Dalton McGuinty has “dared” Tim Hudak to go to London and “look the people in the eye” and tell them that he will cancel the government’s deal with Samsung to “create 16,000 solar and clean energy jobs.” The London mayor joined in on the taunt pointing out that London has an unemployment rate of 9.1%. It is this sort of appeal to emotion argument that makes me despair of politicians.
Having a job and keeping a job is an emotional issue for everybody. It is the way that you support yourself and any family that you may have. Without a job people often feel humiliated and degraded (plus you can’t afford stuff). I went nearly a year without employment after I graduated university, and so I have a taste of what the unemployed suffer through.
This is not a good argument for public policy.
If Dalton McGuinty wants to argue that solar power is the greatest benefit for the cost, fine because then we can have a fruitful discussion.
Instead Mr. McGuinty wants to paint the PC Party as being callous. Instead of having an honest debate the Liberals want to pull on people’s heart strings.
All political parties do this to one degree or another, but I fine this case to be particularly irritating. It must be hard to look someone in the eye and say that they have to find a new job, but if keeping that person employed is costing more than it is worth then it is the rest of us that are hurting.
At the same time if the market was allowed to distribute resources without government interference, it is more than likely that these people would be able to find a job producing something that people actually want to pay for. Thus they will the benefit the rest of us rather than hurt us.
But no, such a logical argument cannot be allowed to be heard.