Elect a Liberal government and you’ll GO farther. That’s what Dalton McGuinty
is promising voters in Barrie, as he pledges to restore train service from
Toronto to the north by the end of the year. The Liberal leader vows the
extension is part of the government’s $17.5 billion transportation plan and that
it will make getting from the Big Smoke to Fresh Air country a lot more
convenient for those forced to make the long and sometimes difficult daily
commute. The total cost for getting four trains a day back on track: $250
million. Barrie has been without GO Train service since the provincial
government cut it back in 1993.

John Tory wasn’t thinking about getting around but just getting by as he
visited with the families of autistic children in
London on Tuesday. The PC boss calls the Liberal record on helping those
affected with the syndrome appalling, accusing the Grits of using every possible
means of standing in the way of parents looking to help their kids.

The government pays for autistic children to receive intensive one-on-one
therapy, but only until they reach the age of six. After that, they’re expected
to attend public school, where parents claim the benefits disappear. They can
continue to send their kids to specialists, but it costs up to $70,000 a year -
an amount that leaves most families bankrupt.

Tory promises to give those parents an additional $75 million a year to
extend the treatment, which he claims can’t wait. "Parents are being forced to
choose between sending their kid to school without treatment or isolated at home
to receive the therapy they need because their government has not done enough to
provide that treatment in schools," he maintains. "I believe the current
government and the current premier has failed these families." The PC leader
claims the wait list for services has grown from 89 when the Liberals were
elected to more than one thousand as of August.

And he wasn’t the only one leading the charge on a lack of leadership. NDP
boss Howard Hampton travelled to Sault Ste. Marie to hammer McGuinty on his
record of broken promises. He and repeatedly played a tape from the 2003
election debate where the Liberal chief pledge not to raise taxes, and displayed
45,000 pennies reminding voters of the vow not to raise their expenses by a
single cent.

"Mr. McGuinty has a record," Hampton reminds. "He doesn’t want to talk about
his record, he’d like people to forget about his record, but he has a four-year
record of saying anything, promising anything to get elected and then walking
away from those promises and disappointing people. Part of our campaign is to
remind people this is not what you voted for."

A Hampton government wants to eliminate the health care tax for low income
earners and reduce it by $450 for taxpayers that make up to $80,000 a
year.