Tory shrugs off troubling poll results

Whatever the cause recent seat projections and polls are not favoring Tory.This article gives some of the Conservative northern policy. Coming from a rich constituency it is not surprising that Tory's strategy is to make things easier for the natural resource industries who are exploiting the North's riches. He wants to make them more competitive---contribute less to government coffers and pocket more.
This policy will ensure more goes into Conservative coffers as well.


Sunday » September 30 » 2007

Tory shrugs off troubling poll results in Ontario

Mary Vallis
CanWest News Service; National Post


Sunday, September 30, 2007




THUNDER BAY, Ont. -- Ontario Progressive Conservative leader John Tory is dismissing polls suggesting he has handed the Liberals another majority victory with his call to fund religious schools.

"I haven't seen too many hockey games declared at the end of the second period," Tory said Saturday during a campaign stop in Thunder Bay, Ont., where he announced his strategy to help the North. "We're two-thirds of the way through this campaign."

The latest CanWest News Service poll suggests the Liberals have the support of 43 per cent of decided voters, while the Conservatives trail with 33 per cent.

An aggregate of recent polls shows the Liberals could win another majority and that Tory is struggling solely because of his controversial policy.

When a reporter pointed out the coach of the losing team often changes strategy at the start of the third period, Tory chuckled.

"The coach is doing his job," Tory said. "Stay tuned."

Despite dissent in his caucus over his proposal to fully fund faith-based schools, Tory insists his plan involves enough public consultation that a referendum on the issue is not necessary.

"There's plenty of time within that entire process to make sure that we do the right thing, the right way," Tory said. "I'm very committed to continuing to listen to people and making sure that we continue to explain the policy, which I think is something that is the right thing to do."

Garfield Dunlop, the incumbent Tory candidate in Simcoe North, called for a referendum on the matter earlier this week.

The Conservatives also been taking heat over where Tory would find his proposed $1.5 billion in "efficiencies" within the provincial government. Premier Dalton McGuinty and the Liberals are warning the voters of looming cuts and job losses.

But Tory says he will consult civil servants as his "key advisers" to determine how the money can be saved. He added his plan would result in "improvements to services" and "perhaps reallocations of people from one place to another."

"We're short of people over here doing things we really need, and frankly we've probably got far too many people over there doing something really useless shuffling of papers that's just getting in the way of citizens going about their work," Tory said.

The Conservative leader has been trying to keep media following his campaign focused on different parts of his platform each day, although the question of faith-based schools inevitably arises.

This weekend Tory laid out his strategy to revitalize Ontario's North, promising to roll back McGuinty's "punitive diamond mine tax grab" and provide hundreds of millions of dollars for roads and higher education.

The Conservative leader also outlined his party's plan to revitalize struggling communities by moving government jobs out of Toronto.

"I want people everywhere in this province to be able to find a good job and enjoy an unparalleled quality of life," Tory said outside a closed lumber mill in Thunder Bay Saturday morning.

"But I want to go beyond that and work with northern communities so more people from outside this region will choose to come here."

Rebecca Johnson, the Conservative candidate for Thunder Bay-Atikokan riding, said the decentralization plan would appeal to former northerners living in the Toronto area. "I see this as an opportunity for people to move back to northwestern Ontario," she said.

"In Thunder Bay, you can get to work in 10 to 20 minutes. Then you can go hunting and fishing after work, and you can go skiing. People want to do that."

Tory also pledged to invest $150 million in rural and northern roads in the first year of a Tory government and spend another $300 million by the end of a first mandate.

He promised to spend a further $100 million on research and development for northern universities and colleges.

If elected, the Conservatives would also reduce the heavy load of regulations on flight schools and reduce the "regulatory burden" on the mining and forestry industries to keep them competitive, Tory added.

The Liberals originally announced a diamond royalty in March that would have imposed a 13 per cent tax on profit from Ontario's diamond mines and later reduced the tax to a maximum of 10.4 per cent.

The Liberals argue the tax is "similar to, and competitive with, other Canadian diamond-mining jurisdictions."

"Doesn't John Tory want Ontarians to receive their fair share from companies that are profiting from use of our natural resources?" the Liberals asked in an e-mailed statement.

Tory was to be in Toronto Sunday for an all-candidates meeting in Don Valley West, where he is running in a tight race against Liberal Education Minister Kathleen Wynne. The controversy over faith-based schools is expected to be front and centre.

The Conservative leader said he is confident he will win the Toronto seat, and that his party will win the election.

"I will be sitting here four years from now discussing my re-election campaign, defending my record," he said.

National Post

© CanWest News Service 2007








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