Premier gets own think tank

Toronto – Premier Dalton McGuinty has found all the think-tanks in the world are still not telling Ontarians the message he wants them to hear, so he is starting one of his own.  The Liberal will spend $5 million of taxpayers’ money to create an institute at the University of Toronto that will research and make public information on Ontario’s place in a rapidly changing Confederation.

The new institute inevitably will search harder for evidence that will support McGuinty’s view and bolster his cause. Those who fund research by academic institutions in any case usually find they discover information favourable to them. Look at the many studies that conclude chocolate and wine are good for health.

Think-tanks have multiplied in recent years – they are, next to polls, the biggest growth industry in politics – and almost all are similarly biased.

The best known, the Fraser Institute, devotes most of its energies to show business, is over-taxed and over-regulated.
It unearths statistics to show high taxes are discouraging investment, far-sighted residents are queuing to emigrate and government auto insurance causes more accidents because premiums are not high enough to force bad drivers off the road. Its current most celebrated spokesmen are former extreme right wing Conservative premier Mike Harris and former Reform party leader Preston Manning and no-one can suggest it is non-partisan.

The Institute for Research on Public Policy is not as one-track an advocate for business, but its leanings can be gleaned by the fact it was headed by Hugh Segal, a former senior aide successively to Conservative premier William Davis and Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney and unsuccessful candidate for national leader before landing a cosier seat in the Senate.

There are think tanks more to the left, but less known because they have less money and fund fewer studies. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives advocates increased public spending to compensate for drastic program cuts by Ontario Conservative governments when they slashed taxes between 1995 and 2003

The Tommy Douglas Research Institute defends state medicare against its many critics and you would not expect anything else from an organization named after the former New Democrat premier of Saskatchewan generally regarded as the founder of medicare.

But think-tanks that support a cause often are not identifiable by their names. People would not recognize immediately CropLife Canada represents manufacturers of pesticides and the Fair Air Association opposes curbs on smoking it says take away smokers’ rights and cost jobs.

The think-tanks Ontarians currently notice, most probably, are those whose representatives constantly pontificate on TV about hostilities in Iraq, Afghanistan and other trouble zones and are based mainly in the United States, and most are ultra-conservative.

The Heritage Foundation was created by brewery billionaire Joseph Coors, who financed Ronald Reagan’s early elections and whose own brother described him as “a little bit right of Attila the Hun.”

The American Enterprise Institute, Center for Security Policy and Competitive Enterprise Institute have much the same views, while the Center for American Progress and Americans Coming Together have voices more from the centre. One question Ontarians should ask is whether McGuinty should spend $5 million on a think-tank mainly to collect more ammunition for a propaganda war with the federal government.

Another is most think-tanks are recognized as biased. McGuinty’s inevitably will come up with research showing Ontario gets a raw deal, but will anyone believe it?

Eric Dowd is a veteran member of the Queen’s Park press gallery.