Raise the Hammer

Ontario public health spending - $46.1B, ~ 3.492k/capita
N.Y. public health spending - $51.5B, ~ $2,654/capita

Budgets, minus health care:

Ontario... $125.9 - $46.1 = $79.8B, $6.045/capita
N.Y... $154.5B - $51.5B = $103B, $5,309/capita

Budgets minus health care and interest charges

Ontario... $79.8B - $10.0B = $69.8B, $5,288/capita
N.Y....$103B - $1.9B = $101.1B, $5,211/capita

However, if you look at these numbers as a percent of GDP, they look like this...

Ontario... $69.8B/$592.2B = 11.7%
N.Y.... $101.1B/$1,114B = 9.0%

Therefore, even if you strip out health care spending, Ontario's government is 30% bigger than N.Y as a percent of our economy.

In 2002-03, the numbers looked like this...

$71.9B total spending - $25.8B health spending
- $9.7B interest charges = $36B

$36B / $477.8B GDP = 7.54% of GDP.

In fact, from 2002-03 to 2010-11 under Dalton McGuinty, total program spending in Ontario has increased at a rate of 7.5% per year (not adjusted for inflation). In contrast, the economy has grown by only 2.72% a year (not adjusted for inflation).

Even after all of this government spending, the child poverty rate has increased under Dalton McGuinty ( tinyurl.com/6e8vogf ), while it fell under Mike Harris.

Under Mike Harris from 1996-2003, inflation adjusted incomes for all Ontarian's grew at a rate of 5.6%. Under Dalton McGuinty, incomes have only grown 3.7% a year. By putting more people in the non competitive public sector, the result is slower productivity growth and slower wage growth.

I don't have the provincial numbers, but since Ontario is about 40% of Canada's economy, these numbers help to illustrate this fact. From 1996-2003, labour productivity in Canada increased by an average of 2.05% a year. From 2003-08, labour productivity has only grown at a rate of 0.6% a year.