Perhaps I overestimated NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.
In a previous Huffington Post article, I believed that Horwath had the vision, courage and steel cojones to take the NDP to victory in the next Ontario provincial election.
I believed that Horwath had all the ammunition she needed to put the struggling McGuinty/Wynne Liberal government out of its misery.
The McGuinty/Wynne government has been responsible for countless scandals: OLG, eHealth, Ornge and the gas plant cancellations.
Recall the NDP, through its brilliant research, uncovered many of the above scandals.
Also the NDP MPPs on the legislative committees investigating these scandals, especially the Ornge and gas plant cancellation inquiries, have been very impressive in terms of their brutal cross-examinations of the Liberals.
Recall Premier Wynne recently, at the gas plant hearings, looked really uncomfortable on the hot seat as she was grilled by the NDP about what she knew and when did she know about the cancellations and the real costs of those cancellations.
Kudos to the NDP for nailing Wynne on her confused testimony.
Shades of the famous US Senate Watergate hearings.
Just this past week we learned that the Ontario Power Authority had advised the Wynne government that the costs of cancelling the Oakville power plant far exceeded the deceptive $40 million amount that the Wynne government had been representing for months.
It has become clear that the McGuinty/Wynne government may not only be guilty of arrogance and incompetence, but the government may have also lied to the Ontario public and covered up the obscene amount it paid of taxpayers' money ( over $500 million+) to protect 4 Liberal seats in the last election.
Out of principle, Horwath, should have told Premier Wynne, that enough is enough!
Horwath should have publicly stated that the Liberals have lost the public's trust and they deserve to be turfed out of power. She should have then publicly and without qualification, stated that she and the NDP were not prepared to support the McGuinty/Wynne government any longer.
There is a stench of scandal clinging to Premier Wynne and her government.
On the other hand, the NDP brand has never been stronger.
Recent polls have Horwath statistically tied with Hudak and Wynne.
So why in the name of Jack Layton and Stephen Lewis, has Horwath sold out her principles and the NDP principles?
Why has she cheapened the NDP brand and her own image by being bought by Premier Wynne?
Why has Horwath made herself and the NDP party complicit in the McGuinty/Wynne's crimes of incompetence, arrogance and mendacity?
Come on Ms. Horwath, are you actually willing to give it up, for Wynne's unrealistic promise to reduce car insurance premiums by 15%?
Because if Horwath accepts the Wynne Budget, full of NDP goodies, this will be a fatal mistake for the NDP and Horwath's leadership.
By propping up the Wynne government for another year, Horwath will whitewash all of the past political, financial and governmental sins of the McGuinty/Wynne government.
To put it in more colorful terms that the every day working class Ontario voter understands,
Horwath will become Wynne's ( a word that rhymes with my name).
The political enemy of Horwath and the NDP is not Hudak and the Tories.
Contrary to what union boss Sid Ryan suggests.
It is Wynne and the Liberals.
Wynne is tacking left and going after and cutting into your base, Ms. Horwath.
You accept this budget, your base and the fluid vote on the left, that you and the NDP have worked so hard to secure, will leave you and gravitate back to Wynne.
Next year, Wynne will have grabbed your support.
She will call an election, and probably win a majority.
The Tories will still have their solid 30%+ base.
But you, Ms. Horwath, you will have marginalized the NDP.
The NDP will lose its full party status, once again. And be in the political wilderness for another 10 years.
And unfortunately, you, Ms Horwath, will be rightfully turfed out as a leader.
Ms. Horwath, the Wynne budget deal, is an offer you can and should refuse.