Horwath campaign (eventually) returns to Kitchener
Campaign bus had broken down near London earlier in the day
KITCHENER — The NDP campaign, which has been steaming ahead in the polls in recent weeks, hit a speed bump when its campaign bus overheated on Highway 402 between Sarnia and London.
The breakdown delayed party leader Andrea Horwath’s arrival in Kitchener for a campaign rally at the Schwaben Club by almost an hour Wednesday night. She had been scheduled to arrive at 7 p.m. after a day of campaigning in Windsor, Sarnia and Leamington. The campaign finally arrived around 7:45 p.m. to a crowd of cheering supporters.
“Are you glad we finally made it?” shouted Horwath. “Me too.”
The leader spent much of her eight-minute speech throwing barbs at Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford and his platform, saying his plan would benefit the rich over the rest of the province. “You can have a government that gives to the rich … or you can have a government that fixes our health-care system,” she said.
The NDP has enjoyed a surge in the polls in recent weeks, and the election could be shaping up to be a two-horse race between the NDP and the Progressive Conservatives. An Innovative Research Group poll released this week puts NDP support at 36 per cent, com-
pared to 34 per cent for the PC party and 22 per cent for the Liberals. Despite the NDP rise, the Conservatives are still predicted to win the election based on the number of ridings each party is expected to win.
The most recent CBC poll tracker predicts the PCs could win an estimated 69 seats, compared to 53 for the NDP and just two for the Liberals. Another recent poll released Wednesday, this one from Angus Reid, suggests the electorate is unhappy with their choices ahead of the June 7 election. It found half of Ontario’s decided voters will vote strategically to stop another party from winning, instead of voting for the party they want to actually win.
More than half (52 per cent) of NDP voters said they were voting that way because they dislike the other options more than they support the NDP.
Almost half (49 per cent) of all PC voters and 42 per cent of Liberal voters had a similar response, says the poll. There has been talk about the NDP and Liberals forming a coalition government to keep Doug Ford and the PC party from power, but both Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne and Horwath have denied that. Horwath previously visited Kitchener on May 14.