The East York-Riverdale Mirror

Fingers have been pointed, political records of accomplishment examined, fighting words exchanged and promises made and broken before we have voted.

The reality is that no politician is legally obliged to honour a campaign promise and it is equally true that this is actually a very good thing for the successful operation of any level of government.

While always being an implicit point of political practice since before Confederation, it was best articulated by the Ontario Superior Court in 2004.

The Canadian Taxpayer's Federation was attempting to enforce a promise made in writing by Premier Dalton McGuinty of no new taxes without a provincial referendum.

In rejecting the application, Justice Paul Rouleau clearly stated the courts will not enforce such promises and that the only remedy is for the public to vote out the offenders in the next election.

All three official political parties have now been in power some time during the past 30 years and in each instance have broken election promises.

Bob Rae failed to implement his promised government-run auto insurance program and Mike Harris not only failed in his promise to rein in the deficit, he left us $5.6 billion in the hole.

After that, Ernie Eves failed keep his promise to fix the problems Harris had created and then McGuinty tried to make the same promise about Eves and ended up doing no better than his predecessor.

What a wonderful world it would be if politicians would actually keep their promises, but economic and political realities generally makes that impossible.

Frankly, the promises that worry me are not the big ones made at election time, but the smaller ones said with less notice.

After gaining power, Harris promised to leave municipalities alone as he saw no need for reform at that level of government as everything was working just fine.

Soon after we had then-minister of municipal affairs Al Leach promising then-mayor Michael Prue that no matter what happened during amalgamation, East York would be wiped off the political landscape.

Of all of the promises made by provincial politicians during the past 10 years, it often seems the one regarding East York was one of the best kept.

Clearly, we need a new social contract with our politicians regarding their obligations toward us and our right to receive political and economic policies that might actually benefit our communities, province and country.

We do have a mechanism to accomplish that called democracy, but at some point in the recent past, our politicians seem to have lost faith in that political philosophy.

The question that needs asking is what changes do the people of Ontario really want to see take place in the political process.

The actual answer must come from the people themselves, not from political elites, special interest groups and spin-doctors as it has been.