CAMPAIGNS HEAD NORTH
NDP’s Horwath trades barbs with Ford, Wynne
As the Tories push to make inroads into Ontario’s north, their leader Doug Ford focused the brunt of his attacks during the election’s northern debate on the NDP, a party that has traditionally enjoyed support in the region and has recently seen momentum in the polls.
Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne, meanwhile, stayed on the defensive through much of Friday’s debate in Parry Sound, the second time the leaders of the three main parties faced off this week. Ford’s barbs remained largely broad, however — the same attacks on so-called elites and what he considers reckless spending that have dominated his campaign so far — while his opponents took him and each other to task on policies specific to the region.
The Progressive Conservative leader warned voters about an NDP government, saying they “destroyed this province” when it held power in the 1990s.
The NDP used to claim to fight for workers in mines, mills and factories, but now serve “downtown Toronto elites” and environmental “extremists,” Ford said.
Ford asked New Democrat Leader Andrea Horwath which NDP is running in this election, but she noted Ford has not yet released a fully costed platform.
“I’m going to be the NDP that is going to be honest and transparent about my plan,” Horwath said. “It was launched two weeks before this election even started. It is fully costed ... Mr. Ford, where’s your plan? ”
Ford said he wouldn’t let “a bunch of extremists (in) downtown Toronto decide what the people of the north are going to do.” Horwath laughed, saying, “what you’re going to do is drive a bulldozer through the Ring of Fire and pave over the Greenbelt — talk about extremism.”
Ford has reversed a promise to allow housing construction in the Greenbelt, a protected green space around the Greater Toronto Area, and spoken about driving a bulldozer to get roads built in the Ring of Fire, a mineral-rich region northeast of Thunder Bay. The Liberal government has long promised to develop the area and last year secured an agreement with three First Nations to start road construction to one of the world’s richest deposits of chromite — used to make stainless steel — as well as nickel, copper and platinum.
Much of the debate centred on involving northern communities in making decisions that affect the region, with Wynne touting her government’s collaboration on mining projects, endangered species legislation and other issues, and Horwath accusing her of treating the north as an afterthought. The leaders also clashed on health care, with Ford blaming Liberal policies for long wait times as well as layoffs and bed cuts at hospitals in the region. Wynne said she had worked with communities to deliver health care “as close to home as possible” and highlighted hospital investments in her government’s spring budget. Horwath pointed out that the last Tory government under Mike Harris closed hospitals and fired nurses.
Asked whether they would support an immigration pilot program similar to what is used to combat population decline and draw workers to Atlantic Canada, both Wynne and Horwath said they would consider it. Ford, however, said he would “take care of our own first.”