One thing is for sure -- they aren’t playing nice on the Ontario campaign trail.
Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne warned the Progressive Conservatives would “put kids at risk” with their promised cuts to teacher ratios in Ontario classrooms. One Progressive Conservative retorted by calling that kind of talk “cheap.” But Wynne’s tough talk continued today when she called Hudak’s plan “dangerous for children.” Earlier Wynne also warned, “A vote for Andrea Horwath is a vote for Tim Hudak.” In response, Andrea Horwath now talks about “Liberal corruption” at just about every campaign stop. Today Tim Hudak referred to “the gang that’s been in office – Liberals and New Democrats - for the last three years.” And one after another release from the Hudak campaign reminds us of Liberal scandals (and there are a few) with the headline “Come Clean Kathleen.”
And today there was more mud-slinging. We heard a political leader, Andrea Horwath, tossing out the word “bullspit” at the idea of the NDP working with the Progressive Conservatives and then using “bullspit” in an attack on Wynne’s policies. Tuesday afternoon the Liberals put out a release accusing the PCs of “misdirecting voters to the wrong polling stations” in London. The allegation is that a constituent in London North received a letter with instructions to go to the wrong voting location. Federal Conservative party workers in Guelph are before the courts fighting similar accusations stemming from what seems to be similar tactics during the last federal election. An election this close seems to bring out the worst in the political process. A couple of hours later, the Liberals were all over a second letter that surfaced in the riding of Ottawa-Napean. The Liberals say that letter also gave misinformation on where to vote.
The negative tone is there for all to see in the 140 character universe of Twitter. Today CP24 and CTV released the last Ipsos Reid snapshot of the Ontario campaign on Twitter. Ipsos Reid’s analysis is that “the conversations about the Conservative and Liberal campaigns on Twitter have been overwhelmingly negative with professional and lay partisans on either side of the divide pointing out the flaws in their opponents’ plans.” And Ipsos Reid doesn’t find much to praise about the twitter discussion. “Twitter has been largely a negative reaction to events and news coverage in the finest tradition of “gotcha” politics, drowning out what little proactive or positive messaging there was.”
There was one leader who found time to stay positive – kind of. Tim Hudak said he “wants to send a message of hope.” A lot of Hudak’s comments are laced with shots at the McGuinty-Wynne years and he said “Wynne is campaigning on fear and anger.” But for every jibe at his main opponent, Hudak spoke about the need for voters to “vote for my plan.”
The only other positive observation I have is that this seemingly never-ending 41-day campaign will finally end in two days when voters will get to have their say at the ballot box. It was close back in 2011 when the Liberals had about 100,000 more total votes than the Progressive Conservatives and it looks like it might very well be a close one again. Sorry to get negative again but of the more than nine million eligible voters, most observers think less than half will make it out to vote.
