`Spanky' changes tune over high-flying ways of Hydro One bosses

There was a time the energy minister would have clipped the wings of folks like Hydro One CEO Tom Parkinson, who has used the company helicopter to zip to his Muskoka cottage on a couple of occasions.

But something seems to have knocked the wind out of the minister lovingly referred to as "Spanky." Just recently, he sounded like the head of Parkinson's fan club, rather that the man responsible for riding herd on the provincially owned utility.

In opposition, Duncan and the rest of the Liberals went crazy over former Hydro One CEO Eleanor Clitheroe's well-documented executive expenses. They called for her head and she was eventually fired. She's now suing the government for wrongful dismissal.

Perhaps Duncan was feeling a little sheepish since he toured southern Ontario in the chopper with Parkinson last July to look at various Hydro One properties.

Premier Dalton McGuinty sounded more than a little impressed by Ohio Governor Bob Taft's familial heritage the other day.

"I'm not sure if you people are aware of this man's incredible political lineage. His great-grandfather was the 27th president of the United States and chief justice of the Supreme Court," McGuinty enthused to reporters in reference to William Howard Taft, president from 1909 to 1913.

"His grandfather was a U.S. senator, his dad was a U.S. senator and he, of course, is governor of Ohio," the premier continued, recalling Robert A. Taft, a senator from 1939 to 1953, and Robert Taft, Jr., who served in the Senate from 1971 to 1977.

"As the son of a politician, I'm feeling rather inadequate, Bob," he quipped.

McGuinty's father, Dalton McGuinty, Sr., was Ottawa South Liberal MPP from 1987 until his death in 1990.