Who Will Be Ontario's Next Premier?

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The Ontario horse racing industry may have breathed a collective sigh of relief when Premier Dalton McGuinty announced his resignation last Monday, but reports indicate that another politician who shares no love for horse racing is "giving careful thought to the idea of running for the leadership of the Ontario Liberals."

CBC News has reported that Ontario's deputy premier and finance minister Dwight Duncan is "mulling it over" whether to run for the provincial Liberal leadership bid, but says "it's a very difficult choice."

The MPP for the riding of Windsor–Tecumseh also voiced his support to McGuinty for proroguing the legislature saying "it was absolutely the right thing to do." Duncan stated that a "time out" was necessary to prevent the minority Liberal government from falling.

"There's a very real possibility that the opposition could defeat the government while the governing party is in the midst of a leadership and might be inclined to do that," said Duncan.

Since the announcement to end the OLG Slots-At-Racetracks program was made this past spring, Duncan has refuted the number of jobs existing within the industry and continues to recite the Liberal rhetoric stating he supports education and health care over horse racing while failing to provide the numbers showing how the decision to end the $1.1 billion-generating program, which contributes $2 billion to $2.5 billion in gross expenditures to Ontario’s economy, is financially beneficial to the province.

(With files from CBC News)

Comments

With Duncan's announcement that he is retiring from provincial politics, Chris Bentley might be encouraged to do likewise in order to save his neck from the chopping block. It sure will be nice to not see McGuinty's and Duncan's smug, smarmy smiles again as they lie through their teeth.

Duncan has today announced that he will not run for the leadership and will not run in the next election at all.

And another deserts the sinking ship, as Duncan has just announced at Queen's Park, that he will not be running for the Leader of the Liberal Party!. When asked by one of the media if he had another job he was going to, Duncan joked that he thought he might take over behind the bench of the Detroit Tigers. Of course he is not going to divulge any deal he might already have in place with one of the benefactors of the end of the SAR program. I would have to assume that whatever the job or wherever he does go, no-one would be stupid enough to let him have anything to do with the finances of that company....... Ah.... A Wal-Mart Greeter perhaps!

Signed...hopefully something is done and the legislative assembly is put back into action.

You have to wonder if the Liberal's aren't planning to lose the next election- probably thought 2011 would be then end of this run for them, so they wouldn't have to be accountable. They have done so much to discredit themselves, it seems like they are in a self- destruct mode. Putting in Duncan or Bentley is a guaranteed loss.

One might think that a prerequisite to becoming a finance minister is that the choosen one could understand mathamatics,at least simple addition & subtraction.( 1.1 billion + 2.5 billion + 265 million in taxes) === 385 billion dollars that the SAR program contributes to Ontario's economy. That includes millions for education and health care. Mr Duncan states that by destroying our industry he hopes to generate 3.1 billion in revenue. By my figures he is alresdy down 3/4 of a billion dollars before he even starts and now, even if we can save 6 or 7 tracks,there will be at least 30 thousands full or partime jobs lost.How many extra millions will it cost the tax payers for the increase in welfare payments? Does Mr Duncan really think that he can run the entire Province of Ontario with these skills? You be the judge. LISA MaCLEOD for PREMIER!!!!!

Fine, if the little man wants to run for leadership, the Ont Liberals haven't got a hope in hell of ever gaining any popularity back. It will spell the end of them.

God help us all if he chooses to run for the leadership position. He really has no idea what's good for the province. I think the liberals are done for, regardless of whether they prorogued parliament or not. They have just extended their elimination date is all.

Once an election is called this is one guy that will never see the inside of Queens Park again. Too many scandals, massive deficit, paying income tax refunds in install ments, gross missmanagement of public funds. Dwight Duncan should retire, similar to his cohort Dalton McGinty. Just thinking out loud. Bruce T. Winning.

Duncan winning the Liberal leadership would be the death of the liberals, let's all get behind his campaign.
The sooner we get rid of this bunch the better for horse racing, go Duncan go!

If the Liberal Party chooses him as their leader than they are more stupid than I thought. This man is just as guilty as McGunty for,not just the problems in the horse racing industry, but all the other problems in this province. He signed the cheques that created the deficit and scandleuos settlements.

I can't even imagine why any Liberal would want the job of premier right now. The chances of the Liberals getting back into power are pretty slim so does it really matter what lamb they send to slaughter? There's even rumour of Bentley running for leader. Do they just pick the worst candidates that they have and let them go at each other to be the top dog of this disgusting party?

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