Who Will Be Ontario's Next Premier?

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Published: October 21, 2012 06:55 pm EDT

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)

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