How Wynne is stealing from Harper's playbook

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is not shy about publicly attacking Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Privately, however, she and her team are tearing page after page from his strategy book, picking up tips on how to govern with a majority government.

First – the omnibus bill. The Harper Conservative government has repeatedly used this tactic of stuffing everything but the kitchen sink into a big fat budget bill as a way of taking the focus off controversial measures and getting it all through at once. Ms. Wynne is doing the same with her big budget bill, which includes the partial sale of Hydro One. NDP Leader Andrea Horwath is on to her: “Will the Premier take Hydro One out of her Stephen Harper-style omnibus budget [bill] and give opportunities for groups like NOMA, the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association, ... to have their say in some kind of public process?” she asked this week. “It’s the least they deserve.”

Second, the Wynne government has limited debate on the bill – a tactic the Harper government often uses to avoid prolonging anything controversial, and because they have a majority and they can.

Third, the Wynne government is reducing the rigour the Auditor-General can apply to taxpayer-funded government ads, prompting the auditor, Bonnie Lysyk, to say the result will be free political advertising for the government. Ottawa has no rules governing federal use of taxpayer dollars for advertising – and the opposition has complained that it is too partisan. The change in Ontario has set up a confrontation between Ms. Lysyk, an independent officer of the legislature, and the government. Where have we seen this before? An attack on a parliamentary officer is nothing new for the federal Tories, who went after the parliamentary budget officer, for example, and who have also taken on the Supreme Court of Canada’s chief justice.

When opposition parties run out of probing questions, count on them to call for a minister’s resignation. It’s a lazy – and overused – strategy. It happened twice on Wednesday during Question Period at Queen’s Park, when two Progressive Conservative MPPs, full of indignation, called on the government to fire not one, but two ministers – Education Minister Liz Sandals and Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli. Here’s PC education critic Garfield Dunlop on the high school teachers’ strike: “Premier, will you fire this Education Minister and put someone competent in there who can get the job done and end the anxiety for Ontario’s parents and students?” He was followed by Jim Wilson, who was outraged by billing errors at Hydro One: “No one seems to ever take responsibility in your government. No one at Hydro One has been dismissed. I ask you again today: At least dismiss the minister.” The ministers were not fired.

The new Ontario PC leader is under attack from a former House of Commons colleague. NDP MP Malcolm Allen is asking the Board of Internal Economy, the secretive all-party House of Commons committee on internal matters such as administration and salaries, to investigate the absences of Mr. Brown, the former Barrie Conservative MP, during his provincial leadership campaign. The New Democrat says Mr. Brown did not take a leave without pay, using taxpayers’ dollars to campaign from September, 2014, to May, 2015. If wrongdoing is found, he could be forced to pay back the part of his salary he earned while campaigning. Mr. Brown won the leadership – and just recently resigned his Commons seat. Mr. Allen is accusing Mr. Brown of missing 70 per cent of the votes – or 100 of 131 – during his campaign. “He neglected his parliamentary work and missed many votes in the House,” Mr. Allen wrote in a letter to Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer, chair of the board. “In fact, Brown’s presence in the House of Commons was increasingly rare after the official start of the provincial leadership race.” Mr. Allen documents – with dates corresponding to the votes – where Mr. Brown was at the time. For example, “Nov. 18: Votes: 275” and then a note that Mr. Brown was in Smith Falls meeting local PCs. Mr. Brown did not comment.

The 35-year old PC MPP from Kitchener-Conestoga and transportation critic has been using the Uber app on his BlackBerry for a few years – he has most of his caucus hooked up on it, too. He even used it in Taiwan with great success. On Thursday, he tabled a motion calling on the Liberal government to bring in a regulatory framework so that ride-sharing companies such as Uber can operate on a level playing field across the province. Although 22 U.S. states have legislation on ride-sharing, nothing is regulating the service here. Mr. Harris’s motion says the government should evolve with the times and “support innovation, competition and consumer choice through the immediate development of public policies to ensure both public safety and better service for consumers. …”

But Uber is under attack in the courts and it is fighting an injunction that would ban it from Toronto. “By developing ride-sharing legislation, we can set the standard on how transportation networks can operate across Ontario while supporting what consumers want and need, and that includes public safety,” Mr. Harris says. Instead of a patchwork of rules in municipalities, or even bans, Mr. Harris says legislation could set a baseline to allow the transportation network companies to exist. He noted that there were 500,000 Uber rides in Toronto in February.

Mr. Fishbein is the chair of the Ontario Labour Relations Board. This week, he did what the Ontario government has not been able to do for six weeks – get striking high school teachers back into the classroom. The Harvard-educated veteran lawyer, who was appointed chair in 2011, is an expert on education disputes. In his 52-page decision, he ruled the strikes in three boards – Durham, Rainbow and Peel – were illegal, forcing teachers back into classrooms immediately.