It was October 1990 when the new Ontario NDP government led by Bob Rae was sworn in. They got a majority government with only 37.6% of the popular vote, and the NDP was undoubtedly just as shocked as the general public.
The CFIB, of course, had met with Mr. Rae and several members of his Cabinet, but no one in government or outside government was prepared for the onslaught of opposition from the media, the business community and even organized labour.
The big problem for the new government was heading into the worst recession since the 1930s and having to make so many difficult decisions with so many inexperienced Cabinet ministers and a massive revenue shortfall. The kind of joke making the rounds was “My cleaning lady is now a member of the Cabinet.”
Bob Rae was very accessible even to his worst critics, and I had an early meeting to discuss our member’s priorities and to establish some kind of working relationship.
To my surprise, he suggested that the Ontario government pass legislation that would require every small and medium-sized firm pay a membership fee to the CFIB. The government would collect the fees on our behalf. I know he made the proposition as a goodwill proposal and that he anticipated a positive response. But I had to tell him that my experience with this kind of arrangement in countries like Germany, Brazil, Korea and Japan is that the association tends to become a government advocate rather than an advocate for their membership.
And not too long after our meeting, he legislated measures to deal with the decline in public revenues by having public servants take unpaid holidays. It was called a social contract and was an alternative to firing people. I was surprised how viciously his so-called friends in organized labour opposed him.
The CFIB for almost 20 years had worked with governments of all stripes across Canada and had a good relationship with NDP governments in B.C, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. However, in Ontario, we had never seen such vicious opposition from big business and the media.
During this period of an NDP government in Ontario, I became convinced for the first time that the media is never unbiased. Only good columnists are fair. Moreover, I also became convinced that some political opposition parties really do not expect to govern, nor do they want to govern.