Globe’s Murray Campbell on the Ontario
election
Globe and Mail Update
October 11, 2007 at 12:20 PM
EDT
"Dalton McGuinty was handed victory on a silver
platter," The Globe’s Queen’s Park correspondent Murray Campbell writes today in
his front-page column McGuinty must
now tackle issues he sidestepped in his first mandate
"He became the first Liberal Leader in 70 years to
fashion back-to-back majority victories without having to do much more than
stick to his script and poke Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory with a
sharp stick every once in a while.
"Mr. McGuinty enjoyed a healthy stretch of similar good
fortune in his four years as Premier. When he came to office, he was sorely
tested by the $5.6-billion budget deficit left for him by the departing
Conservatives. He rose to the occasion by making a definitive (although
unpopular) decision to implement a $2.5-billion annual health tax rather than
watch Ontario’s social services erode further.
"But in the later years of his term, he was largely
spared such crucial leadership moments. Revenues soared and in the way that a
rising tide lifts all boats, Mr. McGuinty suddenly found he had enough money at
his disposal to cut off at the knees a lot of problems …
In an earlier column, The victor
faces a forbidding landscape, he wrote last week: "Whichever
political party forms the next Ontario government will face a daunting set of
very expensive problems that will have to be confronted amid worsening economic
conditions,"
"New contracts will have to be negotiated with public
servants, teachers, nurses and doctors, a new structure for financing
municipalities found, and some delicate stickhandling will be needed to deal
with the volatile property-tax assessment system.
"If that’s not enough, the new government will also have
to make some quick decisions about new nuclear power plants and try to find a
way to solve the protracted confrontation with natives in Caledonia …
"These issues will cost billions of dollars, but
economists warn that the government cannot count on the boom of the past few
years to continue."
Mr. Campbell is online today to answer your questions on
the result of yesterday’s election and on how the re-elected Liberals can try to
meet the challenges Ontario faces.
This is not one of our regular live discussions. Rather,
it’s a question-and-answer session. Your questions and Mr. Campbell’s answers
are posted at the bottom of this page.
Mr. Campbell has written The Globe’s Queen’s Park column
since 2002.
He joined The Globe in 1977 after earlier experience at
The Toronto Star, Ottawa Citizen and in England.
In his career with The Globe he has worked in a wide
variety of positions, including city editor and sports editor.
He served as bureau chief in both Los Angeles and
Washington in the 1990s. Since then, has worked as a national and foreign desk
reporter, both based in Toronto, and as a feature writer.
In reporting from five continents, he has covered
innumerable elections, four Olympic Games and the aftermath of the 1994 genocide
in Rwanda.
He was a Southam fellow at Massey College in the
University of Toronto in 1983-4 and won The Globe’s Stanley McDowell award for
writing in 1992 for his coverage of (among other things) the L.A. riots and the
U.S. presidential election that year.
Editor’s Note: We will follow
the same rules for this Q&A that we do for our regular live online
discussions: globeandmail.com editors will read and allow or reject each
question. Questions may be edited for length, clarity or relevance. HTML is not
allowed. We will not publish questions or comments that include personal attacks
on the participants in this forum or other commenters, that make false or
unsubstantiated allegations, that purport to quote people or reports where the
purported quote or fact cannot be easily verified, or questions that include
vulgar language or libellous statements. Preference will be given to readers who
submit questions/comments using their full name and home town, rather than a
pseudonym.
Jim Sheppard, Executive Editor,
globeandmail.com: Welcome, Murray, and thanks for taking questions today
from the readers of globeandmail.com.
You wrote in today’s paper about what the McGuinty
Liberals are facing in the second term. But a lot of our readers are also
wondering about John Tory’s fate. Is he safe as PC Leader? Do you foresee any
dissension with the ranks? Or calls for him to step down?
Murray Campbell: I know that
Mr. Tory is saying that he will stay on, but I don’t see how he can do that for
very long.
