Del Duca slams ‘$10B road to nowhere’
Liberal leader says he’d cancel Highway 413 as Ford doubles down on controversial plan
It’s my way not the highway.
Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca says only he can stop Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford’s controversial Highway 413.
“Could I make this any more clear? I’m the guy who stopped it the first time and I’ll stop it again,” Del Duca told reporters Friday in Mississauga.
Taking aim at the cornerstone promise of Ford’s re-election campaign — the proposed 60 km freeway between Milton and Vaughan — the Liberal leader said it is a $10billion road to nowhere.
“Highway 413 is a waste of money and an environmental disaster in the making — I know, I was the transportation minister who killed it the first time,” said Del Duca, who served in the cabinet of premier Kathleen Wynne.
“I appointed the independent panel that ... came back unanimously and said it doesn’t make sense.
It will not help people in this province. It’s a waste of money and it’s dangerous for our natural environment,” he said of a project that would raze 2,000 acres of farmland, pave over 400 acres of Greenbelt land and cut through 85 waterways.
Del Duca said if the Liberals are elected Thursday the first act of the new government would be to cancel a highway designed to “turn Doug Ford’s friends from millionaires into billionaires” through land deals.
Ford, who was in Oakville collecting his eighth endorsement from a private-sector union this election, boasted that his Tories “are the only party saying Yes to building Highway 413.”
“Throughout this campaign, I’ve been so proud to welcome the support of a growing number of unions representing the women and men who are building Ontario,” the Conservative leader said.
With polls showing his Tories in front followed by the Liberals, New Democrats, and Greens, Ford was asked whether he would rather face Del Duca or NDP Leader Andrea Horwath as leader of the official opposition.
“I’m just focusing on our message over the next six days and whoever it is ... it doesn’t bother me,” he replied.
Horwath, for her part, continued to hammer at Del Duca, a day after he accused her of targeting female Liberal candidates, in particular one in Chatham-Kent-Leamington who withdrew from the race amid questions about her nomination papers.
“Mr. Del Duca is going to have to explain to Ontarians why he thinks he can lead this province when he’s not prepared to show leadership as a person vying for the job,” she said at a campaign event with unionized workers and leaders held at Scarborough’s Bluffer’s Park.
“You have to admit when you’re wrong; you have to take responsibility for things that can come to light that you should have been dealing with more appropriately. That’s what people expect and that’s what people deserve.”
As for any accusations of sexism, Horwath said that “was the height of arrogance for Mr. Del Duca to say what he said.”
“It wasn’t so much shocking as it was extremely disappointing and confusing,” she said, adding the allegations of sexism are “a slap in the face to every woman that has experienced sexism at work or in the community or in every day life — something Mr. Del Duca will never have to face.”
When asked if the mudslinging could ultimately help Ford, she said: “I’m asking people to come together this time because the NDP has the best shot of defeating Doug Ford, and we have a plan that will really fix the things that matter most to people.”
The continued Horwath-Del Duca sniping doesn’t surprise Cristine de Clercy, a professor at Western University and co-director of its leadership and democracy lab.
“There’s a body of research on the effects of negative campaigning, and the basic starting point is that politicians engage in negative comments to get votes,” said de Clercy.
“Negative campaigning normally has a strategic focus — politicians don’t engage in it simply because they are having a bad day or they’re getting testy. There’s a rationale for doing it … it seems that these leaders think there’s some merit in going negative,” she said.
But the professor noted Ford “has not been shy about benefiting from vote-splitting” and that the Liberals and NDP are targeting one another because that’s who they see as their main competition, especially in urban ridings.
In contrast, the Tory leader “has been running the classic front-runners campaign, which is to try to stay out of trouble and to keep it positive.”
“Every single day that he can stay off the headlines and keep the focus off his party, that is probably good for him.”