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Articles October 8 2007

Star

McGuinty slams Tory’s new attack ad

Oct 07, 2007 06:45 PM

THE CANADIAN PRESS

Despite criticism he’s waged one of the nastiest ad wars of the lot, Premier Dalton McGuinty insisted he’s running a “positive campaign” and would never have
approved an attack ad like the latest one released by Progressive Conservative
rival John Tory.

In the ad, the Conservatives slam McGuinty for mismanaging health care, suing the parents of autistic children, wasting tax
dollars on “Liberal insiders” and ultimately asks whether the public wants
“four more years” of the same.

McGuinty said he first caught the ad while watching Saturday’s hockey game with his son Liam who initially tried to change the channel to “protect”
him.

“I said ‘Liam, let me see the ad, will you,”’ McGuinty said. “So I saw it and it’s never the kind of ad I would approve.”

McGuinty said he’s preferred to focus his campaign on his government’s successes such as getting medical wait times down and bringing peace to Ontario
schools which haven’t seen a teacher’s strike throughout his entire mandate.

“I think what leadership commands of us is that we speak to the sense of the possible. The great things we can do together,” he said.

Tory defended his ad, suggesting it’s not his fault if the truth hurts.

“When we have people in Ontario without a doctor and are elderly and can’t get help, to me this is a very negative record and anything you say about it is
bound to sound negative,” he said.

Ryerson University professor Greg Elmer said he’s been tracking the election campaign as it’s played out on the web and insists Liberal Internet postings
have been anything but positive.

He suggested the Liberals rolled out many of their positive ideas before the writ was dropped and have spent the official campaign period focusing on Tory’s
faults both online and through mainstream media.

“There’s a new element to all 21st century campaigns that have to do with YouTube and Facebook. There’s only so much we can manage in terms of my
campaign,” McGuinty countered.

“We have a kind of corporate campaign that’s manifested itself in ads that we put on TV, the kind of ads that we put on radio, the kind of ads that we put in
print and I like to think that I’m taking the lead on that and giving direction
on that.”

———————————————————————————————

Power to the people

Deregulation doesn’t lead to cheaper electricity prices — but try telling that to the FIBerals

By LINDA LEATHERDALE, TORONTO SUN

The bulletin from Democracy Watch says it all: People of Ontario — what are you voting for?

- Broken promises and dishonesty.

- Corruption and patronage.

- Waste.

- Secrecy.

- Lobbyists.

This is shocking stuff to think about, with the election only three days away.

Bottom line is, voters don’t trust any more, and who can blame them with all the lies, broken promises and flip-flops on so many issues that end up fleecing
taxpayers of their hard-earned money.

Hydro and its electrifying prices that fried consumers, businesses and left Northern Ontario a wasteland is a prime example.

Could it be that powerful lobbyists with big money bought the politicians?

Clamping down on wealthy influence through political donations is yet another broken promise by FIBeral leader Dalton McGuinty, who himself flip-flopped and
lied to us about electricity.

Let me remind you of his words:

In an Oct. 31, 2001, letter inviting private energy companies to a fundraising party: “Throughout Ontario’s electricity restructuring process,
Dalton and the Ontario Liberals have been consistent supporters of the move to
an open electricity market in Ontario.”

SKYROCKETING BILLS

But then the burning issue of hydro privatization, plus executive gluttony, began to fry Ernie Eves’ Tories, who busted up the old Ontario Hydro monopoly
into three entities and set the wheels in motion for a few to get very rich with
an IPO of Hydro One. Hydro bills were going through the roof, and thousands and
thousands joined in my Stop the Hydro Madness protest, where more than 90% said
they were opposed to deregulation. Eves was forced to cap electricity prices.

McGuinty smelled blood, and changed his message.