He doesn’t have a seat in the legislature and it’s
unlikely that anyone in his caucus would step aside for him.
As well, he left a safe Conservative seat outside
Toronto because he wanted to run in the city and it would be unseemly to have to
retrace his steps to a rural seat.
It is difficult to lead a party without being in the
House. Mr. Tory did it for a few months until he won his by-election in 2005 but
it is not ideal.
I’m certain that in the coming days there will be
internal talks about his stepping aside.
He was instrumental in getting the party back on its
feet after the 2003 election loss but I just can’t see him hanging in.
Ideal Pragmatist: Mr.
Campbell, Ontario got the government it didn’t dislike as much as the
alternatives.
But don’t you think there is a stale smell in
democracyland here?
I think the Liberals got away with one — no punishment
for probably the biggest bunch of fibs ever told to voters (in 2003), a free
ride in an election campaign pretty much devoid of any analysis of their
achievements (or lack thereof), and no serious debate about Ontario’s uncertain
economic future.
Murray Campbell: Well, Mr.
McGuinty certainly benefited from the Conservative pledge to bring private
religious schools into the public education system.
Voters looked at that policy and they weighed it against
the government’s record and decided they could live with an imperfect government
rather than one that wanted something that went against the grain of Ontario
populism.
It’s probably a little unfair to accuse a government of
being stale just because it won a second channel but it’s worth noting that the
Liberals got (if my math is correct) the support of 22 per cent of eligible
voters.
Ross Smith, Niagara Falls:
Mr. Campbell, do you feel that the re-elected Liberal government will address
the issue of a more-fair approach to levying the Ontario Health Premium?
Applying it like income tax, as a percentage of income, would be more equitable,
I think.
Murray Campbell: The
Liberals have given no indication that they have any plans to remove the
regressive nature of the tax. In the Premier’s words, he needs "every penny" of
it.
There is a review of the tax scheduled for 2009,
however, and perhaps that will be the time they would consider rejigging the way
in which it is collected.
D.K.: How long do you think
it will be before Dalton raises taxes again? I fully expect an increase in the
health levy, now that the Liberals have secured a majority.
Murray Campbell: Mr.
McGuinty is now on the record as saying he will not raise taxes in his second
term.
I know he said that before and cynics would say he would
have no compunction about breaking the promise for a second time. But I think he
understands that his reputation would be irredeemably tarnished by raising taxes
yet again.
Michael De
Wit: Now that the Liberals are moving into four more years of majority rule,
will they finally address the overall questions related to autism?
My impression is that they are now
going to try and sweep it under the carpet and do anything but — which is only
going to make things far worse that they already are.
Murray
Campbell: The autism file has nagged the government for four
years.
The Liberals argue that they have,
in fact, implemented their promise to provide treatment for school-age
children.
Still, there’s a huge waiting list
and I would expect the Liberals will make some moves to whittle it down because
it’s an issue that has become very high profile and bothersome to
them.
Lunatic Moon: Murray, I
agree with your column that the Ontario government faces huge challenges in the
next four years.
But one challenge which never gets any attention is our
rapidly changing demographics.
"Old Ontarians" simply are not reproducing and we
therefore require replacement workers. Is it conceivable — within the next four
years — that the province could be controlled by "New Ontarians" who may wish to
revisit the faith-based funding issue?
Murray Campbell: I don’t
think old Ontarians are going to loosen their grip that quickly and, besides,
there’s no compelling evidence that recent immigrants want to revisit the
religious schools issue.
Many have said throughout the campaign that they want to
integrate into Ontario society and that they value the role that public schools
play in such a process.
Inge Jordan, Ottawa: What
effect do you think the Ontario election result will have federally? Will it
help the federal Liberals?
Murray Campbell: I talked to
someone in Stephen Harper’s office last night and I was told that the federal
Conservatives would not draw any lessons from the election.
They are two different landscapes.
It’s also instructive to note how often Ontarians like
to vote so that they get different parties in office in Ottawa and at Queen’s
Park.
