Fool me once, shame on you, Fool me twice, stay on as premier

Premier Dalton McGuinty announced last week that his government won't raise taxes if re-elected this fall.

That should be seen as very good news; sure to attract many votes. And it will attract votes, at least from people who have short memories.

The reason, of course, is McGuinty made exactly the same promise in the 2003 campaign, and that pledge was in shreds within months.

In the first budget brought down by Finance Minister Greg Sorbara in May 2004 included what was called a health-care premium. That premium, of course, was just a synonym for "tax."

"We didn't know the extent to which the province was running into financial deficit," was the explanation Sorbara offered at the time.

But that raises an issue, namely why not? The Liberals had several members sitting in the opposition benches during the last days of the Progressive Conservative regimes of Mike Harris and Ernie Eves. While it's conceivable that the Tories would have been able to keep some of the details of the government's financial health from their opponents, the Grits should have had some idea of what was going on. Opposition MPPs are supposed to keep their eyes on things like that. That is what they are paid for.

It is possible that the former government was better than anyone thought at hiding the facts, and maybe the opposition wasn't as on the ball as it should have been. Accepting that, it may be possible to go along with the justification given for breaking a promise; a promise which no doubt sold a lot of people to the idea of voting Liberal.

But there have been three budgets that have come down since then, and numerous statements out of Queen's Park about how well the economy's been doing, and how marvellous the government is at managing its finances. Yet for all of that, the health-care premium has not been touched. There's been no elimination, there's been no reduction, there's been no talk of phasing it out, there's been nothing.

One might already bewondering if there's any reason why the latest promise from McGuinty will be different.