TORONTO - Government insiders are playing down Dalton McGuinty's refusal to say whether he'll serve a full term if the Liberals win the Oct. 6 election, but the Opposition says the premier should quit now if he's not committed to the job.
During a television interview Thursday, McGuinty was asked directly if he would serve the full four years if the Liberals are returned to power this fall by Ontario voters.
"I'm not going to speculate as to how long," said McGuinty.
"But I can say that I'm absolutely committed to seeing the policies through that we've already put in place, and to ensure that we also take the next step forward to ensure that we have the strongest possible economy."
Last October, as the Liberals wrapped their last annual general meeting before the provincial election, McGuinty had a different answer when asked if he'd stay for the full four years of a third term.
"You can't think like that, you just can't," McGuinty said last fall.
"This is 100 per cent or nothing, and when I'm developing a platform it's not with a view to saying there's an exit period that I'm going to insert here."
Finance Minister Dwight Duncan suggested Friday that people were reading far too much into McGuinty's latest comments. Duncan said he took it as a commitment by the premier to stay on to implement Liberal policies such as all-day kindergarten and phasing out coal-fired electrical generating stations.
"The coal policy won't be implemented until 2014, the full-day learning won't be implemented until 2015," noted Duncan.
"That seems like a full term almost to me, so any speculation about his early departure is premature."
The Progressive Conservatives called McGuinty "Mr. McGone," and said if he's not 100 per cent committed to serving as premier he shouldn't be running for the job again.
"If he can't commit to another term, then Dalton McGuinty better say so right now because the people of Ontario deserve better," said Opposition critic Lisa MacLeod.
"To be quite clear, a vote for Dalton McGuinty in the next election means you don't know who or what you're going to get, and that instability is not fair to Ontario families."
The New Democrats said McGuinty brought a lot of political trouble for the Liberals with the HST and rising electricity bills, and is trying to save face by admitting "the end is near" for his political career.
"Mr. McGuinty really has little future left here in the province of Ontario, and he's made that quite clear by his comments," said NDP critic Peter Kormos.
"I think Mr. McGuinty is acknowledging that he can't win the election, and he's signalled very clearly that his tenure is very short."
Duncan, who lost a bid for the Liberal leadership to McGuinty in 1996, refused to say if he'd run again when McGuinty does eventually leave.
Attorney General Chris Bentley, Health Minister Deb Matthews and Environment Minister John Wilkinson are among those considered as possible leadership contenders when McGuinty does eventually quit, but none was commenting Friday.
McGuinty, 55, was first elected to represent Ottawa South in 1990 in a byelection called to replace his father, Dalton Sr., who died after representing the riding since 1987.
After losing the 1999 election to Mike Harris, McGuinty led the Liberals to majority governments in 2003 and 2007.
