MPP Arnott calls McGuinty Liberals to account for ‘gutter' politics
Addressing the two major scandals that have been the main subject of debate at Queen's Park, MPP Ted Arnott made the following statement in the Ontario Legislature on May 2nd, 2007:
Mr. Speaker, we are now in the final days of the 38th Provincial Parliament, and the McGuinty Liberal Government is in its death throes.
Unable to defend his Government's actions, or answer questions on the Ontario Lottery and Gaming scandal, and now the Minister of Citizenship's political slush fund, last Friday the Premier resorted to the lowest form of attack, no doubt devised in the Liberal campaign war room, and then refused to apologize.
As you will recall Mr. Speaker, last March it came to light that millions of dollars had been paid out by the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation in dishonest lottery ticket claims, meaning thousands of Ontarians were robbed of money that was rightfully theirs. All this while the Minister Responsible for Lotteries ignored the issue until he was caught by the Ombudsman and the Opposition.
Our Caucus is continuing to investigate that scandal at the Standing Committee on Estimates. Our Members on that Committee are serving the public interest in an effort to get to the bottom of what really happened. While the Premier has refused to attend the Committee to answer our legitimate questions, his representative has been stonewalling at every turn.
Soon it will be the turn of the Minister Responsible for Lotteries to account for his actions at the Estimates Committee. No doubt the Liberal war room is writing his script as we speak, and counselling him to repeat the canned lines he has recited in this House.
Let's hope he doesn't follow the Premier into the gutter with his responses.
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