Make no mistake, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) has been quite critical of Premier Doer’s approach to governing over the past ten years. That being said, he was much better than the last one...the last NDP Premier that is.

Consider the track record of Howard Pawley, NDP Premier of Manitoba from 1981 to 1988. During Pawley’s short time as Premier, his government increased the debt from $1.4 billion to $5.3 billion. In addition, Pawley increased the PST from 5 per cent to 7 per cent, created a payroll tax, hiked personal and corporate income taxes multiple times, and introduced the province’s land transfer tax.

Fortunately for taxpayers, Doer was different. Over the past ten years, he cut the small business tax rate from 9 per cent to 1 per cent, reduced the general business income tax rate from 17 per cent to 12 per cent, provided school tax relief and some personal income tax relief. We applaud those measures.

However, as Gary Doer jets off to Washington, he leaves us with some of the highest personal income tax rates in the country, sky high school property tax bills, more provincial debt than when he took office and a dangerous free spending inertia within government.

In many areas, the services provided to taxpayers leave plenty of room for improvement. While Mr. Doer heads for a city that used to have a basketball team called the “Bullets”, he leaves behind a province with one of the highest crime rates in Canada. “Hallway medicine” is alive and well, as are other unacceptable health care outcomes. Our provincial highways need significant tender loving care and many are questioning the results of our public education system.

Given all the money in the system, Manitobans deserve better results. From 1999 to 2009, Doer increased spending from $6.0 billion per year to $10.2 billion – more than double the rate of inflation and population growth. The increase can be attributed to a tendency by his government to address problems with new spending rather than fundamental reform.

Jean Chretien upset many by making budget cuts to balance the federal budget. Former Ontario Premier Mike Harris introduced workfare programs, began testing teachers, published school test results and stared down greedy public sector union bosses. Gary Filmon introduced “Filmon Fridays”, sold off a money-losing telephone company and contracted out services. Right now in New Brunswick, Premier Shawn Graham has instituted a two year wage freeze for all provincial government employees.

Each of those measures were controversial, but were implemented to save taxpayers money and improve results. Premier Doer’s rein largely steered clear of such taxpayer friendly reform initiatives.

There are certainly other accomplishments and shortcomings of the Doer decade that are subject to debate, but most would agree Gary Doer was a good champion of the interests of Manitobans at national and international deliberations. He will serve Canadians well as our next Ambassador to the United States.

In the mean time, the CTF looks forward to working with his successor.