Given that, the federal Liberals can’t expect any bounce
from Mr. McGuinty’s victory.
Josie Erent: I do not
understand why this Liberal government insists on spending $40 billion on
nuclear energy when other countries such as Germany and England have decided not
to go that route.
What is the reasoning behind building this extremely
expensive, environmentally unfriendly technology that has even been criticized
by respected scientific groups such as the Pembina Institute.
The Ontario public does not support nuclear energy. Yet,
the government, power generation unions, the atomic energy industry and the
natural gas industry are trying to ram it down the unwilling Ontario taxpayers’
throats.
Murray Campbell: It’s
difficult to gauge the public’s attitude toward nuclear power.
It depends on how the question is asked, whether it’s
phrased in the context of budget overruns and waste problems or whether it’s put
in the context of electricity shortages.
The government has concluded that it has to keep the
current share of electricity production borne by nuclear plants because if it
didn’t it couldn’t guarantee electricity supplies after about 2020.
I recognize that there is criticism that they are not
doing enough to support renewable energy sources but it’s a tough, tough call
and no government can afford to run an electricity system on hopes and wishes
for alternative sources of energy.
It’s worth noting that there are nearly 40 applications
to build new nuclear plants in the United States.
Martha K.: Mr. Campbell,
thank you for taking our questions. Might it be correct to interpret the results
as many Ontarians not necessarily voting for Mr. McGuinty but against
faith-based funding? That was my perception.
Murray Campbell: That’s a
perfectly valid interpretation.
The Liberals were very skilful in exploiting the
anxieties of Ontarians about the faith-based schools proposal, but that’s not
the same as saying that those who voted Liberal did so because they support its
agenda.
I’m willing to bet that most people don’t even know what
their second-term platform is because it barely got discussed.
It’s worth noting, too, that Liberal support barely
budged during the campaign and the people fleeing the Conservatives seemed to
have voted for the New Democrats or the Greens.
For most of the campaign, Mr. McGuinty’s approval
ratings ran behind those of his party.
Jim Sheppard, Executive Editor,
globeandmail.com: Murray, thanks very much for joining us today. I’m sure
our readers appreciated your insight and analysis.
Mississauga-Streetsville:
Transit, health care help Liberal incumbent
For the second time in a row, Liberal MPP Bob Delaney has beaten
Progressive Conservative Nina Tangri, this time in the booming new riding of
Mississauga-Streetsville.
Delaney, who trounced Tangri in 2003 in the former riding of Mississauga
West, held onto the new riding, which was created in 2007 from a blend of
Mississauga West and the old Brampton West-Mississauga.
"I’m absolutely elated, and we won on a combination of factors, from the
government’s record to the fact that things are better in western Mississauga,"
said Delaney, 55, moments after being declared the winner last night.
"My two marquis issues were reducing gridlock with the new Go Train station,
and hospital expansion," said Delaney.
However Tangri blamed her loss on a province-wide "protest vote" against the
Conservatives’ vow to fund private religious schools, a promise she said the
Liberals used to scare voters.
"The Liberals clearly spent the whole time fear-mongering about faith-based
school funding and we shouldn’t have let them do that," said Tangri, 42, an
insurance broker who said voters raised the funding of faith-based schools with
her about twice a day.
"The Liberals centred on this one issue in our platform
to keep from confronting their record of broken promises, and the people who
lost in this election were really the parents of autistic children and people
who need better health care – all the other issues we should have been
debating.
However Delaney said it was transit and health care that won the riding. The
former public relations consultant had campaigned on the McGuinty government’s
support of the first new GO Train station in Mississauga in 25 years; the new
Lisgar station opened in September.
Tangri had accused Delaney of rushing the opening of the station as a
pre-election photo op, although she also campaigned on a vow to ease gridlock
through more HOV lanes and extending the Toronto subway line west from Kipling
station.
It is the fourth failed bid for Tangri, who ran for the Conservatives twice
federally, as well as in the 2003 provincial election. She said she had agreed
to run again this time out of admiration for party leader John Tory.
