Back to Work campaign kicks off

Sarah Campbell, MPP Kenora-Rainy River today launched the Northwestern Ontario ‘MPPs Back to Work’ campaign in Thunder Bay.
With the McGuinty Government having locked-out MPPs October 15 without notice to allow for a Liberal leadership race, all work being done at Queen’s Park ground to a halt, while all bills that had not received Royal Assent died on the order paper.
“McGuinty’s decision to shut down the legislature is wholly unacceptable,” says Campbell. “Last September people across this province elected 107 MPPs to do an important job. We are being prevented from doing that job by a government that has repeatedly put partisan interests ahead of the province’s. When the going got tough, the Liberals got going.”
In addition to killing all legislation that was before the house, the decision to lock MPPs out and erase the legislative agenda kills a committee investigation into the true costs of cancelling gas plants in Mississauga and Oakville, the costs of which now appear to be up to a billion dollars, while eliminating the important opposition scrutiny that happens during the daily Question Period.
“This is not a case of the legislature not working, as the Liberals claim,” says Campbell. “This is a case of a scandal-plagued government realizing that the opposition has been too effective in doing its job, and instead of being held to account they took the easy way out.”
“What Dalton McGuinty and the Liberals need to realize is that the Legislative Assembly is not their house. It belongs to the people of Ontario, and we need the people of Ontario to stand up, as our bosses, and say ‘get back to work’.”
The ‘MPPs Back to Work’ campaign urges Ontarians to apply pressure on the government to recall the legislature. People can join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, at a new website and by contacting their local MPP directly.
“The Liberal government has shown it is only interested in protecting its future results at the polls. If enough people speak up and say you’ve crossed a line, they will look at their future prospects and realize the only recourse is to reverse this illegitimate decision and get MPPs back to work,” states Campbell.

Campaign website: MPPsBackToWork.ca
Facebook: facebook.com/MPPsBackToWork
Twitter hashtag: #MPPsBackToWork