While senior Cabinet ministers and party officials continue to deny that Ontario's PC government is adrift, seasoned and even casual political observers are drawing a much different conclusion. In the absence of a clear and defined purpose, incessant Cabinet shuffle - not to mention leadership - speculation is fueling Tory backrooms.

As a result of this, the PC party recently kicked off its latest policy visioning (is this a verb ) exercise. Dubbed Seizing Tomorrow's Opportunities, the effort includes an open-ended questionnaire as well as solicitation of public input through the party web site. The Premier stated "this is a mammoth exercise of consultation." Maybe so, but it is no substitute for action. And much action is still needed when it comes to Ontario's finances.

To be fair, the government has acted on several CTF suggestions over the past few years. Recent moves to de- link the provincial tax system from Ottawa's regime as well as ending provincial bracket creep were positive. Yet mammoth -- to paraphrase the Premier's words - challenges remain, especially when it comes to fiscal policy.

Yes the budget is now in surplus and personal income taxes have been cut by 35%. And contrary to the prophets of doom, government revenues actually grew by almost 30% from $49 billion to $64 billion since 1995.

But given the worrying signs of a looming economic slowdown (surplus inventories, corporate layoffs, a drop in the trend-setting U.S. 'Fed' rate of 100 basis points in the last month alone), if not a mini-recession, all is not well.

Almost 15% of government revenues are now derived from gambling proceeds, liquor sales and various fees and licenses. As sure as snow falls in winter, these will be the first to plummet as the economy slows.

On another front, servicing Ontario's monster $114 billion debt represents 16 lost cents out of every tax dollar collected. Moreover, Ontario has not curtailed its expenditures to the extent some critics would have you believe. Since 1995, total government spending is up by 11%.

Two ministries alone - healthcare and education - now account for 54% of all government expenditures. And each has seen its spending jump by over 20% since the Tories took power.

This is not to say that some of these expenditures were not warranted, rather it is to sound the alarm bell that if allowed to continue unchecked, spending in all other ministries will have to be re-examined and no doubt, cut.

Finally, given the demands from various cities for a new funding deal on everything from social welfare to infrastructure, as played out daily on the pages of the Toronto newspapers, taxpayers can be forgiven if they are a touch concerned with the Harris governments ability to manage through the difficult times ahead.

So what is the government to do Basically, it should finish the job it was elected to do some five and a half years ago. Truly putting large-scale public enterprises such as TVO and the LCBO in the window as real candidates for privatization (full or partial) or employee takeover is a necessity. Continuing and accelerating primary care reform and electronic patient records in health care to facilitate better care at a lower cost to the public treasury can not be delayed any further.

And a more aggressive (read: legislated and long-term) plan to pay off the debt before 2030 must be included in the spring budget.

The common sense revolutionaries should finish their first war before drawing up new battle plans.