Come back Floyd Laughren! All is forgiven.

Hey, who remembers 1995 when the Ontario Liberals and Mike Harris Conservatives pilloried the New Democrats for having the brazen gall to take dramatic measures to protect Ontarians from the recession?

Judging from the highlights of today’s doomsday budget in Ontario, the McGuinty Liberals don’t … or if they do, they just think hypocrisy suits them better.

Take a look:

* $57 billion in borrowed spending, starting with a record $14.1 billion this year (compared to a meager $12.4 billion under the New Democrats);

* $1 billion in unidentified “mystery cuts” (see ya in hell, TV Ontario);

* A 5 percent reduction in the public service (Rae Days never looked so good); and

* An 8 percent increase in the cost of household goods, including on electricity and home heating bills with the absurd combination of the provincial sales tax with the GST;

Hey, it’s not all bad! Bay Street still gets off with a sweet corporate tax cut while everyone else gets the privilege of paying Dalton McGuinty more for giving us less – (less pocket money and less services)

Meanwhile next door in Manitoba, increased core spending in education and health and ... wait for it ... a balanced budget from the New Democrats.

How do you like your McGuinty Liberals now, Ontario?

McGuinty Liberals credit only Layton’s NDP to help Ontario

Ontario it is said, is the one region of the country that dare not speak its name to the federal government. The symbolic cornerstone of the country and for so long the locus of wealth and population, Ontario has rarely if ever been credible as an aggrieved party in Confederation.

But things are different today. Ontario’s weakening manufacturing sector has dubiously dragged the province into “have not” status under equalization.

So Dwight Duncan is looking for allies. Ontario’s troubles should be on the agenda in Ottawa, he says. Yet he’s not finding help from the governing Conservatives with 51 Ontario MPs, or even the Liberals with 38 MPs, almost exclusively in the GTA.

No, Ontario’s Liberal finance minister credits only Jack Layton’s New Democrats for standing up for Ontario’s manufacturing sector:

"I see a federal Parliament that's ignoring Ontario. I see a federal Parliament that has not addressed the real scenario here in Ontario. I see a federal government that does not get the most important industry."

Praising federal NDP Leader Jack Layton for "having the guts to stand up and tell it like it is," Duncan added he expects more from Liberal and Tory MPs.

Even before the election, Layton has shown leadership on the manufacturing crisis. A New Democratic government would be taking action right now by investing in green technology and infrastructure and helping the transition of the auto sector. Yet the governing Conservatives and official opposition Liberals are invisible on this crisis in the estimation of the Ontario Liberal government.

It’s surely among the reasons the province rewarded Layton with the largest Ontario caucus in the party’s history.

A place to grow . . . Ontario

The numbers say what a lot of people aren’t: Last night, the NDP were the only party to increase both their popular vote and their seats over 2003. It’s incredible!

It’s testament to the fact that Howard Hampton ran an honest campaign that stuck to the issues. In fact, if real issues that matter to everyday people – like tuition fees, property taxes, and the decline of Ontario’s manufacturing sector - were addressed and reflected in the media coverage at all it is due entirely to Hampton.

And while Dalton McGuinty wasn’t held to a minority as many had hoped, the results were far worse for both the Liberals and Conservatives who saw fewer Ontarians vote for them than four years ago.

The Greens should also be proud of increasing their vote from 2.8 to 8 percent. In large part, this was due to the MMP referenda. An unusual number of Green supporters came out to vote in this election in support of MMP.

But their Ontario result also shows what can happen when Greens campaign against the Liberal Party instead of being a compliant cheerleader as Elizabeth May is doing. Look at the recent Outremont by-election where the Dion Liberals actually used an endorsement from May in their campaign literature -- the Greens lost 2.8% of their vote and came a distant fourth.

Also interesting is that both the NDP and the Greens saw their vote share go up while the Liberals and PC's went down. Quite simply, the cliche that the NDP and Greens are fishing in the same pond is bogus. But don't try to tell that to University of Waterloo political scientist Peter Woolstencroft.

Ontario Liberals out to bury discredited McGuinty and brand

As of today, the days remaining in the Ontario provincial election are down to the single digits.

So far, the critical acclaim is with Howard Hampton’s NDP. He has run a solid campaign sticking to the issues that will actually help daily life – like raising the minimum wage, and ending McGuinty’s $450 health tax.

But for their part, the Liberals are running the classic “under siege” campaign maneuvering around their dreary record by going hard negative at every chance.

But it seems that burying their record isn’t enough for some Liberals. In their quest for re-election, some McGuinty Liberals want to bury their leader . . .

and their party as well . . .

Even in once-Red Ontario, the Liberal brand is getting stale.