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Premier Dalton McGuinty has announced that he will resign as premier as soon as the party picks a new leader. Mr. McGuinty surprised the province with his dinner-time announcement, a fitting finale for a man renowned as a cagey political operator. Sixteen years into his stewardship of the party, and after nine years of running Canada’s largest province, it seems necessary in retrospect that McGuinty should go. Besieged by scandal and unable to muster enough support in the house to push through his austerity budget, it was the only way out. McGuinty prorogued the Legislature, suspending everything, and bought time for his party to get a new leader and make a new plan. In the scrum following his address to Caucus, McGuinty refused to rule out the possibility he might try for leadership of the federal Liberals. The most he would say is that he has no plans. Many will say “”Premier Dad” was paternalistic and full of populist blarney. But his frequently corny reasoning seemed to work for him. His announcement of the creation of Family Day was accompanied by a syrupy sermon on his regret that he had not spent more time with his father. In recent years, the financial scandals struck at the heart of public confidence. Desperate to hold power in last year’s election, McGuinty executed the crass decision to cancel the half finished gas fuelled electric generating plants at Oakville and Mississauga. The National Post tonight has called this naked political fix “the mistake that he couldn’t awww shucks away”. No doubt the premier knew he could not hope to lead the party back to majority government. For conservatives, Mr. McGuinty never looked better than when he began, late in his term, to tackle the province’s enormous debt. Now that thankless task will fall to a new leader and the province can only hope that he or she has the will to do the right thing for Ontario. South Bayview Bulldog
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