Day nine of Ontario election campaign

TORONTO, Ont.- Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath stumped for votes in the Toronto area on day nine of the provincial election campaign. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty spent the day in Thunder Bay.

Horwath released the party’s post-secondary education platform Thursday morning at Ryerson University in Toronto.

The New Democrats said they’ll freeze university and college tuition for four years if they’re elected Oct. 6. They also pledge to scrap the interest on the provincial portion of student loans, which they say would allow students to save $60 a year on $25,000 of debt.

The Ontario branch of the Canadian Federation of Students said the plan is a good first step towards making education more affordable.

The Liberals have also made education a focus of their campaign, promising a 30 per cent reduction in university tuition fees for families earning less than $160,000 a year.

The Progressive Conservatives have vowed to pour an additional $2-billion into the education system over four years.The NDP said its program will cost $110 million in the first year, $195 million the second, $280 million the third and $365 million the fourth.

It plans to reimburse universities and colleges for the lost revenue through the provincial transfer system.

Meanwhile, Hudak is shrugging off accusations his campaign used a parents group for political gain while touting the Tory plan for a public sex offender registry. He said when a child predator moves into a community, “the whole community is up in arms.”

Hudak was responding to questions about a story in the Windsor Star, which said the community members beside the PC leader while he made a campaign stop in Leamington yesterday weren’t part of a parents group that protested the placement of a child sexual predator near a town school.

A parent who was part of the protest group told the newspaper she was shocked and the incident changed her view of the PCs.

While ignoring accusations of using ringers at a stop in Richmond Hill today, Hudak said the safety of children should come ahead of the privacy of sex offenders. The Liberals have argued that police aren’t for the proposal.

McGuinty isn’t planning to participate in a debate in northern Ontario despite an offer from the Progressive Conservatives to cover his costs. The Tories said they’ll pay for the premier to appear via teleconfence for the debate, but McGuinty isn’t biting.

Speaking in Thunder Bay, the Liberal leader said he’ll debate northern issues during the main televised leaders’ debate on Sept. 27 instead.

He said he got an invitation in August for the northern debate, but told the organizers that he couldn’t make it on the date they set.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath has been pushing for a debate in the north for weeks, saying issues such as unemployment and the high cost of living in that area deserve their own turn in the spotlight.

Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak has also accepted an invitation from the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association for an all-northern debate on Sept. 23 in Thunder Bay.

McGuinty is touring the north Wednesday, making stops in Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury.

His first stop was the Bombardier plant in Thunder Bay, where he touted his government’s commitment to purchase 150 coaches over the last six years for GO Transit in the Greater Toronto Area.

The Liberals are promising to expand GO train service to a two-way, full-day service on all corridors, which they say will double the current number of coaches and support jobs in the north.

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