On Nov. 19, 2002, McGuinty said: “I didn’t create this mess. My job is to clean it up. The market is dead, deregulation is dead, privatization is dead.”
Then, in a Toronto Sun editorial board meeting on Sept. 5, 2003, McGuinty
stunned us by stealing NDP leader Howard Hampton’s thunder of public power:

BROKEN PROMISES

“The plan to deregulate electricity and open up the hydro market to competition simply hasn’t worked and we can’t go back there … No. 1, we’ve got
to keep hydro public,” McGuinty said.

That message, plus signing the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, promising no new taxes, won him a landslide victory.

But once in power, the FIBeral reign of broken promises began — the biggest one being the $11-billion health tax grab, with our money
ending up in a Slushgate scandal. A cricket club gets $1 million, while many
families can’t find a doctor and kids with autism are shut out.

As for hydro, McGuinty promised to keep Eves’ price caps, but lied again.

The caps came off, and the message on public power changed. Here’s what McGuinty’s energy minister had to say:

On April 15, 2004: “Electricity is going to be a great place to invest.”

On Aug. 9, 2005: “All new generation will be private.”

On Dec. 5, 2006: “I’m struggling everyday to keep the price of electricity down.”

Then on Aug. 30, 2007, McGuinty’s Liberals unveiled their new electricity plan, which confirmed plans to expand and open up our electricity market.

The promise is that with more private players and increased competition, prices will come down. That’s the same promise made by Mike Harris’ Tories.

Yet, report after report shows that in the U.S. electricity deregulation has led to skyrocketing prices and price caps.

In Illinois, where prices jumped 50%, the state last month was forced to sign a $1-billion rebate for residents and businesses struggling with their bills.
Illinois will also repeal deregulation. In Maryland, prices jumped 72%. Virginia
repealed electricity deregulation.

Meanwhile, a study by The Associated Press found consumers in 17 deregulated states paid, on average, 30% more for hydro in 2006; while the New York Times
reports a former Washington state utility regulator estimates these consumers
paid $48 billion more for their power.

Hampton warns that if we keep going down the dark road of deregulation, Ontario’s economy, now lagging the country in growth, will be hurt even more.

Public power, he’s adamant, is the only way to go.

But rich donations by a powerful energy lobby continue to pour into political coffers, he says, adding both the Conservatives and the Liberals are lucky John
Tory’s misguided policy on funding religious schools kept the hydro issue off
the table on the election trail.

It was the NDP who questioned the Tories about $17,000 in political donations from Enron Corp. — the energy supplier caught in California’s hydro
privatization crisis that went down in history as the biggest corporate
bankruptcy fraud in the U.S.

Hampton is sure money from energy players has flowed into Liberal coffers, too.

Quebec, Manitoba and the federal government have banned donations from corporations, unions and other non-voting groups, and Duff Conacher,
co-ordinator of Democracy Watch, says Ontario should do the same.

He also blasted the Grits for breaking another promise.

“By breaking their 2003 election promise to democratize Ontario’s political donations system, Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals have allowed wealthy interests to
have undue influence over the next provincial government through too large and
secret donations,” said Conacher, also chairman of the nationwide Money In
Politics Coalition.

SMART METER

So far, McGuinty is leading in the polls. If he wins, not only do we face even higher hydro bills but he’ll force every Ontario household to install a
smart meter by 2010 — which John Tory says will create a new administrative
boondoggle like the gun registry or MPAC (Municipal Property Assessment Corp.).
Right now, the poor souls in McGuinty’s smart meter project are paying 10.5
cents a kilowatt hour during peak hours and 7.5 cents in the mid-peak hours,
while we pay 5.3 cents for the first 600 kilowatt hours a month and 6.2 cents
above that, no matter the time of day.

The smart meter guinea pigs pay only 3.5 cents from 10 p.m.-5 a.m., so they were probably up all night cooking their Thanksgiving turkey.

Talk about a totalitarian state, where government controls everything.

Well, McGuinty — before a smart meter goes in my home, I demand a smart meter at Queen’s Park to meter all the wasted spending, the fat-cat pay hikes,
the bloated salaries of hydro brass and the big money donations.

