Recently in the legislature, Progressive Conservative leader John Tory presented Premier McGuinty with 45 examples from provincial hospitals where wait times are in fact going up, not down.

Equally disturbing is that of the 45 hospitals reporting wait times for cancer surgery, 18 have seen an increase in the amount of time one is forced to wait before surgery since August 2005. And of the 11 hospitals reporting heart bypass surgery wait times, seven have seen wait times rise over the same period. As a former Minister of Health I can attest to the distressing nature of these statistics.

It should also be noted that it is not just myself, John Tory, or the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party making these types of declarations regarding the deteriorating state of healthcare under the watch of the Liberals. Several non-partisan, independent organizations have made similar claims.

First it was Ontario's Auditor General, Jim McCarter, who released a report claiming that Liberal wait time numbers were "misleading," and should be taken with "a grain of salt."

And now Advertising Standards Canada (ASC) has ruled on two separate complaints about a $2 million newspaper and TV advertising campaign run by the McGuinty Liberals during summer and fall this year. The ASC said the advertisements "made inaccurate claims and omitted relevant information." The ASC said they were assured by the government the ads are not going to run any more.

Of course, all of this comes in the wake of the closure of the birthing unit at Stevenson Memorial Hospital in Alliston.

Increased wait times. Misleading advertisements. Birthing units closing. How can Premier McGuinty have the gall to spend taxpayers' money on advertisements that claim that health care in Ontario has gotten any better?

It has only gotten worse.

For more information on this and other important issues from Queen's Park, visit my web site at www.jimwilsonmpp.com.