatively simple ideas and offered to work with the McGuinty Liberals on numerous occasions. Mr. McGuinty chose time and again to ignore our thoughtful ideas to create jobs, spur investment and show restraint in these tough times. But just good enough is no longer good enough – Ontario needs a new approach. An approach that says ‘yes’ to entrepreneurs, that respects our farmers, business leaders and municipalities, big and small.

An approach that respects hard-earned taxpayer dollars and demonstrates government understanding of the challenges Ontarians are facing in their everyday lives. We need a government that’s willing to take swift, practical steps to get the fundamentals right. Most importantly, we need a government that realizes Mr. McGuinty’s out-of-control spending habits won’t help Ontario once again resume its rightful position as the economic leader of Canada.