What a difference a year makes. Last year at this time, the province was gearing up for an election. Even in the dog days of summer, Queen's Park was hopping.
And you can't help thinking if the same combination of events had occurred directly before last year's election, Dalton McGuinty and his government would have been held more accountable by voters than they have been so far this year.
As it is, they're a bit like the Beatles' '60s hit Nowhere Man.
You know, He's a real Nowhere Man, Sitting in his Nowhere Land,
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody. That seems to be the communications strategy for the McGuinty government.
Let someone else do the heavy lifting.
This month, a young child was murdered under horrific circumstances. Two weeks ago, a major propane explosion shook Toronto. Last week, we heard a deadly strain of listeria had killed at least two people and sickened many others.
It all had an aura of deja vu. Five years ago, in 2003, Ernie Eves grappled with SARS, the deadstock tainted meat scandal and a massive electricity blackout. Before that, the Walkerton water scandal rocked the province.
In all those cases, the Tory government was held accountable, day after day, by opposition politicians, by the media -- and ultimately by the public.
As soon as the Walkerton disaster hit the headlines, then environment minister Dan Newman held a gruelling news conference. After that, he was grilled daily. The province mobilized all its resources to get clean water to the town.
Yes, Mike Harris dragged his feet visiting Walkerton -- but he went.
When SARS rolled around, the province again held daily news briefings with health officials and politicians. When Eves took a break in Arizona at the time the World Health Organization issued a travel advisory, he was asked by a reporter why he hadn't stayed home.
And during the blackout, there were daily news conferences with politicians and representatives of the power companies droning on ad nauseam -- even if the only thing they had to report was there was nothing to report.
The Tories worked on the bizarre and clearly outdated theory that in a crisis, you get out there with information and make your leader accountable.
The Liberals have done the opposite.
Sure, McGuinty was in Beijing, pitching Toronto for the Pan Am Games. But what of Deputy Premier George Smitherman? He's been a Nowhere Man as well.
Public Safety Minister Rick Bartolucci came into town from his Sudbury riding the day of the explosion. Then went home. He came back for the firefighter's funeral. Then he went home. Peek and boo to you too, Rick. Can't see you.
When the listeria story hit last week, the person who spoke for the government was medical officer of health David Williams. And that's fair enough as far as it goes.
But what about political accountability? Health Minister David Caplan did not come out and talk to reporters. Another Nowhere Man.
Doesn't have a point of view. Knows not where he's going to.
What is most galling is that this duck-and-dodge, bob-and-weave Liberal way of dealing with crises seems to be working.
There are serious questions about food safety. About a child welfare system that allowed a child to be shuttled to an abusive home with apparently no checks. And about a self-regulatory system of inspecting the storage of hazardous material. But apparently all we care about is funding faith-based schools.
And no one in government is paying any attention.
Nowhere Man -- please listen.