I sometimes wish Vic Fedeli would stop doing it. Every time the MPP for Nipissing exposes another Liberal plot to rip off the taxpayers to pay for Dalton McGuinty’s follies my blood pressure goes sky high.
For some strange reason he also brings back memories of rabbit hunting on Boxing Day. In many parts of England it was the custom for farmhands to down tools the day after Christmas after the cows were milked. Then armed with ferrets and nets they pursued the elusive bunnies.
Most farm labourers had a pet ferret and when they went to a pub for a drink they often carried it in a vest pocket. When they lined up at a bar for a drink tiny ferret heads with black eyes and pointed noses peered out of pockets to enjoy the proceedings.
The English countryside was divided into fields by hedges growing on banks of earth into which the rabbits tunneled and built their nests. The hunters dropped nets over the exits after putting a ferret inside.
There were bumps and squeaks. The rabbits exploded into the nets and were converted into rabbit stew to supplement wartime rations.
Much like a ferret, Fedeli has been exploring the darkest tunnels in the Liberal warren. He alleges that various government types have considered increasing the HST by one per cent plus imposing an extra 5 cent per litre on gasoline. Also about 50 other petty increases including a levy on telephone bills and even hunting licenses.
All this is to raise money to pay for reducing the transit gridlock in Toronto and Hamilton. No one wants to see the good folk of southern Ontario tied up in traffic and Northerners suffer with them. Last time I tried to cross Cobalt’s Silver Street I had to wait for two cars and a small boy pulling a wagon, but why should a Northern hunter have to pay extra for shooting a moose to help pay for a purely Toronto problem?
Fedeli says that nearly 600 constituents have signed a protest petition. If he had taken it to all the towns along the ONR line, he could have got 6,000. People in Northeastern Ontario are still boiling mad at the Liberal’s slaughter of the ONR. To raise taxes to ease traffic problems in the South rubs some more salt in the wound.
The Grits will or have denied it all but it reinforces the belief that there is one rule for the south and the North counts for much less.
In his new role as Conservative finance critic or official fiscal ferret, Fedeli should have more opportunities to chase the Liberal bunnies out of their holes.
Northerners can only cheer him on.
For the original version of this article, click here: http://www.nugget.ca/2013/09/17/southern-ontario-should-fix-own-problems