Preville on Politics

The black banana

Posted on June 25, 2007 by Philip Preville

Bad news for Dalton McGuinty: Ontario’s economy is headed into the tank. When Ontario’s economy grows slower than those of other provinces, we like to reassure ourselves by saying it’s because Ontario’s is a “more mature” economy, evoking images of a beautifully ripened fruit. But when Ontario’s jobless rate surpasses the national average, as it did this past year for the first time in its history, that’s a pretty black banana.

While economists are striking alarm bells, what’s interesting for McGuinty is that, according to what I’ve been told, the reality about the economy hasn’t yet sunk in with the electorate. Polls show that most Ontarians think the province is on the right track. Presumably he’ll want to keep us thinking blissfully. Nothing to see here, move along…

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Philip Preville

Veteran freelance writer Philip Preville lived much of his life in Montreal and Edmonton before he was lured, like so many Torontonians before him, by the promise of more work and a better living. A National Magazine Award winner and former Canadian Journalism Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Massey College, Preville writes Toronto Life’s politics column. He lives with his wife and one-year-old son in Riverdale, just close enough to the Don Valley Parkway that he can hear it when he steps outside his house—but just far enough away that it doesn’t keep him awake at night. On his office wall hangs a 1938–39 press pass belonging to his grandfather, Elias Gannon, who wrote for the Montreal Star.


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