André Marin must be feeling a little like Clint Eastwood’s gunslinger character in Unforgiven.[rssbreak]
Marin knows what it’s like to be a hired gun, but now there may be a price on his head. The popular Ontario ombudsman’s days of kicking ass and taking numbers may soon be over.
Premier Dalton McGuinty is said to be looking to replace Marin, and the six-month extension of his contract offered March 24 may be just a temporary reprieve.
Some in the Liberal party, it seems, are not happy with the way Marin is operating.
He has embarrassed the Grits on numerous fronts – most recently on the government’s failure to pick up the cost of cancer drug Avastin – and they’re worried he might drop a bomb in the Libs’ lap just in time to muck up their re-election chances in 2011.
Some potential doozies are on the ombudsman’s to-do list: an investigation into long-term health care as well as a follow-up probe into police watchdog the Special Investigations Unit.
Maybe Marin’s grab for more power has got the preem’s office feeling a little antsy, too.
When he arrived on the scene a few years back, Marin came in promising to use the vast investigative powers of the Office of the Ombudsman to clean up the public service.
He wasn’t fooling around.
Marin has attacked bureaucracy bogged down by what he likes to call “rulitis,” investigating with police-like precision and deploying a Special Ombudsman Response Team to probe complaints.
SORT’s findings have sparked major overhauls in every area from funding for the disabled, special needs children and Legal Aid to a housecleaning at the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission.
Now Marin wants the authority to probe municipalities, universities, school boards and hospitals – the push for MUSH, it’s being called.
When it comes to municipalities, universities, school boards and hospitals, the ombudsman’s powers are actually more limited in Ontario than in any other province.
Marin takes public service seriously. His work has attracted international attention.
He’s made his office the talk around the water cooler at Queen’s Park.
His resumé is impressive. Before he was appointed ombudsman of Ontario, Marin headed up the police watchdog SIU and served as military ombudsman.
At each stop, it’s been for a good time, not a long time. Enemies were made. He may not be keeping his office shades closed or checking the lampshades for hidden microphones, as he did for a time as military ombudsman at the Department of National Defence, but the hawks in the Liberal caucus are circling.
And so it goes. Although why Marin wouldn’t be regarded as the government’s best friend is hard to fathom.
Think of all those times the Grits ended up looking good by promising to clean up the messes Marin uncovered. Marin has been told he’s welcome to re-apply for his job. And he has, which is why he declined our request for an interview. A selection committee made up of MPPs from each of the three parties will review applicants for the job.
It’s hard to imagine anyone better qualified than Marin.
enzom@nowtoronto.com
