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Sandals ought to try it sometime. She might learn something useful. It would at least reduce the time she has to say dumb things

Sandals used to be the education minister. In that job she oversaw a system that hands out millions of dollars in quiet payments to Liberal-friendly teachers unions for ill-defined purposes, including $2.5 million to help cover costs for a more complicated negotiating system introduced by the Liberals. Sandals reacted with sarcasm when asked if sought receipts for the expenditures: “We know what hotel rooms cost, we know what meeting rooms cost, we know what the food costs, we know what 100 pizzas cost … You don’t need to see every bill when you’re doing an estimate of costs. I don’t ask.”

Funny, that. People on the GO may not be up to Sandals’ standards, but most of them know enough that when you spend your money – even if it’s just at Winners or the Home Depot – you demand a receipt. The Liberals gave the teachers $22 million in 2006 alone, with no strings attached, according to the auditor-general. People on the GO know the price of pizza too, and might still be wondering why the government has to pick up the pizza tab for opponents at the bargaining table, who are trying to squeeze as much as possible out of the government purse.

Wynne desperately needs votes from the suburban belt that surrounds the city. Just recently she sent the mayor of Toronto, John Tory, into a fury by reneging on support for his effort to raise revenue by imposing tolls on commuter roads feeding the city. It was a gamble on Tory’s part, but Wynne encouraged it, agreed not to stand in the way, then suddenly reversed course when her suburban members went postal over the anger it would stir in their constituents, threatening their re-election hopes. Sandals apparently missed the message that suburbs are important, and that they resent government waste. Her blunder forced Wynne to step in – for the second time in a week – to warn public employees the government remains hard-pressed for cash and can’t afford their extravagant pay expectations.

Sandals was born and raised in Guelph, west of Toronto. Before she got into politics, she was a teacher there. She still represents it in the legislature. You can catch the GO in Guelph, to avoid the daily crush along Highway 401 (once again being torn up to accommodate the burgeoning traffic.) It takes about 75 minutes, which is a pretty quick trip by Toronto commuter standards, and drops you just a few subway stops from the Queen’s Park legislature. Sandals ought to try it sometime. She might learn something useful. It would at least reduce the time she has to say dumb things.

National Post