Premier attends Mauro's nomination meeting

Dalton McGuinty says he now has another reason to get re-elected.
The two-time premier wants to win the provincial election this fall so he can sign a notice from the Ontario government for MPP Bill Mauro’s parents’ 60th wedding anniversary as the province’s leader.

McGuinty was the guest of honour at Mauro’s nomination meeting Thursday at the Da Vinci Centre. Mauro, who ran unopposed for the Thunder Bay-Atikokan Liberal spot, said having McGuinty at the meeting was unexpected when the meeting and dinner were first planned a month ago.

"I think it’s going to be a nice surprise for the people who didn’t know he’d be here," Mauro said.

Mauro won the riding in 2007 by just 36 votes against the NDP’s John Rafferty. Mauro said he thinks last time around he spent too much time working and not enough time letting people know what he’s accomplished in his two terms as MPP for Thunder Bay-Atikokan.

"I think for far too long we were not publicly letting people know in a very strong way what it was we were doing, what it was we were accomplishing for Thunder Bay and Northwestern Ontario," Mauro said.

Although HST and rising hydro rates have come with criticism, Mauro said a 10 per cent reduction over five years in hydro was a made in Northern Ontario policy. Around 10 people were outside of the meeting Thursday protesting corporate tax cuts.

But Mauro said personal income tax in the province has also dropped. All that has been accomplished without having to cut services to any provincial sector, and education and health care have actually improved, he added.

"We’ve never been ion a better position on those two main priorities in the history of the province of Ontario," Mauro said.

Although it’s too early to tell what the election issues will be, Mauro said he’s looking forward to rallying his troops and has been overwhelmed so far by the level of support he’s received.

"I’m going to be very happy comparing and contrasting what we’ve done compared to what the other parties have done when they were in power," Mauro said.