TENILLE BONOGUORE AND PAUL WALDIE

Globe and Mail Update and Canadian Press

October 9, 2007 at 11:58 AM EDT

PICKERING, Ont. — Warning signs were flashing all over the religious school funding plan long
before Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory revealed the proposal that
could well lose him Wednesday’s election.

Internal pre-election polling showed three years ago that the controversial plan to extend funding for all religious schools was not
popular, Mr. Tory said Tuesday morning.

But pursuing the issue was still the right thing to do, he insisted.

“When we polled on that three years ago, the majority of the public were in fact against it. But people recognized there was an issue
there,” Mr. Tory told a Toronto television station as he lamented the fact that
the proposal has dominated the campaign.

Only 27 per cent of voters support the Conservatives, according to a poll conducted by the Strategic Counsel for The Globe and Mail
and CTV.

The poll makes it all but certain that Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals, at 42 per cent, will win a second majority.

But the leaders of the three main parties do not see the vote as a fait accompli.

A flurry of campaign stops will wrap up the 2007 election campaign on Tuesday as Ontario’s political leaders vow a fight to the
end.

NDP leader Howard Hampton visited a number of ridings won by his party in recent by-elections in an effort to remind voters that
“there is an alternative” to Liberal leadership.

“It’s a message for all the people in the province of Ontario,” he said at a stop in the riding of York South-Weston. “You don’t have
to give him the possibility of a majority.”

If re-elected with a majority government, Mr. McGuinty would let down children with autism and those looking
for affordable health care and increase private involvement in health care, Mr.
Hampton said.

“That’s the real agenda of Dalton McGuinty and nothing is going to change,” he said. “We’re saying to people: you
have another choice.”

Mr. McGuinty played down the prediction of a victory for his party, saying the campaign was not over yet.

“There’s still a lot more work to be done. I’ve been through this before. I’m going to keep driving as hard as we can until the last
vote is cast,” a relaxed-looking Mr. McGuinty told reporters after a campaign
rally in Pickering, Ont.

Mr. Tory was singing a similar tune, vowing to “keep fighting right ‘til the end” despite polls foretelling a likely loss.

At the start of a whirlwind tour of 11 ridings on Tuesday, Mr. Tory said he could not believe religious school funding had been
the defining issue of the campaign when Ontario is grappling with so many other
problems.

“It occupies about a third of a page in a 52-page platform that deals with transit, jobs, taxes, health care and other aspects of
education,” he said.

If people re-elect the Liberals, Mr. Tory said they are condoning the last four years of broken promises and low standards.

“People are seemingly not prepared to accept that higher standard,” Mr. Tory said on an early-morning radio station. “They want to stick
with the same-old, same-old politics as usual — lower standard of honesty and
integrity.”

Both Mr. McGuinty and Mr. Tory are ending the day at Don Valley West, the Toronto riding that Mr. Tory hopes to win by toppling Kathleen
Wynne, the education minister in the last government. Internal polls show the
riding is “very competitive,” Mr. Tory said.

It took a lot of “political courage” to run in that seat, Mr. Tory added, instead of sticking with the safe rural seat he won in a
2005 by-election.

“I took on that risk, and I knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” Mr. Tory said, adding he is not planning on resigning if the
Conservatives don’t win Wednesday. “I felt throughout that we did our best and
that’s all you can do. The voters will get to decide tomorrow.”

Mr. McGuinty brushed off suggestions that his decision to wind up campaigning in Don Valley West was a sign of cockiness. “It’s another
riding for me to visit,” he said. “It’s another opportunity for me to speak to
Ontarians.”

He was also careful to deflect questions about his government’s first priorities if the Liberals win tomorrow. “We will talk about
that once and if we earn the privilege of serving Ontarians as a government,” he
said.

‘There is another choice,’ says Hampton

SIRI AGRELL

Globe and Mail Update

October 9, 2007 at 11:30 AM EDT

TORONTO — NDP leader Howard Hampton visited a number of ridings this morning won by his party in
recent by-elections, an effort to remind voters that “there is an alternative”
to Liberal leadership.

“It’s a message for all the people in the province of Ontario,” he said at a stop in the riding of York South-Weston. “You don’t have
to give him the possibility of a majority.”

Mr. Hampton has kept up an intense travelling schedule this week, making numerous stops a day as the other party leaders relax their
itineraries, an attempt to capitalize on the apparent hemorrhaging of support
for Progressive Conservative leader John Tory.

“Mr. Tory went for a walk in right field on day one and he hasn’t come back since,” Mr. Hampton said. “Even voters who identify as
conservative are coming to us and saying, ‘This time, I’m voting NDP’.”

The NDP campaign stopped in Toronto and Hamilton ridings that were won by party candidates in four by-elections since the 2003 vote,
pointing out that each was once considered an “unbelievably safe seat for Dalton
McGuinty’s Liberals.”

If re-elected with a majority government, Mr. McGuinty would let down children with autism and those looking
for affordable health care and increase private involvement in health care, Mr.
Hampton said.

“That’s the real agenda of Dalton McGuinty and nothing is going to change,” he said. “We’re saying to people: you
have another choice.”

Mr. Hampton will also visit Sudbury and Thunder Bay today before arriving in Fort Frances, where he will spend election day.

He hopes to defy expectations for his party, despite a failure to make significant gains in two previous elections as leader.

“Ever since religious schools has gone off to Never Never land where it belongs, and people have been able to think about the real
issues, we’ve been growing in support,” he said. “I suspect we’re going to do a
lot better than people think in this election.”