The riding is a relatively affluent hub of many new Canadians – many from
South Asia and China – who mostly own their own homes and have an average annual
income of about $78,000.
Long a conservative stronghold that sent Tony Clement and John Snobelen to
Queen’s Park, the area went Liberal during the 2003 McGuinty sweep, and stayed
Liberal red last night.
NDP candidate Gail McCabe, a sociology professor at York University, had
campaigned for a $10 minimum wage and more social services for those living in
poverty.
The Green Party’s Scott Warner vowed more government protection for the
environment and the Family Coalition Party’s Masood Atchekzai promised more
support with families struggling with disabilities.
All candidates pledged to support expanded health care, but it was the
Liberal government’s support for a new wing at Credit Valley Hospital that
Delaney said won him widespread support across the riding.
"A new four-story block is under way at Credit Valley that will extend
complex continuous care and maternity care, with 140 to 150 more beds," said
Delaney, although Tangri, who sits on the Credit Valley Hospital Board, said the
expansion was initiated by the hospital, not the Liberals.
Health care also tops Delaney’s list of priorities for his new term of
office; he vows to champion a new ambulatory surgery centre that would relieve
the operating room pressures at Credit Valley.
Modest
gains for New Democrats
FORT FRANCES, Ont.–NDP Leader Howard Hampton had hoped to hold the balance
of power by the end of the night. Instead, he settled for an extra seat.
"We’re quite happy," Ontario NDP party president Sandra Clifford said after
the party won 11 seats, including Hampton’s riding of Kenora-Rainy River.
"With an even bigger caucus we’ll have an even bigger voice and be able to
highlight issues of importance to Ontarians," she said last night.
Before the polls even closed yesterday, a confident Hampton squelched
speculation that this would be his last election as leader, saying: "I like my
job."
This is the third time he has led the party in an election, and while gains
were made, there was still disappointment that they didn’t manage to wrest
enough seats from the Liberals to give Ontario a minority government as they had
hoped.
"It would have been great to have a minority government. It would have been a
more responsive government," Clifford said.
At dissolution, the Liberals held 67 of the 103 seats in the Legislature, the
Conservatives 25, the NDP 10, and there was one vacancy. Four extra ridings were
added due to redistribution.
The controversy over the Conservative proposal to fund religious schools
meant, "a lot of voters turned off the whole discussion and that always favours
the incumbent," she said.
For Hampton, unlike Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty and Progressive
Conservative Leader John Tory, this election was never about trying to win
enough seats to become premier.
The NDP strategy was simply to win enough ridings to keep the Liberals from
getting another majority. Vote for the NDP, Hampton told Ontarians, from one end
of the province to the other, and "we’ll be able to hold them accountable." It
was a strategy he was sure would succeed.
Hampton, 55, pushed hard on the party’s six election issues.
The NDP would reduce or eliminate the controversial
health tax for middle- and low-income earners; immediately raise the minimum
wage to $10 an hour and roll back last year’s pay hike for MPPs; increase
funding to schools so parents don’t have to fund raise for essentials and pay
for intensive therapy for all the autistic kids who need it; freeze university
tuition at 2003 levels and eliminate classroom fees; expand home care beds and
give seniors in long-term care homes 3 1/2 hours of nursing and personal
care a day; and introduce a right-to-know law so people know what toxins are
being used and stored in their neighbourhoods.
There was a confident air, in the early days of the campaign, that these six
issues would resonate with Ontarians and the way to make them happen was to
elect New Democrat MPPs so they could play a strong role in a minority
government.
By the final days Hampton had changed his tune and, rather than encourage
people to vote for New Democrats because of what they stood for, he urged
Ontarians to vote for them to stop the Liberals from walking away with the
election and letting down people afterward.
The NDP was the best option for traditional Liberal voters who "neither trust
nor believe" McGuinty and for Conservative voters dismayed that Tory "took a
long walk in right field the day the election was called," Hampton said.