And before it’s too late, we need a leader with integrity.

It’s time for Power to the People, not poor powerless people.

Go to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it to see how your party stacks up on honesty and ethics.

————————————————————————————————————

NDP, Tories make last-ditch effort to turn tide of McGuinty majority

GLORIA GALLOWAY

From Monday’s Globe and Mail

October 7, 2007 at 10:23 PM EDT

TORONTO — Ontario Conservative Leader John Tory and the New Democrats’ Howard Hampton made
last-gasp efforts Sunday to derail another Dalton McGuinty Liberal majority.

Mr. Hampton was out campaigning hard against Mr. McGuinty, blaming the Liberals for the loss of thousands of jobs last year in
the province’s manufacturing sector.

And Mr. Tory was talking in upbeat tones despite polls that suggest the Liberals are on the road to an easy victory – and that he may
even lose in his own riding of Don Valley West.

“Many people are saying they are ‘powerfully motivated’ to change the government,” Mr. Tory said. “So they will be out to vote on
Wednesday and a lot of people will be joining them and we will do just
fine.”

Mr. McGuinty quickly denounced the message as being too negative. “It’s never the kind of ad I would approve,” he told reporters
Sunday.

But Mr. Tory said the only way he can describe the record of the McGuinty government is in negative terms.

“When we have autistic children who have not received aid and we have people who are paying tax who are among the
poorest in Ontario, when we have people without a doctor who are elderly and
can’t get help, then anything you say about it is bound to sound negative,” he
said.

But, even if the ad catches the attention of voters, the question for both Conservatives and New Democrats is whether there is enough
time to turn the tide on a McGuinty majority. Late last week, one poll suggested
the Liberals had an 11-point lead.

Peter Woolstencroft, a political science professor at the University of Waterloo, said there have been elections that saw major
changes in voter support in the final two or three days, and sometimes a
well-executed advertising campaign has been the deciding factor.

“But I don’t think we have this here,” Dr. Woostencroft said. “The people who are going to vote have already made up their minds.”

Others, however, were not ready to hand the majority to Mr. McGuinty just yet.

“Given the circumstances, I think the message in their current TV spots is the best bet,” said Greg Lyle, the managing director of the
Innovative Research Group, a public-opinion research and strategy firm.

“However,” he said, “for it to work, the Tories need to narrow the Liberal lead to about five points. That would need a movement of
voters equal to the biggest week of the last federal campaign – possible but not
easy.”

Despite the size of the task, one senior Tory said the response at the doorstops this weekend suggests people are thinking twice about
the casting their ballot for the Liberals.

“Even though they might be comfortable with another Liberal win, a bunch of them are saying that McGuinty needs to be punished a bit
and sending him a majority is the wrong message,” he said.

“It might make things interesting after all. I definitely get the sense that our worst days are over and that we probably are
making gains.”

And John Capobianco, who worked as an adviser for the former Ontario Conservative government of Mike Harris, said campaigning this
weekend has convinced him that people are more receptive to Mr. Tory than they
were a week ago.

As for the New Democrats, Mr. Hampton hinted Saturday he may re-evaluate his role after the election. After every election, he told
Global TV, “you sit down and think about it. I’m not making any promises either
way.”

Henry Jacek, a political science professor at McMaster University in Hamilton, said a win for the New Democrats would be to increase
their seat count in the Ontario Legislature from 10 to 15.

With reports from Steven Chase in Ottawa and The Canadian Press

———————————————————————————————————————

Globe

McGuinty shies away from attack ads

Canadian Press

October 7, 2007 at 2:20 PM EDT

MARKHAM, Ont. — Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty says he’s running a ‘positive campaign’ and would
never have approved an attack ad like the latest one released by Progressive
Conservative rival John Tory.

