Ontario's Common Sense Revolution at 20: A Look Back [cross-post]

By Joe Fantauzzi
ninetytwopointeight@gmail.com

Today marks 20 years since the Progressive Conservative Party foisted its so-called "Common Sense Revolution" on Ontario.
Former PC Ontario leader Tim Hudak took to Twitter this morning to extol the virtues of this full-throated neoliberal experiment, declaring it "the most effective, courageous gov[ernment]" in his lifetime.

Some remember those days differently. Here are a few highlights of the "Common Sense Revolution" (1995-99) and the subsequent "Blue Print" era (1999-2003).

• The death of Dudley George/Ipperwash Crisis
• The death of Kimberly Rogers
• The Walkerton water disaster
• A double-digit cut to social assistance rates
• Punitive “workfare”
• Unnecessary tax cuts
• Criminalizing poverty via the "Safe Streets Act"
• The 1997 teacher/student walkout
• Demonstrations against poverty held at Queen's Park
• Health spending cuts
• Eliminating rent control
• The dented cans of tuna fiasco
• The fiscal nightmare that is the Toronto megacity
• The privatization of, and subsequent gouging by, Hwy. 407
• Cancelling Toronto transit projects
• The repealing of proxy comparisons for pay equity (reinstated by court challenge)
• The repealing of employment equity legislation
• The Magna budget and contempt for the legislature

Many Ontarians are still dealing with the aftermath of heartless program cuts initiated by the PC regime and the general neoliberal political culture that continues today at the provincial, federal and municipal (in Toronto) levels of government.
This is not a day to celebrate.