For a few days last spring, it looked like the NDP could have won the election, they were ahead of Doug Ford and the PCs.

We could have had Premier Andrea Horwath.

Thank God voters thought twice.

All week I’ve been thinking about that as I watch the NDP react to Ford government changes with calls for more spending.

On Friday, it was revealed that the education ministry has ordered a hiring freeze for school boards across the province.

The NDP issued a news release headlined, “Take deep cuts to classrooms off the table.”

Deep cuts?

It’s a hiring freeze in an area where government spending has ballooned in recent years.

As I reported a couple of weeks ago now, spending on education more than doubled from $13.4 billion in 2004, the first budget of the McGuinty government, to $29.1 billion in 2018, the last Liberal budget. All figures adjusted to 2018 dollars.

In that time, the number of teachers grew from 112,235 teachers overseeing 2,129,742 students to 125,980 teachers plus 9,054 early childhood educators overseeing 2,020,301 students.

“Parents shouldn’t have to worry that their children won’t get the quality education they deserve as the Conservatives take their cutting agenda out on our children,” NDP education critic Marit Stiles said.

Really?

If money were the solution, then the McGuinty/Wynne Liberals would have left us a stellar education system. Instead, we have less than 50% of Grade 6 students being able to meet the provincial standard in math.

Education Minister Lisa Thompson confirmed the hiring freeze and said it is about spending tax dollars wisely.

“We need to take a hard look at how school boards spend their money and make sure every single dollar invested in our education system, is a dollar invested in a student’s future,” Thompson said.

Isn’t that what she should want from the government, that they make sure our tax dollars are spent properly?

For the NDP, the mantra seems to simply be spend!

Meanwhile when the PCs unveiled their health plan, Andrea Horwath was acting like the sky was falling.

Horwath was outraged that there could be more “private delivery of care” as the PCs over haul a system that costs plenty but is not delivering.

We have people being stashed in hallways on gurneys when they go to the hospital and Horwath is worried about who is delivering the health care?

“She has left the door open for privatization of the delivery of services,” Horwath said of Health Minister Christine Elliott.

The simple fact of the matter is that we have plenty of private delivery of care in our public health system already. When you visit your family doctor you are visiting a private clinic, same with most of the blood and X-ray labs you visit and yet you pay by simply handing over your health card.

Elliott promised that will not change.

Yet, Horwath kept sounding the alarm so I asked her directly if she would nationalize all those existing services if she were premier.

“We don’t think that public health dollars should be going to the profit lines of private companies. Yes that is the values that I hold,” Horwath told me.

Great idea, let’s start a fight with doctors by making them all government employees. Let’s spend billions buying up the existing clinics.

It wouldn’t improve care but it would be socialism!

Ontario dodged a bullet last June.