Ontario election: Week 1 Review

This is from the National Post. This is a rather corny review with its memorable quotes. Of course being designed for mass consumption by the masses only parties with some market clout are mentioned. Even the Green Party fails to get a dozen words and the referendum on electoral reform hasn't enough mass appeal apparently to merit a mention.

Ontario Election 2007: Week 1 in Review


JOHN TORY, Conservatives


Amount of money committed: $2.5-billion

Best moment: On Tuesday, the Canadian Taxpayer’s Federation presented Mr. Tory with the original copy of Dalton McGuinty’s ill-fated 2003 pledge not to raise taxes. The leader spent the rest of the week showing the document to every group he met, drawing applause across the province.

Worst moment: Or perhaps, moments. A flood of prominent Conservatives — including former cabinet minister Dianne Cunningham and veteran MPP Bob Runciman — this week expressed concerns about Mr. Tory’s plan to provide funding to faith-based schools. Not the solidarity the Conservatives need to sell the policy to the electorate.

Memorable quote: “Heaven’s knows, the next thing you know the Liberals will be offering a case of beer and a pizza to every citizen on Friday afternoon to match all the other stuff they’ve done.”

How did he do? After a shaky run-up to the election, replete with musings about teaching creationism, Mr. Tory could go nowhere but up this week. A solid week with no major gaffs and a sense that Mr. Tory might finally have some fire in his belly.



DALTON MCGUINTY, Liberals


Amount of money committed: $1.34-billion

Best moment: Staged event on Thursday: McGuinty at a school in Stratford reading a book on empathy, called "It’s OK to be Different," to a group of six-year-olds. There was no scrum. Local TV cameras captured the scene and it played on local TV stations, giving McGuinty’s handlers the kind of clean hit they love.

Worst moment: Suggesting Conservatives were looking out for a “select group of families ... with money” on Wednesday. Or, walking away from questions after a nine-minute scrum at an auto plant in Woodstock Thursday, his only media availability of the day.

Memorable quote: “The toughest decision I ever had to make in my life was to ask Ontarians to invest more in their health care system.” — McGuinty, referring to his broken tax pledge, standing beneath a sign reading “I show trustworthiness when others count on me to do what I say I will do.”

How did he do? Solid first week for McGuinty. Strategy is to stay on message and allow Tory to implode.




HOWARD HAMPTON, New Democrats

Amount of money committed : $1.5-billion (in benefits for working families by 2011/2012 in the form of a proposed health tax rebate).

Best moment: The unveiling on Wednesday of the first of the Ontario NDP’s six “key commitments”: a rebate for the health tax introduced by the McGuinty government. The announcement drew an immediate response from the Liberals, who broke their strategy to downplay the NDP.

Worst moment: Drawing attention to the McGuinty government’s controversies and court battles regarding autism services, without being prepared to explain exactly what the NDP would do differently. Questions were deflected with vague assurances that details would be revealed “in a couple of days.”


Memorable quote: “Dalton McGuinty will promise anything. I understand he was even here the other day promising to help Hamilton get a NHL team. He must know something about Gary Bettman the rest of us don’t know.”


How did he do? Hampton hit the ground running, travelling further and visiting more ridings than either McGuinty or Tory. He energized his base in the ridings where the NDP has seats, raised the party’s profile in others, and stayed on message with relentless criticisms of the Liberal government’s record. An early misstep of not revealing the NDP platform sooner was mitigated later in the week with three successive plank announcements. However, the danger of being marginalized remains for the perennially third-place NDP, for whom travel, outreach, rhetoric and sweat are necessary just to keep legitimate party status.