Liberals Red-Faced Over Voting Blunder

John Tory Leader of the Ontario PC Party

April 7, 2006

ROB FERGUSON
QUEEN'S PARK BUREAU

A goof by Premier Dalton McGuinty's Liberals puts him under official pressure from the Legislature to call an inquiry into his government's handling of the Caledonia crisis.

Despite being a majority, Liberal MPPs failed to vote down a harshly worded Progressive Conservative motion seeking a probe into how the government allowed Caledonia to escalate from a local problem to a "full-blown standoff."

The vote, which is not binding but puts McGuinty in an awkward position since it expresses the will of the Legislature, left opposition politicians gleeful and Liberals embarrassed.

"I will look forward to Mr. McGuinty's announcement of the inquiry, and who will head it up, soon," said Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory, relishing the victory because opposition motions rarely pass.

The vote was done by voice, with MPPs calling out "yay" or "nay." The "yays" were louder and not enough Liberals stood up quickly enough to force a recorded vote, which would have allowed more of their MPPs to rush to the Legislature to defeat the motion.

"It's just sloppiness ... somebody's going to get yelled at," said one Liberal MPP.

Liberal party whip Dave Levac, who is in charge of mustering MPPs for critical votes, said he was trying to get more Liberals to stand up to force a recorded vote but not enough heeded his hand signals.

He tried to downplay the importance of the motion, calling it "a finger-pointing exercise" and saying that what really matters is reaching a settlement at Caledonia.