Dalton McGuinty sits at 16% popularity and ranks last in spending report card

This comes as no surprise. According to the Fraser Institute Dalton McGinty ranks dead last rather worst in Canada on a spending report card. 10 Premiers were ranked from across the country and evaluated on Government spending, taxes and debt/deficits. The rating system is a score of 1 to 10 with 10 being very poor and 1 being excellent. The best ranked Premier was Gordon Campbell from BC. 
Here is a link to the report.





Dalton McGuinty, Ontario


Period evaluated: 2004/05-2009/10


Overall rank: 10  
Government Spending: 7 
Taxes: 7 
Debt and Deficits: 9


Dalton McGuinty demonstrated a spendthrift approach to managing provincial finances. Average program spending growth (7.7%) was over three times 
greater than the average rate of economic growth (2.4%) and significantly greater than average population-and inflation growth (2.8%).


He broke a 2003 election campaign promise not to raise taxes. Shortly after entering office, he increased personal income taxes through introduction 
of the Ontario Health Premium, cancelled the planned elimination of the personal income surtax, and increased business taxes by raising the general corporate income tax rate from 12.5% to 14.0%. Fortunately, he realized the destructive impact of those tax policies and reversed his position on tax policy in his 2009 budget. A key budget announcement was a phased-in reduction to 
the corporate income tax rate from 14% in 2009 to 10% by 2013.


McGuinty resorted not only to tax hikes, but also budget deficits to finance large increases in government spending. This inevitably resulted in increased 
government debt. During his tenure, McGuinty ran an average budget deficit of 0.8% of GDP and increased Ontario’s net debt from 28.2% of GDP in 2003/04 to 34.1% in 2009/10.