Summer election averted as Liberal budget passes

A summer election in Ontario was averted Wednesday with the passage of the minority Liberal government’s budget.

Despite forcing the Liberals to make several changes, such as delaying corporate tax cuts and adding a tax on incomes over $500,000, the New Democrats did not vote for the budget.

The NDP abstained on the final vote, leaving the Liberals to out vote the Progressive Conservatives 52-to-35 to pass their budget, avoiding the automatic defeat of the minority government.

Right up until the final vote, the Liberals said they did not trust the New Democrats to keep their word and let the budget pass after breaking two previous agreements on the fiscal plan.

The Liberals are furious with the NDP for teaming with the Tories to make more changes to the budget after the government made concessions to get New Democratic support.

The government had a new spin Wednesday on last week’s threats by Premier Dalton McGuinty to call a snap election if there were any more major changes to the budget.

“On Thursday afternoon, the New Democrats with the support the Tories, began to remove very significant sections of the budget bill and we saw that _ perhaps we were wrong _ as a fundamental break of that agreement,” said Liberal campaign chairman Greg Sorbara.

“As a result, our premier did exactly what he needed to do, to inform the people that if the budget does not pass the government must resign and there must be an election.”

The New Democrats are pleased with the changes they forced in the budget, but are just as mad at the Liberals for calling party leader Andrea Horwath disingenuous and a back stabber.

“We’ve seen all the chest-thumping from both the government side and the opposition benches, the blame games, the phoney bravado,” Horwath said in Wednesday’s final debate.

“We’re showing the people of this province that we’re willing to make minority work for them. Not for the Liberal party, not frankly for the New Democrats, for the people who actually sent us here.”

The Progressive Conservatives condemned the budget the day it was introduced for failing to rein in government spending, and voted against it as a block.

Premier Dalton McGuinty should never have threatened to call an election because the Tories and NDP made more changes to the budget at committee, said Conservative finance critic Peter Shurman.

“Dalton McGuinty behaved like the absolute monarch that he believed he was,” Shurman told the legislature.

“When he found he was out ranked … he threw a hissy fit, a tantrum and refused to collaborate.”

After the budget bill was given royal assent by Lt.-Gov. David Onley, there was one final vote to approve the tax changes in the budget before the legislature adjourned for the summer.

The NDP did vote with the Liberals to implement the tax changes they had pushed the government to make.

Despite the bitter accusations between the government and its NDP allies, Sorbara said he was confident the two parties could work together again in the fall.

“In any relationship when you feel a sense of betrayal, it takes a little time, but we are all presumably mature adults, and we know our mission is greater than the partisan politics of any one issue or any one interest,” Sorbara said after the budget passed.

“Now we have to start doing a little bit of work on strengthening relationships again and repairing some damage for which there will be a scar or two.”

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