TALES FROM THE TRAIL
A much-needed hug
PC Leader Tim Hudak says he got much needed down time at home on Saturday evening and was able to relax with his wife Deb Hutton and their two daughters, Miller, 6, and Maitland, 11 weeks old.
“I held Maitland in my hands for a little bit. Sometimes I am on the road so much, she kind of looks up at me and says, ‘Who is this stranger? Give me back to Mom,’ ” Hudak told a crowd assembled for a town hall in a St. Catharines supporter’s backyard.
The campaign is in the final stretch of a 41-day race.
“Little Millie was already in bed but sometimes what Miller does . . . when she doesn’t want to go to sleep, she lies on the floor. So I walk into Miller’s room last night at 10 p.m., she is lying on the floor with one pillow over her head and the other over her legs. When I picked her up she wrapped her arms around me and I got to put her back in her own bed and get a hug,” said Hudak.
But the viciousness of the campaign always seems to creep in to family life. Hudak said Miller was recently watching Frozen on YouTube when the movie was interrupted by an anti-Hudak attack ad. Miller innocently turned around to her father and said, “Daddy, that is you!”
Tanya Talaga
Kaleidoscope of images
There’s a new menace on the election trail — the Hordak.
With Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne railing at rivals Andrea Hor- wath and Tim Hudak on Sunday, the composite character was born amid tweeting from reporters covering Wynne’s campaign. The twitterverse responded quickly, with some followers pointing out there was a 1980s cartoon character known as Hordak and others tweeting photoshopped pictures of Horwath’s smile on Hudak’s face and vice-versa. Liberal backroomers were also busy, giving reporters boxes of “Hudak Helper,” a play on the Hamburger Helper dinner mix. This version pictures Horwath on the cover with her Progressive Conservative counterpart to support Wynne’s message of the day that “a vote for Andrea Horwath is a vote for Tim Hudak.” It appears the Liberals have forgotten that it was Horwath’s party that allowed them to stay in power. As one reporter remarked holding up the box, “Where’s the beef?”
Rob Ferguson
Message gets massaged
It’s interesting on the campaign trail to watch how politicians change their messaging as the day goes on.
On Sunday, Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne told reporters in French she was “afraid” of her Progressive Conservative challenger Tim Hudak and his platform, which includes public sector job and corporate tax cuts.
That happened at a Mississauga rally before noon. Fast forward to Kitchener, at another rally shortly before dinnertime, where she earned an endorsement from Kitchener Mayor Carl Zehr. “I’ve known Tim Hudak for a long time. Not only have we worked together at Queen’s Park but we live in the same neighbourhood. I sometimes see him out walking his dog on my morning run. I’m not scared of Tim Hudak. What I’m really scared of is what he promises to do to the province of Ontario . . . the cuts that he would make.”
Rob Ferguson