This election is your chance to send a message about the community, the City and the province you want.

For transit that works – Torontonians want a transit system that helps get people out of their cars and creates a cleaner, more sustainable city. As the size of the city increases we cannot simply put more cars on the roads as the main way to move people from place to place. That is a recipe for more gridlock, pollution, stress and environmental degradation. Instead of working with our municipalities as equal partners, the McGuinty government has preferred to squabble over which level of government is responsible for transit funding.

For excellent schools – Torontonians want schools that provide their children with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed and the resources required to reach that goal. Up-to-date libraries, music classes, physical education teachers, buildings in good repair, ESL instructors. Unfortunately, the McGuinty government has failed to fix the education funding formula and parents are still fighting cuts to programs year after year.

For quality health care – Support for our system of high quality public health care is one of the ways that Canadians define themselves. We expect the help we need to be available when we need it – fully staffed emergency rooms, access to community health centers and family doctors, public health teams, more long-term beds and home care for our seniors. Instead of improvements we have seen delisted services, public money spent on for-profit hospitals, broken promises on hiring new nurses and seniors languishing without the long-term care they need. And we have seen the exposure of the eHealth scandal where millions of scarce health dollars were spent by consultants with insider connections.

Fair Taxes – People are struggling through the tough times brought on by recession. The most important thing we can do is provide people with the help they need to face these challenges. Instead of a jobs plan to help people through this recession and position the province for the future – the McGuinty Government has brought in a new tax. The Harmonized Sales Tax means that scores of everyday goods and services will cost you more – for utilities, for condo fees, even for a coffee and a bagel – to name just a few. Programs that offered targeted tax relief for people who bought new bicycles or energy efficient appliances will now be scrapped. This is the worst possible time to add this new burden to families. Making matters worse, the billions in revenue this new tax generates won’t be invested in the services you rely on. Instead the new revenue will go to a massive untargeted tax cut for business – leaving the government with less money to provide funding for schools, health care, training and job creating investments.