Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty did his best to keep the faith-based school issue alive on Tuesday morning as he described the controversial health-care tax as a necessary burden for taxpayers.
The focus on his chief rival came as Mr. McGuinty lashed out at Conservative Leader John Tory's decision to modify his position on the topic.
Mr. McGuinty said the Tory plan to hold a free vote on the issue lacked courage and would plunge Ontario into three years of divisive debate.
“I think Mr. Tory continues to demonstrate bad judgment,” Mr. McGuinty told reporters at the end of a tour of a hospital in Goderich, Ont. “He's demonstrated bad judgment in the past. He continues to show bad judgment.”
With just over a week to the Oct. 10 poll, Mr. McGuinty spent Tuesday morning touting his government's health-care record during a visit to the Maitland Valley Medical Centre in Goderich, Ont., on the shores of Lake Huron.
But that record is thanks largely to the fact Ontario taxpayers earning more than $20,000 a year have ponied up the premium, which costs up to $900 a year and generates $2.6-billion annually for the province's health coffers, he added.
“The reasons again that we've got all those nurses, all those doctors, that we're building hospitals, is because (Ontario taxpayers) are making sacrifices,” Mr. McGuinty said.
Mr. McGuinty also spent time defending his government's decision to delist chiropractic services, physiotherapy and eye exams following the 2003 election. The province has instead focused its spending on reducing wait times for services such as cardiac surgery and cancer wait lists, he said.
“We've made some difficult choices, and we stand by those choices,” he said.
New Democrat Leader Howard Hampton has pledged to restore funding for the delisted services if voters choose a NDP government on Oct. 10.
But it was Mr. Tory's statement on Monday that, if elected, he would hold a free vote on religious school funding that gained specific attention from Mr. McGuinty on Tuesday.
Monday's announcement marked a significant change of heart by Mr. Tory who had been dogged by the issue since the start of the campaign.
Mr. McGuinty's sharp comments on Tuesday morning marked a contrast from the previous day, when he had little to say about Mr. Tory's decision and left most of the commentary to other Liberals.
But this morning after touring the health centre he told reporters he wanted to make a statement on Mr. Tory's announcement.
“Now what he is proposing to do, instead of dealing with this up front … and in a transparent way, which is perfectly accountable, he's now saying that he wants to plunge this province into three years of disruption and distraction,” Mr. McGuinty said.
“You've got to know what you are doing when you bring this kind of thing to the fore. You've got to think it through. I thought it through and set it aside. He didn't think it through and then he embraced it. Now he's saying he's kind of half in and he's half out.”
During his tour of the Maitland Valley Medical Centre, Mr. McGuinty promised to create more “family health teams” which involve doctors, nurses and other health care workers caring for a group of patients. Mr. McGuinty said 150 teams have been created so far and 50 more are planned. The new teams have allowed 150,000 people who couldn't find a family doctor to receive health care, he said.
The $3-million medical centre opened two years ago and about half the construction costs were covered by private contributions. Mr. McGuinty said the private sector has a role to play in health care when it comes to building hospitals. He said that is no different than private builders constructing museums or schools. But he said the services provided by hospitals must still be publicly financed.
Dr. Samuel Appavoo, who runs the health teams at the hospital, said around 1,500 people have been taken off the waiting list for a family doctor.
