Riding too close to call: Pollsters
With just a few days left until the provincial election on Thursday, pollsters have said the result is too close to call in Peterborough
As of Friday, polls released by the Laurier Institute for the Study of Public Opinion and Policy (at Wilfrid Laurier University) were projecting a win for the Progressive Conservatives in Ontario.
They projected 63 seats for the PCs, 54 for the NDP and seven seats for the Liberals.
But there were a few of the province’s 121 ridings that were considered too close to call – and Peterborough-Kawartha was one of them.
Peterborough-Kawartha has long been considered a bellwether riding. Since 1977, local voters have chosen an MPP from the party that makes up the government.
In federal elections, Peterborough has chosen an MP from the party that formed government since 1985.
Peterborough-Kawartha also loves its all-candidates’ debates: there were 16 of them over the campaign period of 28 days.
That was likely exhausting for all candidates, but it showed more for Gianne Broughton (Green Party) than for others.
Broughton left two debates early, saying she wasn’t feeling well enough to stay to the end. At other debates, she told the crowd near the end that she was tiring.
In an interview, she said it’s part of an ongoing physical challenge – and that she was also still working full-time as a tutor for dyslexic students while campaigning.
But if elected, she said, she would have a team of people working with her and a more manageable schedule than she
has while trying to balance her work and the campaign.
“I challenge anyone to do as good a job as I’ve done (on the campaign trail),” she said.
While Broughton persisted, another candidate bowed out late in the campaign – but he said he’d been treated unfairly.
Rob Roddick, candidate for the Trillium Party, withdrew from the election in the last few days of May because he hadn’t been invited to debate alongside other candidates more than once or twice.
“If I can’t get into the debates, I’m not going to bother,” Roddick told The Examiner on Friday. “I was treated unfairly – that’s all there is to it.”
Meanwhile his name will still appear on the ballot: returning officer Ted Boynton said all ballots had already been printed, by the time Roddick dropped out.
There will be notifications posted at all polling locations, Boynton said, to alert people that a vote for Roddick renders the ballot invalid.
Here’s a profile of each candidate, gleaned from The Examiner’s coverage of debates and nomination meetings leading up to the vote:
Sean Conway – NDP
Age: 26
Occupation: Singer-songwriter, booking agent at The Garnet In office before?: No
Quote: “If I find myself at Queen’s Park, I’ll fight any notion that attacks the arts… Artists are workers, too.” (At a debate organized by local artists, at Artspace).
One key issue, for Conway: Clean drinking water for his hometown of Curve Lake First Nation.
“Reconciliation needs to be more than gestures and symbols. It demands action… We can talk about symbols and gestures all we want, but at the end of the day, people are still suffering. It’s completely unacceptable that it’s 2018, and there’s a boil-water advisory 20 minutes from where we are meeting right now.”
(Said at the same debate at Artspace)
Conway’s response, when asked to identify his best leadership quality: "I know very intimately when to shut up and when to keep talking."
(Said at debate organized by Peterborough and the Kawarthas Association of Realtors - PKAR)
Jeff Leal – Liberal
Age: 63
Occupation: Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs in the Kathleen Wynne government. Also the minister responsible for small business
In office: For four terms. Was first elected MPP in 2003. Prior to that, was a city councillor in Otonabee Ward in Peterborough from 1985 to 2003
Quote: “I believe in hope over fear and people over balance sheets… Do you want tax breaks for the well-off, or do you want to ensure someone working for minimum wage can feed their family? To me, the answers are clear.”
(Said at his nomination meeting in December.)
One key issue for Leal: Protecting good farmland from development. “I’ll do everything in my power to protect prime agricultural land.”
(Said at the debate organized by PKAR)
Leal’s response, when asked to identify his best leadership quality: He said he excels at teamwork. “It’s so important to go far and go together,” he said (at PKAR debate).
Dave Smith – PC
Age: 48
Occupation: Manager of product development, Cardinal Software in Peterborough
In office before?: No
Quote: “It really comes down to a difference in philosophy: Do I believe we should saddle our grandchildren with debt? Absolutely not.”
(Said at a debate organized by the Peterborough Chamber of Commerce)
One key issue for Smith: Scrapping the province’s cap-andtrade program. He says it allows some business owners to simply buy credits so they can continue to burn fossil fuels while others cut back their carbon footprint; in the end, he says, it’s a wash.
“Cap and trade is nothing more than a tax grab – that’s all it is… The savings occur because someone else has changed their behaviour. All it does is artificially increase the price of everything you buy. It simply takes money from you, and does nothing positive.”
(Said at the Chamber of Commerce debate)
Smith’s response, when asked his best leadership quality: He said he once organized Hockey Day in Canada on the canal in Peterborough in just 26 days, when other cities took 6 months to organize the same event.
He said he also took over organizing an international hockey tournament for special-needs players when the organizers – Dave and Cathie Tuck – were arrested following allegations of misspent team funds.
“I’m a consensus-builder and a team-builder – and I have a documented history of it.”
(Said at PKAR debate)
Gianne Broughton – Green Party:
Age: 57
Occupation: Teacher, tutor for dyslexic children, owner-manager of Skill Building (a service that helps students understand their individual learning style)
In office before?: No
Quote: “Cutting the price of gasoline is not a good idea. I don’t think I need to say anything more than that. Right?” (said at the Chamber of Commerce debate, when asked what she would do to ease the cost for people at the pumps.)
One key issue for Broughton: Decommissioning the ageing Pickering nuclear power plant, rather than refurbishing it at great expense. She says it’s smarter to buy excess energy from other provinces, such as Quebec.
She said at the Chamber of Commerce debate that Smith is incorrect when he says nuclear energy is green energy.
“Nuclear power generation is not green. Uranium is one of the most dangerous elements in the world – and we do not know how to dispose of it.”
Broughton’s response, when asked to identify her best leadership quality: “I know how to share leadership. I know how to listen to people who want to be in on a project and give them the opportunity to blossom.”
Ken Ranney – Stop Climate Change Party
Age: 88
Occupation: Retired family doctor, pathologist and biochemist
In office before: No
Quote: “We must switch to sustainable electricity with the urgency and speed we would discover in time of war.” (Said at a debate organized by LEAP Peterborough and for Our Grandchildren)
One key issue for Ranney: Improving public transit, particularly between Peterborough and Toronto. He doesn’t think much of the Go service.
“I think it takes about four hours to get to Toronto… It’s pathetic, right now – it needs big changes. And it could have big changes if a government were really behind it.”
(At a debate organized by the Youth Political Action Coalition)
Jacob Currier – Libertarian Party
Age: 20
Occupation: Security guard In office before?: No
Quote: “The government has no place in the arts. I shouldn’t have to subsidize other people interests, basically… We’d be saving a lot of money, not subsidizing those areas.” (In an interview with The Examiner in early May)
One key issue for Currier: Teen workers, and how he thinks there’s no need to push for the student minimum wage – which is $13 an hour – to be the same as the adult minimum wage of $14 an hour (soon to be $15 an hour).
Joelle.Kovach @peterboroughdaily.com