The latest scandal to envelope Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak should be enough to sink any self-respecting politician. Imagine boasting that you would create a million jobs, making it the central feature of your election program, and then seeing that promise torn to shreds by economists of every political stripe.

It seems Mr. Hudak, with a degree in economics himself, has manipulated the numbers by a factor of eight to arrive at his million jobs claim. The way it works with Hudak New Math is this – if you get a job and don’t get laid off for eight years… it counts as eight jobs! On the other hand, if you are unemployed from now to the year 2020 but then pick up a job for two years, it still counts as two jobs!

With this kind of math, it’s no wonder people are having a hard time trusting the man to run the province. But there are actually five other reasons not to trust Hudak:

1. He’s a job killer. Most people know there aren’t enough good jobs in our communities. But Tim Hudak says he will start off by killing 100,000 jobs. It is certain that thousands more jobs will be lost as collateral damage. For Greater Toronto, that will mean 68,000 fewer jobs in our communities. The fact is that public sector jobs provide much more equitable wages and conditions for women and people of colour, so this would be a real step backwards.

But what is not being considered is this: all of those people will then be out competing with everyone else looking for a job. So the three individuals in the Conservative TV ads who talk about wanting a job will find it that much tougher to land a position when they are competing with many more job-seekers with good resumes and solid work experience.

2. He doesn’t care if people are paid poverty wages. Most people believe that a job should lift you out of poverty, not keep you in it. But in the last 19 years Tim Hudak has voted against every proposal to raise the minimum wage. Does someone with that kind of record even care about working people being exploited? One of his media events was at a factory where the boss hadn’t given anyone a raise in nearly a decade. Is that the treatment you want from a boss, or a premier? There is no evidence to show that Hudak has any problem outsourcing work to low-wage contractors or temp agencies.

3. He will divide our communities. A just society is based on a foundation of strong public services – delivering programs and services to every community. It’s impossible to deliver quality services if front-line public sector workers are constantly being scapegoated and targeted. Yet that is the main theme of the Hudak approach – vilify the women and men who have chosen to work serving the public. What if they are your neighbours, friends or family members? Does anyone deserve to be treated like that?

4. He will squander billions more in corporate tax cuts. One of the main reasons there’s not enough money pay for transit, healthcare and education is the disastrous series of corporate tax cuts made in recent years. It is as if there is an addiction to tax cuts by some politicians, even when companies just take the money and either sit on it ($626 billion and counting) or go on spending sprees buying up other companies.

Tim Hudak says he will reduce the share corporations pay by another 30 per cent – but won’t say who will make up the difference. Roseanne Barr puts it beautifully in a clip from one of her comedy show:s “So who’s gonna pay the taxes that they ain’t paying?” And the answer of course is “You are.”

5. He won’t stand up for Canadian jobs. When wealthy corporations like Caterpillar, Kellogg’s and Heinz abandon both their employees and the communities that served them, Tim Hudak never objects to their behaviour. Isn’t that strange? Greedy companies, flaunting their power and destroying livelihoods is a problem he just can’t see. Instead he blames the Ontario government. Or, if you listen carefully to all the talk about “competitive labour costs,” he is really blaming Canadian workers for earning too much.

Every day, the Conservatives give us another reason why we can’t trust Tim Hudak to run this province. It’s up to all of us to vote on Election Day.

John Cartwright is president of the Toronto and York Region Labour Council.