A pre-pre-election budget to bolster Liberal fortunes: Cohn
(The Star Toronto Raptors)

A pre-election budget normally comes on the eve of a campaign.This one arrived prematurely — a pre-pre-election budget — the better to shore up worsening Liberal fortunes. While there’s still time, well before next year’s campaign.More on the 2017 Ontario BudgetJust as a hanging clears the mind, fear of an electoral lynching has forced the Liberal brain trust to appeal for clemency. For they come now with offerings.Repent and repeat:Free pharmaceuticals for young people (a blessing). Transit breaks for old people (a sop).Cheaper child care for young parents (long overdue). Free tuition for most college students (already announced but still worthy and worth repeating).Rent control for everyone (a reprise). Hefty discounts off everyone’s hydro bills (a perennial).And the first balanced budget after a decade of deficits (about time). Which clears the way for its more progressive measures, notably phased pharmacare.All this thanks to surging tax revenues from a robust economic recovery that is leading the country and most of the industrialized world, while driving unemployment down.Just days after the NDP proposed its own embryonic pharmacare program, we now know why the Liberals were at a loss for words all week: They didn’t want to give away their own budget plan.Read more: Ontario Liberals unveil balanced budget that features free youth pharmacare planHighlights from the 2017 Ontario budgetWinners and losers from the 2017 Ontario budgetOne-handed applause for youth pharmacare plan: WalkomBy redressing the embarrassing gap in Canadian health care — medicare without full pharmacare — Ontario is finally taking a first step toward a truly universal program. The rival Liberal and NDP plans have similar projected costs (under $500 million a year), and offer only partial coverage, each in their own way.Taken together, however, they serve as a reminder that the battle for progressive voters has already begun — ...