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The financial books were so bad under the Liberals that both of the Legislature’s independent, non-partisan financial watchdogs — the auditor general and the financial accountability office — said the Liberals were fudging the numbers to understate the true costs of the public debt they were amassing.

Ford and the PCs were elected on a mandate to get Liberal spending under control and balance the province’s books.

Now that they’re beginning that job, recipients of provincial funding such as municipalities and school boards — along with the teachers’ unions who have fought every Ontario government of every political stripe for three decades — are up in arms.

Suddenly, we’re being told by the usual suspects that not one precious dollar of government spending can be reduced or children will starve and people will die.

This is hardly a new tactic.

Toronto Mayor John Tory said back when he was a radio talk show host in 2013 that politicians of all stripes faced with the need for financial restraint mislead the public by warning any cutbacks to government funding will hurt “widows and orphans.”

In other words, instead of figuring out how to reduce bureaucracy and improve efficiency, they push the panic button and fear-monger about worst-case scenarios.

To be sure, the Ford government has an obligation to reduce public spending responsibly and not to endanger public safety in the process.

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It should also welcome the advice from recipients of provincial funding who understand the status quo is not an option when it comes to the provincial government’s unsustainable levels of debt, and who are making genuine efforts to reduce spending.

It is always better if these sorts of tough financial decisions are done cooperatively, through negotiation, rather than imposing them on provincial funding recipients who want to continue to ignore fiscal reality.

That said, Ford has a mandate to cut spending and to balance the books over time.

Indeed, he ran on it.