County News
Was this the last straw?
MPP Todd Smith with PC energy critic Vic Fideli at a packed town hall meeting on wind energy in Picton last February.
Prince Edward-Hastings MPP’s role in McGuinty’s fall
Rookie MPP Todd Smith from Prince Edward-Hastings is being widely cited this week for his role in toppling the Premier. Since taking office Smith has relentless pursued the McGuinty government over its management of the energy file, and lately its decision to move a pair of gas-fired electricity plants out of Liberal ridings near Toronto to rural communities in Sarnia and Bath. The cost to taxpayers of these politically motivated decisions is at least $230 million.
On Monday Smith accused McGuinty and his government of knowingly misleading the legislature regarding the release of documents related to the two cancelled power projects in Liberal ridings.
“There is very clear evidence that the government knew on September 27 that all the documents had not been included in the original submission,” said Smith. “Still, government members including the Premier and members of the Cabinet insisted in October that all the documents had been released even though they had knowledge to the contrary.”
Smith went further.
“I am of the belief that the government misled the House.” Smith added. “The Premier’s Chief of Staff played a role in the cancellation of these plants and emails from him were not a part of the original submission. They were only disclosed last Friday. The Premier’s office knew that it was directing Liberal members who spoke in the House to give misleading statements.
”Many pundits have concluded that, faced with theprospect of weeks and months of answering questions about this decision, McGuinty was finally pushed to leave now and prorogue the legisla-ture—shutting down the House and its committees,and thus ending the inquiry into this messy and turbulent affair
.McGuinty announced on Monday night his decision at a hastily convened caucus meeting. He will stay on as Premier until a new leader is selected.
i do not believe todd smith had anything to do with this.he is only doing what hudak told him to do.i read that the decision to prorogue was made several days before mcguinty stepped down the politicians are worse than school kids for their parts in trying to not make anything work. the other parties both said they would cancel the gas plants. go figure.darn good money for useless politicians