Dalton McGuinty, meet Dalton McGuinty

McGuinty opposed PC budgets, but wouldn’t have repealed their centrepiece tax cuts

As promised, here are the quotes of then-opposition leader Dalton McGuinty – who opposed every PC budget between 1996 and 2003 – saying he would not roll back the tax cuts contained in those budgets:

“I will not reverse the tax cuts if I become Premier. You can’t afford to do so. It would send out a negative signal about our economy.”
--Toronto Sun, June 27, 1997

“The tax cut, I mean I can’t reverse it and I wouldn’t increase taxes because that’s a bad idea.”
--Focus Ontario, Global TV, October 18, 1997

Sean Mallen: Following on the tax cut issue, another thing that was raised in the debate was that you voted against the tax cut in the last Legislature, and you criticized them in this campaign for borrowing for a tax cut, but it seems to me we are still borrowing for a tax cut to take the criticism further, yet you are refusing to rescind any of those tax cuts. That seems to be a leap of logic doesn’t it?

McGuinty: You can’t roll – taxes only go one way. They should only go one way in this province. Okay? They can’t go back up . . .
--"Focus Ontario," Global TV, May 22, 1999

Question: Are you advocating the roll back to any of the tax reductions from yesterday’s budget?

McGuinty: Uhhh . . . No! Politics is no longer about left and right anymore. It’s about backward and forward. And I’m for moving forward. And I’ll leave it at that.
--speech to Canadian Society of Association Executives, May 3, 2000

McGuinty did, however, include a vague tax cut pledge in his 1999 election platform:

“Immediate investments in the education and health of our people. A balanced budget. And then tax cuts as the economy grows. . . .Once the budget is balanced, the fiscal dividend would be split three ways: . . . 25 per cent in tax relief aimed at lower and middle-income Ontarians . . .”
--“20/20” Liberal platform document, April, 1999