Dalton McGuinty trying to protect his legacy

I don't venture in politics too often here.  I get my fill of violence and cheats in sports.  I also worked in the Ontario bureaucracy for years and witnessed up close what goes on in Queens Park.  It ain't pretty.

You may have been shocked by the resignation of Premier Dalton McGuinty, but I wasn't.  This was a desperate move to protect his legacy that was about to muddied by a significant political scandal.

So don't believe that his resignation had anything to do with political renewal.  The time to do that was before the last election.  But the Premier wanted to include three majority governments as part of his legacy which in political terms is like when Secretariat won the Triple Crown. He came up short last year and then blew it again in the recent by-election. 

Yet these election set backs did not cause his resignations.  Rather his attempt to hang onto ridings in last year's election that did him in.  The Liberals cancelled two power plants at a cost of several $100 million - taxpayers' money.  Over the past year the government has been trying to cover this up to the extent that the government may be found in contempt of Parliament.

 So McGuinty resigned and prorogued the legislature - essentially pulling the plug on the government.  That stops any activity on the contempt charges until the legislature resumes sitting which likely won't  happen until the Liberals choose a new leader and call another election.  By that time no one will really care about the contempt charges and perhaps McGuinty can walk into the sunset only partially wounded rather than bludgeoned.  The last thing the Liberals need right now is transparency.