Well, the Tories continue to poke the bear...

Now, one might not have expected Flaherty to take my advice and STOP POKING THE BEAR, but this is getting ridiculous. Flaherty might as well be walking around with a sign hung around his neck saying "I'm going after John Tory's job, and I don't care who I have to hurt, or how I have to abuse my position as a Federal Minister to do it".

I'll tell the Harper Tories one more time. We may have put up with being the patsy of Confederation for a long time, (because we in Ontario consider ourselves passionate Canadians first, and "Ontarians" a distant second) but if you insist on rubbing our noses in it (and for blatantly partisan reasons to boot) I'm not sure how much longer we'll take it. I mean, think about why other jurisdictions in Canada can afford lower corporate tax rates while maintaining generally higher levels in per capita spending. In Alberta, the answer is two words: oil and gas. Everywhere else it's a one word answer: EQUALIZATION. Everybody else in Canada gets high spending and low taxes because ALBERTA AND ONTARIO PAY FOR IT. Now, Alberta doesn't mind right now, 'cause they're sitting pretty with oil revenues, and have a government in Ottawa at their beck and call (plus, they remember when they used to RECEIVE equalization, so I'm sure they're happy to return the favour). Ontario on the other hand is the only province in the nation that's never received equalization payments from the rest of the country. NEVER. All we ever do is PAY.

Historically, we've always been more than pleased to do so. The good of the many over the good of the few and all that (though it does appear as though Ontario is counted as "the few" when it's time to pay, and "the many" when it's time to receive) but even our generosity only stretches so far. The people of Ontario have always been willing to be underrepresented in Parliament while shouldering more than their share of the costs of our country's well being. But I'll tell you one thing.

The Feds had best stop poking the bear. That play never ends well for the poker.

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