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The root of the escalating conflict between Ontario’s teacher unions and Premier Doug Ford’s government is that taxpayers can’t afford what the teacher unions are demanding.

That’s the reality, no matter how many one-day strikes teachers hold across the province — including Wednesday’s by Toronto high school teachers, their second in as many weeks.

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Ditto for the job actions across Ontario by all the teacher unions.

None of it changes the reality that in their last decade in power, the previous Liberal government — ignoring the financial advice of their own experts — hired 14,000 more teachers, an increase of 12.5%, while enrolment dropped by 110,000 students or 5.2%.

Combine that with the fact Ontario high school teachers, for example, earn an average salary of $92,000 annually — second highest in Canada and among the highest in the developed world — and it’s clear the status quo is not an option.