Dalton McGuinty Fumbles Opportunity for Greatness

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty is hailed as an environmental visionary for permitting government workers to go casual throughout the summer months in order to cut down on electric bills. Wearing light summer clothes enables offices to run at higher temperature, thereby reducing the need for air conditioning, than if workers wore suits.

This story reminds me of the argument that big government came to the United States after air conditioners were installed in government offices in Washington, DC in the 1920s. Before that, DC was deserted during the summer months as federal workers and politicians headed north to escape the beastly summer heat and humidity that DC gets. With AC, they remain over the summer and find lots of trouble for government to get into (and to expand its activities).

With this in mind, I think McGuinty could bring environmental and conservative (and libertarian) factions of Ontario politics together simply by shutting down government over the summer. Let all the politicians and bureaucrats to spend their summer in Muskoka. If he were to do this, he’d have a permanent majority for a very long time.

Part of me resists this conclusion. As the great fashionista Nicholas Antongiavanni argues, the decline of the West began when casual Fridays were instituted. True barbarism. Now Ontario will institute casual everydays; you might as well have Alaric ride his troops through Toronto.

Be bold, Dalton: give them the summer off!