In it, the Conservatives slam Mr. McGuinty for mismanaging health care, suing the parents of autistic children,
wasting tax dollars on ‘Liberal insiders’ and ultimately asks whether the public
wants ‘four more years’ of the same.

Mr. McGuinty says he first caught the ad while watching Saturday’s hockey game with his son Liam and says his first thought was that it
was not the approach he would take.

He says he was raised to always focus on the positives and in this campaign, that means what his government has done to reduce medical
wait times and strengthen public schools where teachers haven’t been on strike
in four years.

He deflected criticism that while his mainstream media ads may be positive, those on YouTube and other websites have been anything
but.

Mr. McGuinty says there’s ‘only so much he can manage’ but that he’s the one giving direction when it comes to newspaper, radio and TV
ads.

————————————————————————————————————————

Tory upbeat despite gloomy outlook

GLORIA GALLOWAY

Globe and Mail Update

October 7, 2007 at 2:47 PM EDT

TORONTO — Ontario Conservative Leader John Tory is talking in upbeat tones today despite polls
that suggest the Liberals will walk away with a majority government on
Wednesday.

Mr. Tory, who spoke to about 1,500 people at a Christian revivalist-type church service in North Toronto, said he was not concerned about
surveys showing Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty with an 11-point lead heading
into the last week of the campaign.

“I have much greater faith in people who believe in the things that I do — honesty in government, competence with their tax dollars,
fairness so we’re not leaving people behind,” Mr. Tory told reporters.

“Those people are very powerfully motivated to go and vote and to change the government because they know four more years of Mr.
McGuinty is not going to produce honest, competent, fair government. They will
be out to vote on Wednesday and a lot of people will be joining them and we’ll
do just fine.”

Mr. McGuinty complained earlier in the day about what he said were American-style attack ads from the Conservatives that played on
Saturday night during the hockey games.

But Mr. Tory said the only way he can describe the record of the McGuinty government is in negative terms.

Polls also suggest that the Conservative Leader could be defeated in his own seat of Don Valley West where he campaigned door-to-door on
Sunday.

Reporters asked if he would stay in politics should that happen.

“The best way I can make a difference now — I decided this four years ago — is in public life,” replied Mr. Tory. “I came into public
life to make a difference for a period of time and it wasn’t to be short.”

But he said he had not given up hope of winning the seat, nor the election.

“I have been canvassing from door to door as recently as last night, I went out in my own riding late because I just couldn’t stand to
sit around doing nothing and I can tell you there’s an awful lot of people that
are thinking very carefully about the question that I have been posing. Do they
want four more years of Dalton McGuinty?” Mr. Tory said.

“Anybody who declares it in advance, especially Mr. McGuinty is being arrogant and is being disrespectful to voters.”

At the church service, he told the mostly-black congregation that young black children and kids from other countries had been
left behind and needed an outstretched hand from government.

“There is a wealth of talent among adults and kids in these communities,” he said, adding that he was proud of being characterized as
a bridge-builder among races and religions. “The problem is a lack of access to
opportunity.”

——————————————————————————————————————————

National Post

Liberals, Tories accuse each other of ‘most negative’ campaign in years

Lee Greenberg and James Cowan, National Post and CanWest News Service

MARKHAM — Premier Dalton McGuinty, lashed out at his
Conservative rival Sunday, saying he would not have allowed the type of attack
ad aired by John Tory’s campaign Saturday night.

“It’s never the
kind of ad I would have approved,” Mr. McGuinty said yesterday. “I was raised to
find a way to be positive.”

“It just runs counter to what I think
Ontarians want to hear.”

Mr. Tory defended the ads saying the spots
merely highlight Mr. McGuinty’s shoddy record in office.

“Any recitation
of Mr. McGuinty’s record is bound to be categorized as negative because it is,”
Mr. Tory told reporters after attending a church service.

Mr. McGuinty
said he saw the ad Saturday Night while watching Hockey Night in Canada with his
second-youngest son, Liam.

