EDITORIAL PAGE — Goodbye, Bob Rae

Ontario voters said goodbye and so long to Premier Bob Rae, the well-meaning but hapless leader of the province’s New Democratic Party (NDP). Michael Harris’s “Common Sense Revolution” obviously struck a chord among voters fed up with the spiralling deficits and social engineering that characterized the Rae government.

Granted, not everyone in Ontario believes that Premier-elect Harris and his Progressive Conservatives will be able to deliver on their substantial election promises. But even skeptics can draw encouragement from a change in direction to less government, less spending, less regulation and, perhaps most important, fewer taxes.

Meanwhile, speculation is growing that Rae may quit provincial politics to become a contender for the federal leadership of the NDP. If he does so, he would truly be a glutton for punishment.