If Finance Minister Dwight Duncan could solve Ontario’s bleak finances by, say, taking a chunk of the public purse and betting it on red at the roulette table, there’s a decent chance he just might try it.
The budget problems, as have been well-documented, are deep. So, it is not unfair to note that the government’s warm embrace of a plan by its arm’s-length lottery and gaming corporation to “modernize” its operations — code for “make more money” — comes at a time when the McGuinty Liberals are desperate for new funds.
But sometimes good decisions are born out of desperation. And, if it takes a $15-billion deficit and a Drummond report that produced a Bible-thick book of austerity measures to convince Dalton McGuinty to cast aside his Premier Dad inclinations and allow Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation to expand and overhaul its business, then taxpayers should be grateful for the end result, if not the political motives behind it.
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Stinson: Finance Minister bets on gaming changes to save Ontario’s economy,