“When the ad came on at the beginning he
would change it,” Mr. McGuinty said yesterday. “In a funny kind of way he was
trying to protect me. I said ‘Hey, Liam, lemme see the ad will you?’
”

The stripped down attack ad features
(similar to previous PC Party ads found here) the ominous voice of a male narrator, who asks “Do you really
want four more years of mismanaged health care? Four more years of Dalton
McGuinty suing the parents of autistic children?”

As the
narrator poses the questions, they are written over a black screen. The ad goes
on to critique the Liberal leader for a shortage of family doctors and wasted
tax dollars on “Liberal insiders”

“Do you really want four more
years of Dalton McGuinty? Because if you vote Liberal on Oct. 10, that’s exactly
what you’ll get.”

Mr. Tory said the ad raises legitimate
concerns.

“I think people have to ask themselves if we want four more
years of what we’ve seen: people without a doctor, children with autism not
getting help, seniors not getting the care they need. I think these are
legitimate questions for an election campaign and if it sounds negative, that’s
because it has been and it will continue to be if we stick with the present
leadersip.”

A senior McGuinty advisor yesterday fumed about the ad,
calling it another example of what he said was the most negative campaign
Canadian political history.

Mr. McGuinty said he’s chosen to do
things differently.

“If you take a look at the kind of campaign we
ran in 99 and 2003 and what I’m running on today in 2007, I think Ontarians are
entitled to see a positive plan placed before them.”

But
Conservatives disagree. They point to a union group that has actively campaigned
against Tories in the last two elections. Conservatives allege the Working
Families Coalition — a group that has used several key Liberal campaign
strategists — is a front for the McGuinty Liberals and has launched a complaint
with the province’s chief election officer.

One recent WFC accused
Mr. Tory “and his neoconservative team” of voting “against children.”
(Ironically, the ad appears to use the same narrator as Mr. Tory’s latest attack
ad). The group’s 2003 ads using the memorable tagline “Not this time, Ernie,”
are said to have been instrumental in the defeat of former premier Ernie
Eves.

Mr. Tory yesterday accused Liberal “cronies” at the WFC
of running “the most negative (ads) that I’ve ever seen in Ontario
politics.”

Conservatives also point to the Liberal war room’s
occasionally nasty online
campaign. (The latest example is below, the main
site is at ToryTube.ca)

Videos posted online by Liberals include one poking fun at a language gaffe where
Mr. Tory mistakenly asks a reporter, in French, to wait a few moments “par [sic]
favor.”

Mr. McGuinty yesterday distanced himself from that online
campaign.

“There’s a new element to all 21st Century campaigns
that has to do with youtube and facebook,” he said. “But there’s only so much I
can manage in terms of my campaign. We have a sort of corporate campaign that’s
manifested in the kinds of ads we put on TV, the kind of ads we put on radio and
in print, and I’d like to think that I’m taking the lead on
that.”

Asked if he was distancing himself from his war room
director, Liberal lobbyist Warren Kinsella, Mr. McGuinty replied: “What I’m
saying is I’m running a strong, positive campaign.”

Ontario voters
will elect a new government on Wednesday Oct. 10. According to the latest polls,
Mr. McGuinty’s Liberals hold an 11-point lead over their Conservative
challengers, who were hampered by their disastrous plan to fund religious
schools.

Mr. Tory criticized the Liberals for focusing on that plan
rather than discussing issues. “I think the handling of the education issue at
the start of the campaign by Mr. McGuinty could certainly not be described as
‘positive’ and ‘constructive,’ ” he said.

The Conservative leader’s
uplifting message during his visit to Rhema Ministry stood in sharp contrast to
the negative tone of his party’s advertisements.

Addressing close to
1,500 congregants, Mr. Tory said he had entered public life to “make sure, on
some Thanksgiving Day, not too many of us in Ontario can feel we can be equally
thankful.”

