Day two of Ontario election campaign
Posted September 8, 2011 8:13 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO, Ont. – The party leaders will be campaigning hundreds of kilometres apart Thursday, but that may not be enough to stop the sniping that characterized day one of the Ontario election campaign.
Premier Dalton McGuinty will spend Thursday in southwestern Ontario with stops in London and Woodstock, where he plans to highlight his party’s commitment to a clean economy.
Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak will campaign in eastern Ontario and has stops planned in Nepean, Gloucester, Belleville and Peterborough.
New Democratic Party Leader Andrea Horwath will be releasing her party’s policies for northern Ontario during stops in Sudbury, Sturgeon Falls and Thunder Bay.
As the campaign got underway Wednesday, McGuinty quickly accused Hudak of jettisoning his principles and abandoning his values.
McGuinty said Hudak’s opposition to a tax credit to help skilled immigrants land their first job smacked of “a Tea Party approach.”
Hudak in turn accused McGuinty of playing divisive politics over the campaign pledge to help newcomers to the province find work.
Hudak then blamed the Liberals for problems in the health-care system and accused McGuinty of betraying taxpayers.
Horwath, called herself a “little bit of a fighter,” but said she didn’t want to spend the campaign “squabbling” with her opponents.
Smears, attack ads, and name calling will just turn voters off, she said.
McGuinty is seeking his third straight majority and faces what all polls predict will be a tight race against Hudak and Horwath, both in their first campaigns as party leaders.
Going into the month-long campaign, the Liberals held 70 of the 107 seats, the Progressive Conservatives 24, the New Democrats 10, and three seats were vacant.