<h4>Headlines</h4>
Dalton McGuinty's return appearance to the justice committee yesterday dominates the newspapers this morning. The Toronto Star described the former premier as "<a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2013/06/25/watchdog_slams_mcguintys_office_over_deleted_emails.html" target="_blank">unrepentant</a>", while the Ottawa Citizen's editorial board calls McGuinty's appearance "<a href="http://www.ottawacitizen.com/opinion/editorials/Performance+with+McGuinty/8577694/story.html" target="_blank">performance art</a>". The retired MPP strongly defended his governments decision to cancel the construction of two gas plants and called the justice committee's questioning "<a href="http://www.torontosun.com/2013/06/25/no-reason-to-believe-mcguinty-had-knowledge-of-staff-deleting-emails-cavoukian" target="_blank">a partisan affair</a>." (Partisan politics? At Queen's Park? Somebody fetch the smelling salts.)
At <a href="http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/06/25/christie-blatchford-dalton-mcguinty-was-egregious-outlandish-disingenuous-and-outrageous/" target="_blank">the National Post</a>, Christie Blatchford says "McGuinty the private citizen is more arrogant, less forthcoming and more hypocritical than the politician McGuinty."
Privacy commissioner Ann Cavoukian <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/privacy-commissioner-slams-former-mcguinty-staffers-over-deleted-emails-in-gas-plant-scandal/article12798793/#dashboard/follows/" target="_blank">also appeared at the justice committee yesterday</a>, where she memorably explained "it is called the Archives and Record-Keeping Act, not the Record-Deleting Act." The best news for McGuinty yesterday was that Cavoukian affirmed <a href="http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/reason+believe+McGuinty+ordered+email+deletions+Cavoukian/8576885/story.html" target="_blank">there's no reason to believe</a> he ordered the destruction of sensitive documents.
The Citizen's Mohamed Adam raises the thing that must really <a href="http://www.ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/Column+Teflon+Ontario+Liberals+face+another+test/8577559/story.html">stick in some Tory craws</a>: "...if you are an opposition member and you’ve been hammering away at the Liberals for about nine months, it is somewhat frustrating that you don’t have much to show for it." Wynne's poll numbers have been comparatively healthy despite the revelations of the last few months.
In other news, the province has announced that they will be <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2013/06/25/crown_wards_will_get_free_tuition_for_four_years_to_attend_university_or_college.html" target="_blank">providing four years of free tuition</a> to Crown wards for university and college. Youth advocates praised the change, saying that it will help open doors for a part of the population that often has a hard time making the transition to stable adulthood.
The ongoing battle between Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and Premier Kathleen Wynne seems to have reached a stalemate for now, as Wynne insists that the city <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2013/06/25/wynne_snipes_back_at_ford_says_toronto_being_treated_fairly.html" target="_blank">is being treated fairly</a> (relative to other GTA municipalities) and Ford complains that treating Toronto the same as East Gwillimbury <a href="http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/06/25/ontario-premier-refuses-to-back-down-after-rob-ford-slams-disgusting-changes-to-welfare-funding/" target="_blank">may be equal, but it's not fair</a>. But the reality of provincial-municipal politics is that Toronto is going to have to find a way to live with the province's decision, and Wynne seems disinclined to budge on this file.
On the personal side of things, Wynne says that her relationship with Rob Ford (what relationship, at this point?) has nothing to do with discussions of the province's $150 million cut.
And finally, in the "everything old is new again" file, after George Smitherman expressed interest in running for Bob Rae's old seat in Toronto Centre, former Ontario PC leader (and current AM radio host) John Tory says he's <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2013/06/25/john_tory_is_thinking_about_another_run_for_toronto_mayor.html" target="_blank">considering running for mayor in 2014</a>. In theory there's electoral space in Toronto for a fiscal conservative who doesn't <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2013/06/24/wynne_to_come_to_pride_flagraising_ford_uncertain.html" target="_blank">wait until his third year in office to attend Pride events</a>, and one who could perhaps keep relations with Queen's Park from disintegrating into open warfare. In practice, Tory has had as hard a time convincing Toronto to vote for him (in 2003) as he did provincially.
<h4>Events</h4>
The premier's day starts at 10:00 a.m. with a metting at the legislature with the Japanese ambassador, Norihiro Okuda. At noon the premier will have a cabinet meeting, then at 2:15 p.m. she heads to Leaside High School for that school's graduation ceremony. All these events are in Toronto, but Premier Wynne will travel to Ottawa at 6:00 p.m. for a speech to Canada 2020 on her plan for the province's economy, addressing infrastructure needs and "tapping into Ontario’s true potential for greatness." Which may mean "mining the Ring of Fire" but there might be something else.

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