Premier Dalton McGuinty and Conservative MPP Steve Clark have very differing views on the Samsung deal. McGuinty claims that the Samsung deal will create “More jobs for families in Ontario's Clean Energy economy” - while Clark argues that “McGuinty has to stop thumbing his nose at Ontario families”.

PHOTO CREDIT - OurHometown.ca

Cornwall - Aug. 9, 2011 - It’s little wonder voters often feel disconnected to their elected officials. A perfect example is the mixed messages being sent by provincial parties on the Samsung deal, leading up to the October 6th Ontario election.

Today, OurHometown.ca ran two media releases dealing with the Samsung deal - one from Premier Dalton McGuinty and another from Conservative MPP Steve Clark. See the photo on the right to see the differing messages. McGuinty claims that the Samsung deal will create “More jobs for families in Ontario's Clean Energy economy” - while Clark argues that “McGuinty has to stop thumbing his nose at Ontario families”.

PC Leader Tim Hudak has vowed to kill the Samsung deal if elected Premier in October. The Liberals have suggested that the Samsung deal will create 16,000 jobs. In his release Clark stated the following, “Earlier this year, Energy Minister Brad Duguid misled voters and said it would cost too much to get out of Dalton’s sweetheart Samsung deal. But when the Liberals finally released the deal this week we learned we could have got out of the deal for nothing.”

In defence of his sole-sourced deal with a foreign company, McGuinty said, "We're moving forward together to become number one in North America when it comes to clean energy. Thanks to the hard work of Ontarians, that's already happening. Ontario's economy has turned the corner and we're back on track. We can't go backwards, now,"

Clearly, energy will be one of the big issues discussed in the upcoming election. Voters will have to make up their minds on a number of issues, but it is obvious that there is a great deal of difference in how the Liberals and the PC’s view this Samsung deal.

Sometimes it is best to look at the past to see how the future might play out. Voters in Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry will remember MPP Jim Brownell’s 2007 election guarantee of hundreds of Liquiforce jobs coming to the area. Ask the retiring MPP how that worked out.

Maybe, this McGuinty promise will be different…