————————————————————————————————————————————

ctv.ca

McGuinty says he’s running a ‘positive campaign’

The Canadian Press

MARKHAM, Ont. — Premier Dalton McGuinty says he’s running a `positive campaign’ and would never have approved an attack
ad like the latest one released by Progressive Conservative rival John Tory.

In it, the Conservatives slam McGuinty for mismanaging health care, suing the parents of autistic children, wasting tax dollars on
`Liberal insiders’ and ultimately asks whether the public wants `four more
years’ of the same.

McGuinty says he first caught the ad while watching Saturday’s hockey game with his son Liam and says his first thought was that it was not the approach he
would take.

He says he was raised to always focus on the positives and in this campaign, that means what his government has done to reduce medical wait times and
strengthen public schools where teachers haven’t been on strike in four years.

He deflected criticism that while his mainstream media ads may be positive, those on YouTube and other websites have been anything but.

McGuinty says there’s `only so much he can manage’ but that he’s the one giving direction when it comes to newspaper, radio and TV
ads.

———————————————————————————————————————————————

Star

Party faithful thank Tory for defusing `mind bomb’

Reversal on school funding issue appears to have brought back Conservative
supporters

Oct 07, 2007 04:30 AM

Robert Benzie
Rob
Ferguson
Queen’s Park Bureau

Promising to fund faith-based schools has been a “mind bomb” that will likely cost the Progressive Conservatives the election, but reversing course on the
scheme appears to have stemmed the bleeding of core Tory supporters.

Leader John Tory announced Monday he would put his $400 million plan to bankroll Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Sikh, Christian and other religious schools to a
free vote in the Legislature.

That move effectively kills the measure, because even some Tory MPPs would join Liberals and New Democrats in voting it down.

In dozens of interviews with Conservative incumbents, candidates and backers since the policy flip-flop, there is a palpable sense of relief among the party
faithful.

Although polls show Premier Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals poised to win a second majority government Wednesday, Tories insist the U-turn has given them a
fighting chance in many ridings they might otherwise have lost.

“That helped. I certainly noticed a difference. It was hard to get our message out because of that,” Bob Bailey, Conservative candidate in
Sarnia-Lambton, said yesterday.

“A lot of people who had doubts before came back to me and said to me, `Look, Bob, we wanted to vote for you all along and this helps us,’” said Bailey, who
is running against Culture Minister Caroline Di Cocco.

Terry Flynn, a marketing professor at McMaster University who studies political communications, said Tory sabotaged himself and is paying the
price.

“It doesn’t matter what he says now. The mind bomb has been dropped,” said Flynn.

“They didn’t understand the backlash it would create.

“They’ve impaled themselves on this.”

Tory incumbent Frank Klees, who is running in the new riding of Newmarket-Aurora, is a big booster of funding faith-based schools, and he blames
the Liberals for stoking public outrage over the proposal.

“To John’s credit, he recognized that the misinformation was there, that people can’t come to a conclusion on this until they’ve had a chance to consider
the real facts,” Klees said Thursday.

“There’s been a shift, there’s been a turnaround. We had a gentleman … who had been saying: `I am not going to vote for you over this issue.’ He came in
(the office) this morning and not only did he say he was going to vote for us,
he cut us a cheque to contribute to the campaign.”

Bramalea-Gore-Malton candidate Pam Hundal said Friday that “the whole faith-based thing was a smokescreen.”

“People had questions. Once I clarified it to them, then they moved on very quickly to what the real issues are in our riding like the closing of our
hospital, Peel Memorial,” said Hundal.

At Pickering GO station on Thursday, Ajax banker Ted Clark, 38, echoed the concerns of many voters.

“Earlier on, I did not like (Tory’s) stance on opening up the public education to all religions and I wasn’t going to vote for him,” said Clark, who
voted PC in 2003.

“But the fact that now he’s willing to consider it as a free vote in the Legislature, I am seriously thinking of bringing my vote back,” he said.

