To a small (and yet half-empty) room in Toronto, Premier Kathleen Wynne gave a plodding speech Monday morning, asserting how much she and her fellow Liberals care about things like education and health care, unlike the provincial Tories and New Democrats.
The whole thing was strange. An event on this general subject was included in the communications plan toward the provincial budget somebody gave the Tories last week, though it was supposed to be about funding more school nutrition programs — a thing that combines health and education, and which the Liberals ultimately did by news release a few hours later.
Instead of that, at an Italian community centre first thing in the morning, in an appearance announced only one day earlier, Wynne bolted together two subjects that are similar in theme but don’t have much practical to do with each other. Like so:
Ninety-five per cent of children in this province attend a publicly funded school. Few other countries can boast such a high level of confidence in their state school system. Ontario students continue to perform above the OECD average in every category in the 2012 Program for International Assessment test.
The province also boasts a first-rate public health healthcare system for all. We have launched a transformation in the system, and changed the focus to place patient care squarely at the centre. We have invested in home care on a large scale. We have lived up to our credo: The right care at the right time in the right place. Because a healthier society means a more productive one.
There are those who think that health care and publicly funded education are items that can be put on the chopping block. I believe those people could not be more wrong. High quality health care and publicly funded education are the core responsibilities of a democratic government.
The foundation upon which all Ontarians build their lives.
This is an unusual understanding of what the “core responsibilities of a democratic government” are. Most Ontarians like having strong publicly-funded schools and strong public health care, no question, but I don’t think we’d choose them over, say, basic law and order, which is an even deeper foundation for prosperity.
The speech coincided with the release of a “new vision” for education in Ontario, a 20-page document that largely describes what our schools have already been doing. There’s a lot of continuing to do X and working with partners to achieve Y and promoting Z.
One stated goal, for instance, is “Achieving excellence.” Revolutionary, right? Here’s how we’ll know if we’ve succeeded:
To assess progress towards this goal, Ontario will:
• Continue measuring progress towards an 85 per cent five-year high school graduation rate and a 75 per cent success rate on elementary EQAO assessments, with a particular focus on mathematics.
• Continue the trend of increasing the four-year graduation rate, which has increased by 19 percentage points since 2003–04 and now stands at 75 per cent.
• Define and develop measures for higher-order skills, such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration and entrepreneurship.
• Work with teachers, principals, and supervisory officials and their professional associations to identify and share effective and innovative teaching practices that include the use of technology.
• Increase participation in programs like Specialist High Skills Majors, Dual Credits and the certification in Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship, and ensure that programming meets student demand.
There’s nothing here to really disagree with, or to give meaningful guidance to school boards of principals or teachers, or to set expectations for parents or for students. Which is the tip-off that it’s a campaign document, not a governing one.
It is, however, a good thing to stand on if you happen to be a Liberal. Said Wynne:
This is not a government that has been rent, historically, by radical lurches in policy or policies. It is a government that has instead sought out a reasoned middle way, a path that seeks to ensure that all citizens can enjoy the benefits of living in this blessed, prosperous province.
Unlike, for instance, the Conservatives and the New Democrats. Tim Hudak, Wynne said in a short Q&A with reporters afterward, would ravage the health system and “basically start a war in education.” As for the NDP, “We don’t know what the NDP would do because there is not a vision there and we have not heard a vision expressed. They are suspicious of business and have not shared their vision.”
Standard stump stuff. Which would be fine, except for two things.
First, it’s exactly what the Tories said the Liberals were planning to do, organizing pre-budget appearances with the help of government (not just party) resources in an attempt to kick-start an election campaign on the public dime.
Second, it wasn’t that good. The words are OK but Wynne’s delivery was unenthusiastic and drew no energy from the handful of people who got together on short notice on a Monday morning. Was it a government speech, in her official capacity as premier? Then the attacks on the opposition were out of place. Was it a campaign-rally speech, given by the Liberal leader looking forward to a June-ish election? Then the venue and the crowd were wrong.
Wynne is capable of giving a good pump-up-the-crowd speech. She gave a couple just weeks ago at the Liberals’ big party meeting in Toronto, and she didn’t win the leadership of Ontario’s governing party without stirring some hearts along the way. But the impression Monday morning’s event left was of a hurriedly thrown-together event whose purpose was uncertain, featuring a politician who wasn’t sure what she was doing there.