Asking voters to vote NDP "just this once" was a bit of come down from the
early days when Hampton was being questioned about which party he’d prop up in a
minority government and which NDP policies the other leaders would have to
implement to get his support.
But Hampton said he had no regrets.
"We set out to raise the issues that matter to ordinary Ontarians, people who
have been disappointed and let down by the McGuinty government and in the last
week or so we actually managed to get some attention focused on those
issues."
In the end it wasn’t much of a race at all, with the 69-year-old McNeely
pulling in 19,947 votes, more than 7,000 votes ahead of Graham Fox, 33.
“I’m very, very humbled by the victory, by the support I’ve received from the
people of Orleans,” McNeely told supporters.
McNeely, a retired civil engineer and former Ottawa city councillor who was
first elected to the legislature in 2003, met about 100 supporters at the
Orleans Legion shortly after Fox conceded.
He confessed Fox’s credentials — a public policy researcher who has worked
for federal Tory Joe Clark — and the hype surrounding his candidacy were
daunting. Conservative Leader John Tory visited the riding six times, which
proved unnerving even though McNeely managed to unseat a strong Conservative,
Bruce Coburn, in the last provincial election.
“I was (worried),” said McNeely, who lost 25 pounds leading up to the
election. “I worked very hard. I knew I had a challenge.”
McNeely praised Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty for
bringing in a second majority government, despite “low, low, low” negative ads
that left him getting “blamed at the doors” for the provincial court action on
autism.
It was a disappointing night for Fox who, with 176 of 215 polls reporting,
came away with 12,744 votes in a race many thought would go his way.
“In the end, we came up short,” he told supporters after conceding to McNeely
and making his way to Orleans’ Gabriel’s Pizza.
But a composed Fox stressed the campaign was not in vain.
“While the McGuinty government thought they could coast through this
election, we asked the tough questions and made sure they were accountable,” he
said.
Fox danced around the issue of whether he thought Tory’s faith-based school
funding stance hurt his campaign.
"I’m going to leave the speculation to others and let the dust settle on the
results," he said. "But certainly I’m proud of my leader, who took a principal
stand on fairness and we’ll see what happens from tomorrow on."
A boyish smile crossed Fox’s face when the first-timer was asked if he’d run
again.
"We’ll see," he said.
NDP candidate Andree Germain, a 31-year-old social worker who works with the
HIV Prevention Research Team at the University of Ottawa, came third in the race
with 2,421 votes. Germain — who is getting married in 10 days — only decided to
run for the NDP at the last minute when she realized no one else was.
“I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to be first or second,” she said.
- with files from Alex Hebert and Jennifer McIntosh
—————————————————————————————————————————-
Ottawa Sun
October 11, 2007
By MEGAN GILLIS, Sun Media
Bittersweet win for young
Tory
Lisa MacLeod laments party’s fate, death of father as she wins
Nepean-Carleton
“Life is a lot like
political campaigns — it can take an awful turn so quickly, so quickly that when
the dust settles you wonder how you can be standing,” she told supporters. “Six
weeks ago tonight, my father passed away from a very brief illness with cancer.
“He was my biggest supporter, my closest adviser and my greatest ally. He
would have taken great pleasure tonight no doubt in our very solid win here in
Nepean-Carleton but I also know he would share with me and you the
disappointment in tonight’s provincewide result.”
MacLeod’s father, veteran Nova Scotia municipal politician Dan MacLeod, was
on hand at Greenfield’s in Barrhaven when MacLeod swept to byelection victory
after longtime MPP John Baird jumped to federal politics.
Eighteen months later, supporters again cheered as the 32-year-old strode in
with her toddler daughter on her hip but the mood was subdued as news of the
Liberal victory filled the pub’s TV screens.
MacLeod paid tribute to leader John Tory and promised to be a merciless
critic of the government in opposition and to work to renew and rebuild her
party.
