Ontario?s Liberals are big on protecting residents, and there are signs at the same time that they are protecting themselves. The most common thread running through the policies of Premier Dalton McGuinty?s government is saving people from dangers ? mostly real, but a few inflated.
This course to a large degree has been forced on them, because they inherited a massive deficit and have little to spend on new programs that cost money.
But there are indications it is paying off politically, because the Liberals have taken a slight step up in polls and there is little else to account for it.
The Liberals? actions include banning smoking in all workplaces and enclosed public places starting June next year, to which only diehard (a sadly
apt description) smokers and those profiting from them can object.
The Liberals have become the first province to ban pit bulls, which have caused horrific injuries, and will empower courts to send owners of other
dangerous dogs to jail.
They will protect a huge area of south-central Ontario as greenbelt for the public?s benefit, while owners of land on it will see their values drop.
The Liberals will protect other land from being paved and residents? health by forcing designated cities to build housing more intensively in their downtown cores.
Doctors have warned sprawling suburbs that encourage residents to drive almost everywhere cause pollution and obesity.
The Liberals have ordered elementary schools to remove junk foods from vending machines and replace them with healthier snacks.
They temporarily banned sushi, raw fish, fearing it could contain parasites, but ate their words after being persuaded it was safe.
The Liberals have ordered bars, restaurants and liquor and beer stores to post long-needed signs warning pregnant women that drinking alcohol
can cause defects including brain damage to their babies.
They have ordered elementary schools to provide 20 minutes of physical exercises daily starting this fall.
McGuinty has promised his government will have bullying-prevention programs in all schools by the end of this year.
To cut deaths and injuries on roads, the Liberals will require children too big for toddlers? car seats, but too small to be fully protected by seat belts, to travel in booster chairs.
In other protective measures, the Liberals will attempt to preserve historic buildings by for the first time giving municipalities power to prevent their demolition.
They will help municipal fire departments buy equipment, the first government in two decades to do so.
They have started public consultations aimed at regulating providers of traditional Chinese medicine including acupuncture, who treat many Ontarians.
The Liberals are even providing protection against guards, forcing security guards, who often push people around, to take sensitivity training and
conform to a code of ethics.
McGuinty seems to fancy himself as a combination of Oliver Cromwell, the lord protector, and Mary Poppins.
The Liberals may be motivated out of the goodness of their hearts, because they once pleaded with the previous PC government to stop a bar having a contest to see how far patrons could toss a dwarf and the Tories laughed at them.
But the Liberals? fondness for protecting seems to be helping them in polls, because they rose to 44 percent, which normally is enough to win a majority, in the most recent assessing Ontario parties.
Eric Dowd is a veteran member of the Queen?s Park press gallery.
