Tory leader chides city unions

Public sector unions like Toronto’s striking civic workers need to “get a grip” and realize they don’t have life so bad compared with most of the taxpayers they serve, Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak said in his first day on the job.

Fresh off his victory in Saturday’s leadership convention, the 41-year-old MPP agreed with Premier Dalton McGuinty that it’s too early to bring in back-to-work legislation for 30,000 striking city employees but suggested they should be thankful to have jobs at all.

The strike by members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees today enters its second week, keeping city pools, daycares, day camps and other services closed.

“You know, in today’s environment in the depths of recession and a lot of middle-class families struggling to make ends meet, the notion of some of the unions of going out on strike with high demands won’t sit very well with taxpayers,” Hudak said during a 30-minute news conference in his Queen’s Park office.

“I think what it means is public sector union leadership needs to get a grip on the realities faced by many taxpayers in our province,” added Hudak, a cabinet minister under his political mentor, former premier Mike Harris.

“People in the private sector are very worried if they’ll have a job next month, people who have saved have seen their RRSPs shrink and will look strange at some of the demands we’re seeing from public sector unions.”

While McGuinty’s Liberals are eager to paint Hudak as the second coming of the tough-talking, tax-cutting Harris, who took on provincial civil servants in a bitter 1996 strike, the new leader’s team is making no bones about his decision to steer the party back to the right after years closer to the political centre.

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