“We’ve worked hard,” she said of her own win. “I ran on my record which was
working with other community leaders regardless of political stripe or level of
government to achieve results. We have a proud Conservative tradition in this
riding, building on that with the work I’ve done with community leaders it
spelled success.”
“More likely than not, people voted on the local candidate here,” she added.
“And more likely than not, they voted on a package of issues I’ve been
working on and brought resolution to, rather than a party platform of the
Conservatives or the Liberals or the New Democrats.”
In the next session, she wants to push for a children’s bill of rights and
continue to try to make the legislature more welcoming to MPPs with families.
Local issues she is pushing include preserving Manotick
Square and continuing work on a new autism centre.
While MacLeod held a blue bastion, with 21,034 votes (with 232 of 272 polls
reporting), Liberal Jai Aggarwal was left behind in a Liberal sweep, bringing in
13,531 votes.
Aggarwal, 27, said he’ll continue to be involved in his community and urged
MPPs to work with city councillors to plan for light rail.
“I’m very happy with the kind of campaign we’ve run,” Aggarwal said. “I think
we’ve given the electorate a lot to think about and the results are obvious.
People are very much embracing the vision and ideas of Dalton McGuinty. Our team
was a small part of a large effort and I’m very happy about that.”
The Green Party was poised to replace the NDP as the third party for the
first time, with 3,562 votes.
“We’re on the radar screen,” said candidate Gordon Kubanek, who said his
party is now seen as a credible alternative by voters worried about the lack of
transit and disappearing farmland.
“People see us as realistic in the long term. There’s no panacea for the
problems but we can steadily solve the problem. People don’t believe in quick
fixes anymore.”
NDP candidate Tristan Maack, 28, who received 3,075 votes, said he was able
to raise his party’s core values — a better minimum wage, dental care for the
poor and other policies that promote social justice.
“I work at a grocery store and I’m not experienced in politics but I hope I
have brought to the front the NDP values,” he said. Suzanne Fortin of the Family
Coalition Party had 416 votes with 232 polls reporting.
— with files from Frank Appleyard and Jennifer Potter
——————————————————————————————————————————-
Star
October 10, 2007
I’m
sticking around, Tory insists
Oct 10,
2007 11:49 PM
Richard
Brennan
STAFF REPORTER
The Progressive Conservatives lost the election and despite losing his own
seat, party leader John Tory insisted he is sticking around.
"I will continue to have my job … much remains to be done," he told a
cheering crowd of more than 200 party faithful.
"I want to continue to listen and make a difference because it is the right
thing to do."
A sombre Tory, who lost the Don Valley West riding to Liberal Kathleen Wynne,
watched in disbelief as the Liberals dealt the once powerhouse Progressive
Conservative Party another crushing election loss.
"I regret that outcome for other people who are affected one way or the
other," said Tory, whose faith-based funding election promise sent voters
fleeing from the party.
Despite Tory’s insistence that he was staying around, the big question of the
night was whether the 53-year-old life-long Conservative will be allowed to hang
on for long term. Tory told the Star he would take some time before
deciding whether to stay on and rebuild the party or leave the job to someone
else.
"It’s better to make those decisions after a few moments of reflection –
whether that’s a day or a week – and to talk to other people," he said.
The Progressive Conservatives went into the election with 25 seats and ended
the night – $15 million later – with exactly the same number of seats.
Even before the ballots were counted, party supporters furious over the
religious school funding issue had the knives out for Tory. The sharp end is
also being pointed at campaign manager John Laschinger, a political warhorse,
for fumbling the ball.
"Tory is dead man walking," said one Ottawa area Conservative, insisting
there are already three potential candidates, MPPs Frank Klees
(Newmarket-Aurora), Tim Hudak (Niagara West-Glanbrook) and relative newcomer
Nepean-Carleton MPP Lisa MacLeod, whose Conservative pedigree has deep roots in
Nova Scotia.
Blair McCreadie, president of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party said
school funding became "a top of mind issue" for many Ontario voters and
overshadowed all else.
