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•Th e IFP• H alton H ills, Thursday, M arch 13, 2014 7 GEORGETOWN'S Best Kept Secret! 46 Armstrong Ave www.MiskasWoodProducts.com Casings Baseboards Crown Mouldings 416 - 220 - 2741 • Truck Accessories • Upholstery • Heavy Equipment Glass •Window Tinting 354 Guelph Street, Georgetown 905-873-1655 We handle all insurance work. • your window & door professionals • 341 Guelph St., Unit 3 Georgetown 905.873.0236 www.buy-wise.ca info@buy-wise.ca • awarded readers choice 22 times • Visit our showroom COMMENT Is an Ontario election in the cards this spring? In just a few short weeks, there is a strong possibility that Ontario may be in the throes of a provincial gen- eral election. It is a plausible scenario. Here's how it might unfold: Sometime later this month, Kathleen Wyn- ne's Minister of Finance, Charles Sousa, would announce the date when he plans to pres- ent his 2014-15 budget speech. He would likely say he plans to present his budget to the Leg- islature sometime in April. After the budget is tabled, a debate on the budget motion would then be initiated, and a vote on the motion would follow a few days later. If this budget motion were to be defeated, it would signal decisively that the Liberal government had lost the confidence of the House. Tradition would then compel the premier to ask the Lieutenant Gov- ernor to dissolve the Provincial Par- liament, and a general election cam- paign would be on. Ontarians might vote for a new government in late May or even early June. However, another plausible sce- nario might transpire, whereby the government survives for now, and no election would take place this spring. Here's how this alternative scenar- io might transpire: The premier, seeking to avoid an election she fears she would lose, would again enter into public and private negotiations with the NDP leader. The NDP would offer a wish list of ideas they would want in- cluded in the budget. The Liberals might choose to embrace those NDP proposals, and commit to including them in the budget. The new spending the NDP re- quested under this scenario would be paid for with borrowed money. The NDP, having had their requests granted by the Liberals, would promise to al- low the budget motion to pass, either by voting for it or abstaining on it. The vote on the bud- get motion would take place sometime in April or May, and if it were to pass with NDP support, the election would be put on hold. There are other pos- sible scenarios that might unfold in the coming weeks, and any number of things could happen. No one has a crystal ball, and only time will tell. In spite of all this, one thing is certain: our Ontario PC Caucus has consistently opposed the Liberal gov- ernment budget motions, going back over the past ten years. We have voted against the Liberal budget motions because we do not have confidence in the current Liber- al government. We have not support- ed their tax increases, out of control overall spending, excessive red tape, and their policy of doubling of the provincial debt. We have urged them to adopt our jobs plan, since they ap- pear to have no effective jobs plan of their own. It is our responsibility as an Oppo- sition party to hold the government accountable, and prepare to form the next government, if we are entrusted with the support of Ontario voters. -- Ted Arnott is the MPP for Wellington-Halton Hills TED ARNOTT The way we were Up until the warm-up earlier this week, Main Street in Georgetown did not look much dif- ferent than it did in the winter of 1910. Photo courtesy of Esquesing Historical Society; Content Heritage Halton Hills. Look familiar? '...waiving a fee means someone else (taxpayers) is paying for it' -- CAO David Smith... see story pg. 8 'Quote unquote' More letters to the editor PM must lead the fight on poverty Dear editor, Opinions will vary about the leader- ship of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. My only hope is that he will make a great move towards helping people in need before leaving office. The death of Nelson Mandela re- minds us of former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's huge contribution to end apartheid in South Africa. Wouldn't it be great to also remember Harper for something huge, like being a world lead- er in the fight against poverty, in Canada and around the world? It would be quite a turn of events, but it was also quite a change for Mulroney to stand against apartheid more than 20 years ago. Bruno Marquis