Asked yesterday if he wished he had changed his tune a week or more earlier than he did to salvage the election, Tory
shrugged.

“I wish I’d been born a better looking man, but … the bottom line is that things are as they are,” the PC leader said in Sarnia.

“I am very happy that we’ve had this week, a 10-day period, in which we’ve been able to really talk about the other issues – autism,
the doctor shortage, crime, the economy,” he said.

“Those who write this election off and say it’s over, I would say are misjudging the fact that there’s going to be a lot of
conversations taking place over a lot of turkey dinners at a lot of dining room
tables across this province, where people are going to be saying: do we really
want four more years of Dalton McGuinty?”

Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound incumbent Bill Murdoch, the first to publicly break ranks with the party on the schools issue, said the debacle “took over the
election.”

“I don’t believe John wanted it to be the main issue,” Murdoch said last week.

Tory strategists said their polling showed voters favoured the plan once they understood it was merely extending to other religions the same education now
available to Catholics.

But that message got lost and, worse, revived memories within the PC party over the controversial 1984 decision by former premier Bill Davis – Tory’s
friend, mentor and former boss – to extend full funding to Catholic schools.

“It’s a sore point in some parts of the province,” said John Snobelen, education minister from 1995 to 1997 under PC premier Mike Harris.

“You get down into the kind of battles that happened in (some) small communities when the Catholic education funding to high school came in; it was
really bitter.”

Still, Snobelen, who canvassed in several ridings last week, said that since the policy shift, there’s “a different feel and there’s more volunteers and it’s
a more affable group.”

“I do know that the party faithful is back in the fold and that’s great,” he said.

Randy Hillier, the rural rights activist and Tory candidate in Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington, summed up the discomfort voters felt over
religious schools.

“There was a little bit of a lump in some people’s throats … and they’ve swallowed and now people are feeling far more comfortable,” Hillier said
Thursday in Kingston.

——————————————————————————————————————————-

Maynard pledges to not accept MPP pay raise if elected

Ross McDermott, LondonTopic.ca

October 6, 2007

With just five days left until Ontarians go to the polls, London-Fanshawe NDP candidate Stephen Maynard made a personal commitment to not accept a 25 per cent
pay raised for Ontario MPPs, passed in eight days by the McGuinty Liberals last
December.

He made the “personal commitment to the people of
London-Fanshawe,” Friday (Oct. 5), while being flanked by several, former
Liberal supporters who have pledged to vote NDP in the upcoming provincial
election.

“While people earning minimum wage were told they would have to
wait three years to earn $10 per hour, last Christmas the Liberals rushed
through, in just eight days, a 25 per cent pay raise for MPPs. The Liberals and
Conservatives have both voted for this. Only the NDP opposed it,” Maynard
said.

His pledge is following the move by a majority of NDP MPPs who,
instead of accepting the legislated pay raise, are donating that money, on a
monthly basis, to not-for-profit organizations in their respective
communities.

“I know what it’s like to try and make ends meet on minimum
wage,” Maynard said, adding he will donate the 25 per cent to organizations in
London, “to help those citizens who need our help the most, and I will continue
to do this until Ontario’s working poor get a minimum wage of $10 per hour and
until people on (Ontario Disability Pension) get a raise as well.”

Behind
Maynard stood several citizens who all felt they were betrayed the Liberal
government for which they voted during the last Ontario election.

Among
those was Cynthia Boufford, whose son Jordan suffers from autism and was a
victim of a Liberal broken promise four years ago.

“I voted for (Khalil
Ramal) in the last election because he stood on his platform and said people
like (her and Jordan) won’t have to wait for treatment for their children’s
autism. Six months later my son was discharged and he waited three years to get
back into service,” Boufford said.

Though she spoke with Ramal after her
son was discharged, and carried out a personal protest against the actions of
the McGuinty government, “Mr. Ramal always towed the party line that parents
aren’t experts and the government was using their own experts.”