But he had nothing but praise for Tory who inherited a party in 2003 with a
$10 million deficit, which he helped clear in two years.
"There is a tremendous amount of good will for John Tory in this party for
the work he has put in as leader," McCreadie said.Even before the official race
began, faith-based school funding shaped Tory’s campaign. People who said they
had voted Conservative all their lives could not support using public money to
fund religious schools.
Just as Tory was dogged by the issue at the doorstep, so were Conservative
candidates, who told the Star they were getting "pounded" and no matter
how much they tried to explain it, people weren’t buying. Rather than the
spotlight being on Premier Dalton McGuinty’s legacy of broken promises, it was
squarely on Tory.
Tory’s campaign message of more money for transit, the
need for more family doctors, more funding for treatment of children with autism
and for public housing, and phasing out the health tax, was drowned out by the
controversy over religious school funding.
"I never had control of the message," he complained hours before the end of
the campaign, blaming in part the media for seizing on one issue in his 52-page
platform.
Tory said that for him extending funding to religious schools was a matter of
fairness, and he did not regret defending the position, even though it proved
fatal for his campaign.
"If you believe you did the right thing and act with integrity and honesty
then you can’t sit around regretting," he told the Star, adding he was
incensed that McGuinty, educated in the Catholic system, "stoked the fire" of
cultural and religious differences.
Tory promised during the leadership campaign he would go to bat for parents
sending their children to religious private schools as long as those school
followed the provincial curriculum and hired certified Ontario teachers.
"When I make those commitments I carry through with them. It was an issue
that needs to be addressed, it still is," he said during a campaign stop in the
dying days of the campaign.
Throughout the campaign, Tory insisted the election was about leadership and
a higher sense of honesty and integrity, a message he was adept at delivering
during the televised leadership debate as well as challenging McGuinty’s
record.
"If there was a moment when I was filled with quite a bit of optimism …
that was a moment that was very important to me," Tory told the
Star.
But just three days later, Tory was forced to back off on his faith-based
school funding proposal and instead announced it would be put to a free vote if
he were to form a government.
It was in Sarnia during a partisan rally that the widespread animosity to the
school scheme finally sunk in when Beverly Cassel, 66, gave him a piece of her
mind. Many others had before her but Tory recalls it being a defining
moment.
"I had come off the stage thinking I had made one of my best speeches,
speaking from my heart about what I thought the issues were … and these two
ladies (including) Cassel just start up with me about the schools issues, which
I had quite deliberately not discussed because I really wanted to make sure we
had discussion on some of the other issues," he said.
Party insiders said it was too little too late because the damage had already
been done. But for some Conservative supporters, it was enough to keep them in
the fold.
"I would not have voted for him," said Ken Scovell, a retired teacher living
in a Don Valley West riding, who described himself as a life-long Conservative
supporter.
Tory also battled the ghosts of governments past, in particular former
Conservative premier Mike Harris’ years of cuts to civil service, slashing
welfare payments and closing hospitals.
At a farmer’s market in London, Ont., Wendy Desmond, a Bell Canada employee,
told Tory she was a single mom when Harris was premier. "He took everything,"
she said.
"I had to send toilet paper with my son to school because they didn’t have
enough money for toilet paper in the bathrooms. The party is the same. The face
has changed but the party is the same. I’m just not interested," she after he
walked away.
Working Families, which is under investigation by Elections Ontario after the
Tories complained it is a front group for the Liberal Party, made direct
comparison between the two men in hard-hitting U.S.-style ads.
Tory insisted on framing himself differently from the highly scripted
McGuinty by mainstreeting and door knocking throughout the campaign. It was both
a curse and a blessing because it exposed the PC leader to ordinary voters.
In a high-end men’s store in Oakville, employee Maria Caetano of Hamilton,
buttonholed Tory to tell him "I’m an immigrant myself and I don’t like where our
country is going. We should abolish religion in schools," she said.
Undeterred, Tory kept walking and talking.
