It’s interesting times, to say the least, when politicians very much of one stripe take on the spots of the opposition. That this is happening at two levels of government in Ontario, in ways hardly to be imagined only a year ago, is even more surprising.

The switcheroo isn’t being advertised, as that sort of thing can be highly detrimental to a politician’s health. But the results are becoming more apparent by the day. At Queen’s Park, Liberal premier Dalton McGuinty is taking on one of his core constituencies, the province’s powerful teachers’ unions. Facing a deficit that is now more than $15 billion, McGuinty’s minority government has been signalling for months that it’s willing to take on public-sector unions in an effort to close the budget gap. The “education” premier, who boosted education spending by 30% after taking over from the machete-wielding Conservatives in 2003, reached deals in August with the Catholic teachers unions that will see two-year wage freezes and sharp reductions in sick day provisions.

Now, McGuinty must wrestle a much tougher opponent to the ground – the mainstream teachers unions, which have walked out illegally in the past to make their point. And this is with the provincial NDP holding the balance of power, a factor that could trigger a general election.

Then, there is Toronto mayor Rob Ford, an individual of such astonishing political conviction (hard to the right) that he is willing to lose one key vote after another at city council rather than bend even slightly to the will of the majority. Ford’s message is extremely simple and boils down to: cut, cut, cut. The city is far from broke, but Ford has consistently maintained that it is bleeding red ink – mostly, he says, because of virtually irrelevant amounts spent on things he views as “gravy.” Examples include libraries, daycare spaces and bus routes.

But, in early August, the beleaguered Ford used a photo op to show that even tough guys can bend. The mayor gamely climbed to the top of a children’s, spidery rope climber in an innovative new park that is as far from his suburban hinterland as it’s possible to be: the new Underpass Park beneath a gigantic on-ramp to the Don Valley Parkway. Ford, who has been sharply critical of spending by Waterfront Toronto – which made the park happen – expressed surprise at making it to the top, then remarked: “This is great, actually.”

Wow.

Perhaps what’s most remarkable about this kind of shape-shifting, on the part of both McGuinty and Ford, is that these politicians are coming from opposite ends of the political divide. Yet, both appear to be driven by the same thing – big doses of reality. McGuinty knows that Ontarians are fed up with the yawning gap between the public-sector’s salaries, benefits and job security and a private sector in which the majority of employees are not unionized and have no company pension at all. Ford faces an electorate that also wants fiscal prudence but not of the knee-jerk, mindlessly inflexible kind that barely touches the bottom line while eroding basic civic values.

This all sounds a lot like people who might be willing to climb down a bit, as it were, and consider the public good above all.

Who’da thought? IE

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