Boufford
said she was impressed with Maynard’s honesty. “The Liberals can promise
anything, but they don’t follow through on them.”

Jordan, 9, is one of
the rare children over the age of six, who is back in treatment now. The
Liberal’s experts, she explained, claim therapy doesn’t help children over six
years of age but Jordan’s condition has improved immensely since getting back
into therapy. She believes her outspoken protest and letter campaign to Queen’s
park is the main reason her son is once again receiving
treatment.

Maynard said many important issues have been ignored during
this election campaign as too much focus has been placed on PC Leader John
Tory’s stance regarding funding for faith-based schools.

“Important
issues have been ignored. There are seniors – our parents and grandparents –
sitting in urine-soaked diapers in long-term care homes,” Maynard said. “There
are autistic children and parents still seeking the financial program support
they need. The Liberals took those families to court rather than honouring their
promises.

“Ontario,” he concluded, “has become the child-poverty capital
of Canada.”

———————————————————————————————————————————

Tory blasts McGuinty for ‘Bluewatergate’
By CHIP MARTIN, SUN MEDIA
2007-10-06

PC Leader John Tory was in Sarnia today where he
blasted the McGuinty Liberals
over massive cost over-runs which saw the local
hospital expansion project
balloon to $320 million from the original estimate
of $276 million. With Tory
is local candidate Bob Bailey (CNW Group/John Tory
2007 Campaign)

SARNIA — Spiralling costs, lack of accountability and
incompetence have made
Sarnia’s new hospital “ground zero” for Dalton
McGuinty’s style of management,
Conservative leader John Tory said here
today.

“The Dalton McGuinty school of mismanagement is closing down next
Wednesday,”
Tory told a small group of supporters outside the troubled
project.

Expansion of the Bluewater Health Centre, originally estimated
to cost $140
million has ballooned to $319 million, raising a firestorm of
controversy and
a political headache for Liberal Caroline Di Cocco. Di Cocco
is accused of
knowing about cost-overruns in August but suppressing that
information.

Conservatives have dubbed it McGuinty’s
“Bluewatergate.”

With Di Cocco under fire, both Tory and NDP leader
Howard Hampton have made
late-in-the-campaign stops to blast what they call
Liberal mismanagement of
the project. They see Sarnia-Lambton as up for
grabs.

“She has continued to delay, deny and obscure the facts,” Tory
said in his bid
to bolster the hopes of Conservative candidate Bob
Bailey.

Tory described as a “shaggy dog story” Di Cocco’s assertion
she was unaware of
a letter sent her in August by the ministry of health
advising the cost by
then had risen to $276 million.

He said local
ratepayers who have wanted redevelopment of the hospital for at
least 15
years — and have raised $40 million for it — deserve better.

The
facility is a partnership with the private sector, with prime
contractor
EllisDon of London.

“Skyrocketing costs. Deceptive
information. No results. This has become the
McGuinty mantra for health
care.”

In North Bay, he said, a hospital project has ballooned from $221
million to
$551 million.

Tory said construction should proceed
immediately and an in-depth audit
undertaken, involving the OPP, if
necessary. And the province, he said, should
cover all the cost-overrun and
not local citizens.

On his way back to finish his
campaigning in the greater Toronto area, Tory
also stopped at a coffee shop
in Strathroy where he posed for pictures with
seven-year-old Jonathan Sibley
of Ilderton whose parents can’t afford the
treatment he needs for autism. He
gave the youngster a tour of his campaign bus.

And Tory also heard
the story of town resident Henry Twynstra, 73, who had to
sell his home to
cover the $40,000 cost to remove a brain tumour in Cleveland
when he couldn’t
receive timely treatment at home. A lifelong Liberal,
Twynstra said the
health system is unfair and after meeting Tory said he plans
to vote for
him.

Tory is planning stops in Burlington and Barrie before ending his
day in Toronto.

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