He is a regular guest on the most listened-to sports talk presentation on Canadian airwaves. He is one of the most respected sports journalists in the nation. He's an award winning racing writer. Dave Perkins is also one of many people that are fed up with the Ontario Liberals' reckless and irresponsible treatment of the provincial horse-racing industry, and he has now put his platform to work
.
In his most recent column in the Toronto Star, Perkins has teed-off on Premier Dalton McGuinty's Liberal Government, who, along with the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, utilized a well-strategized media conference this week to sing the apparent praises of its new strategy for Ontario gaming. The news conference did everything but trumpet the fact that the Ontario Liberals and the OLG are decimating their most successful venture, the highly-successful slots-at-racetracks program, which will translate to 60,000 jobs lost in the province and the eradication of over $2-billion in annual economic impact on Ontario.
Pro-racing numbers are aplenty when you get down to the crunching, and Perkins utilized just a mere some when he got behind his computer and essentially read the Ontario Liberals their pedigree.
Perkins wrote, "It used to be stated here, and seconded elsewhere, that horse racing was its own worst enemy. For sure, that no longer is the case. In a monumentally misguided shuck, our elected wizards at Queen’s Park have decided to abandon a lucrative source of revenue churned by a historic industry employing some 60,000 Ontarians."
He went on to say, "The Liberals also unleashed dishonest attack ads that speak of 'secret subsidies' to rich guys, money that could be going instead to health care or your kiddies’ kindergartens. It is complete swill."
Reiterating what the racing-industry has publicly been saying for six weeks now, Perkins stated, "Ontario now wishes to renege on a 1998 revenue-sharing agreement for its slot machines, one that has dropped more than $15-billion into the public coffers over 13 years, with $3.4-billion going to racing people." Perkins added that the $15-billion the Ontario Government essentially had gift-wrapped for them, "arrived without benefit of an e-health or ORNGE-type scandal, by the way."
"The Liberals call that $15 billion good business," he wrote. "The $3.4 billion it now calls a 'subsidy.'”
Perkins opted to end his piece with a strong statement, saying in part that racing has always had image issues, but that he would swear to the fact that, "Pound for pound, there is more honour and honesty on any backstretch than there is these days at Queen’s Park."
(With files from the Toronto Star)
Thank you so very very much
Thank you so very very much Dave for your candor on our situation. Hopefully with the support of your newspaper, we can get the truth out to as many as possible. We are not asking for sympathy, simply put we are asking for the facts, not fabrications made to support this Government's position, to be made available to the public. Educating the Ontario Voters to this Government's method of doing business is all we ask. They should not be at all surprised with the BS being fed to them by Duncan and McGuinty, after all it falls in line with the other scandals of this government, e.g, ORNGE; E-HEALTH, and God knows how many others, not yet uncovered. We do indeed need an HONEST INVESTIGATION into this Government and then clean house! Let's hope when the time comes, the Opposition MPPs, and some of the Liberal MPPs who have been telling all of us, they are behind us 100% have the intestinal fortitude to vote their conscience, and prove they are not just telling us what we want to hear!
Thanks Dave. You've always
Thanks Dave. You've always been good to us. ;-)
The article Dave Perkins
The article Dave Perkins wrote in the Star about the Liberals and OLG was spot on. It was very informative and easy to understand, especially for the city people who have no sympathy for the agricultural community. Way to go Mr. Perkins! It was like listening to Rex Murphy rant ... I loved it! Thank you for attempting to educate the people whose opinions are based on lies and deceit by the government.
I would like to thank you
I would like to thank you Mr.Perkins for your efforts and for once again calling BS onthe Liberals. This is not over by any means, in fact we are just getting started and to know that our industry has the support of so many influential members of Ontario's media lets one feel secure that the truth will be told and that the Liberals via the OLG will not be able to continue on their chosen path.
Darryl MacArthur
I wonder if Mr.Perkins would
I wonder if Mr.Perkins would put this debacle ahead of the J.P. Richardi hiring in Paul Godfrey's "hall of shame". The man who set the Blue Jays back a decade now gets to do worse to horse racing.
Mr. Perkins has it right...
Mr. Perkins has it right... now is the time for the opposition to act and bring down this MINORITY government on this issue alone...
I know Dave Perkins and he
I know Dave Perkins and he has been given the job every Christmas of being in charge of the Santa Claus Fund (Proudfoot Division.)(Toronto Star.)
He is directly responsible for the kids in Toronto who are in low income homes getting presents from Santa that they would never see otherwise.
Mr. Perkins depends on donations from Ontario.
The Liberals depend on their donations from ORNGE and ehealth.
Dave Perkins is 110% honest. Yet he goes against the Liberals.
What does that tell you???