Dear Mr. Mcguinty

I am a grade one teacher in the (my local school board). I am writing to you today to express my disappointment in the way my profession has been treated lately by your administration.

You campaigned and were elected with a great deal of support from teachers. You were going to be the "Education Primier". We believed in you. We believed that you believed that what we do for a living was important to our community, our children, and our collective future. We believed that you would improve conditions for teachers and students, and would use your influence to make our schools the best in the world.

And yet, with the introduction of Bill 115, you betrayed your commitment to education and to teachers. You cheapened us in the eyes of the community, by strongarming us into contracts we had no voice in, in order to win a bi election. You changed your message from one of respect for teachers and education, to speaking to us as if we were overpaid, over priveledged, and as if our commitment and professionalism was worth nothing at all.

What you are experiencing with Ontario teachers right now goes far beyond contract negotiations. You are experiencing the collective HURT of people who have dedicated their lives to the education and well being of the children of our community. You owe us all a very heartfelt and public appology. We believed in you, and our disappointment is bitter and deep.

Despite any good thing you did while Primier of our wonderful province, Bill 115 will be how I will remember you. This is your legacy. It is not one anyone will look upon ever with pride.

Yours in disappointment

(green apple tree's real name)

This was his response to me (and the thousands of teachers who wrote to him yesterday).

Thank you for your correspondence regarding Bill 115, the Putting Students First Act, 2012, and Ontario public schools. I appreciate the time you took to share your views with me.

As you may know, on January 23, our government repealed the Putting Students First Act. The legislation achieved its goal of ensuring fair, balanced and responsible collective agreements for teachers and support staff.

Negotiations with unions representing teachers and support staff had been ongoing since February 2012. Through that process, 55,000 teachers, 4,000 support staff and 55,000 CUPE educational workers negotiated agreements that met our government's fiscal goals while supporting student achievement.

Agreements could not be achieved with two of the five major unions representing workers in our schools. We used the Putting Students First Act to put those agreements in place to ensure that education spending is more sustainable, while continuing to extend full-day kindergarten, maintain smaller class sizes and protect 20,000 teaching and support staff jobs.

While disruptions occurred for many students at the end of last year, teachers are no longer in a legal strike position. The unions may continue to legally protest, and to challenge the legislation in court, but may not withdraw their services from our schools and students.

Be assured that our government will continue to work with all of our education partners to ensure that our province's children receive the highest quality education. Thank you again for contacting me. Please accept my best wishes.


Dalton McGuinty
Premier of Ontario

This is the letter I wrote to him in response to that:

I resubmitted the letter I first wrote (since I'm very sure no one read it the first time), and added the following P.S.

In response to your patronizing form letter sent to me and other teachers:

1. The education unions who signed your contracts were all from Catholic Boards. The unions from the Catholic schools were strong armed into signing by their religious leaders, who are afraid that their boards will lose their public mandate (and for good reason. Their very existance offends the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. No other religious group gets public funding for its propagation.). Many of their members are very angry with the representation they received in this matter, and marched with us on our protests.

2. Strike action now is only illegal as a result of your illegal use of legislation in this matter. If we are essential services, rule us so and take your chances with binding arbitration.

3. You cannot renegotiate our contracts arbitrarily just because you bungled the provinces finances. I cannot go to a grocery store and demand food I cannot pay for, just for the reason that I can't pay for it. You cannot demand financial sacrifices from us because you cannot balance your books.

4. I am not interested in your best wishes. I await your public appology. We will demand such an appology from your replacement on your behalf.

YOU ROCK, greeny! ~ great letter and even better "p.s." ~ I see his "reply" as not only patronizing but purely self-serving as well ~

Sooz

really great reply, from someone more literate than Dalton. well done, little apple. well done.

I have little or nothing o do with the education system in Ontario but I do have a lot to do with Ontario Disability Support Program (as a recipient) and Ontario Works (welfare) - and I do have to say that the McGuinty government has been more than fair and upfront about these programs. Especially considering what his government inherited from Slasher Mike Harris in 2003. Also... the McGuinty government has worked really hard to develop green energy technology and manufacturing on a large scale throughout Ontario. More than a few people in Welland, Hamilton, Haldimand-Norfolk and other areas have benefited from the construction and integration of wind and solar technology into Ontario's grid.

This in no way excuses the McGuinty Liberals from their areas of failure, however I for one am a lot more reluctant to dump on his government, knowing the positive impact their policies have had on my life and the lives of many other people who would otherwise be out on the streets. I can feed and house myself. I can get the meds I need. I doubt I would be in this position if we had a CONservative government(?).

I know what you're saying. But the Ontario liberals have coasted way too long on their "at least we're not the conservatives" platform. They need to walk the walk too. If the liberals are capable of tearing up negotiated and collectively bargained agreements because they squandered their money on a bunch of cynical seat grabbing attempts, then I don't think we've gained much by protecting ourselves from the likes of Hudak.

Besides. We're a multi party system. I may vote liberal, I won't vote conservative, but i'll probably vote NDP in the next election.

The unions haven't completely ruled out the liberals, and Wynne has made some concilliatory gestures towards union heads, specifically ETFO. I haven't lost hope. But the teachers arent going to roll over and play dead for the liberals, because there worse wolves in the forest. If you want to market yourselves as the social conscience of the province...

PROVE IT.

"the Ontario liberals have coasted way too long on their 'at least we're not the conservatives' platform"

With Bill 115 (which is being repealed) the Ontario Liberals are trying to demonstrate that they can be conservative if they have to. So the next question for me is "Why did they do it?"

If you look at the riding by riding results, the close seats they lost were in the 'burbs and rural areas which are predominately conservative support. McGuinty took a gamble that he could move enough votes in those close ridings and bleed off some of the conservative support because he knows he's not going to get the support where he needs it from the NDP.

As Stephen Harper has demonstrated quite clearly... in our First Past The Post system of elections, you don't need to move a lot of votes to change the outcome. I guess McGuinty figured he could afford to lose some support in the solid Liberal ridings if it meant gaining a few hundred here and a few hundred there in those ridings where the Liberals came in as a close second.

It's a risky strategy, but if you look at how Hudak keeps coming back and the numbers between the Liberals and NDP are drawing closer together - the conservatives are attempting the same "sneaking up the middle" that Harper has pulled off.

To anyone who supports "anything but Conservative", I have this to say: go ahead and vote for the NDP. Tim Hudak thanks you.

The NDP is gaining ground against the liberals because they deserve to. We as an electorate will not put up with open corruption. There is a very good chance that the liberals as a party are on their way out, as happened federally. Maybe it's time for the NDP to become the 2nd party and the first choice of the left.

I'm sorry Sid, but my vote is going to mean something other than I hate conservatives. I plan to vote for a party I believe in, and for policies I believe in. The liberals are going to have to come up with a message that means more than "vote for me or you get tim hudak, so fuck you". And they might. They elected a leader with a history of social activism, and not another "blue light" candidate like McGuinty. I have hope for her. But she has bridges to mend, and it's not going to happen quickly or easily.

See ya on the street.