Steve Ladurantaye

It’s safe to say Ben Shenouda didn’t feel like talking to the media yesterday. Even so, I didn’t expect to be knocked out of the way so the suddenly controversial candidate could slip out a back door and avoid questions in the midst of a very public provincial election.

The Progressive Conservative candidate for Brampton West spent the day avoiding calls after officially endorsed campaign flyers were distributed in his riding that had critics accusing the party of homophobia.

Read the story and comments at the Globe and Mail

Using a series of one-liners, the flyer warned parents that a Liberal government would teach children to cross dress at the age of six and that kissing booths would be set up to help children learn about gender issues.

Both claims were wildly misinterpreted bits of misinformation that had their genesis in an aborted plan by the Liberals to overhaul the province’s sex ed curriculum.

The story can be found here, so no need to rehash. But safe to say, he knew when he showed up at a Brampton rally with leader Tim Hudak that the reporters who follow Mr. Hudak around the province may ask him to explain himself.

So with that in mind, I raced toward him as soon as Mr. Hudak finished talking. With Genevieve Tomney from CBC at my side, I told him who we were and asked if he’d talk to us. He nodded, and said he needed to follow Mr. Hudak out of the building first.

So we followed. And every time there was a pause in the procession, we’d identify ourselves ask him again. It was clear he meant to get away, and he stopped talking to us. Within a minute, there were very large men starting to form a circle around him and trying to force us to the outside.

They were pretty good at it. By the time the procession reached a narrow walkway, I had taken an elbow in the ribs and been yelled at to get out of the way. A campaign staffer reached out and blocked Ms. Tomney’s way, actually making contact.

We asked another campaign worker if they were really whisking Mr. Shenouda out the back door, but he just screamed they were just trying to get Mr. Hudak out of the building, just like they do every night.

And with that, Mr. Shenouda was gone without ever explaining his divisive flyer.

The campaign didn’t explain the flyer either, instead throwing the focus back to the Liberals by suggesting the party would institute new sex ed guidelines without consulting parents. The Liberals have pledged to engage in consultations before making any changes.

After Mr. Shenouda’s great escape, the campaign worker (who usually rides in a separate vehicle) rode to the airport with us and apologized. He said it wasn’t likely that the party’s security detail tried to keep us away from the party’s candidate. He asked if we were OK.

We’re fine, of course. But the voters of Brampton West deserved better – even a no comment would have been more becoming of someone seeking public office.

CFRB_Steve_Ladurantaye_with_Jim_Richards

Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is using the country’s finances to justify a heated partisan attack against the Ontario Liberal government, hoping to boost the fortunes of his Tory cousins by blasting the McGuinty government’s fiscal record.

Read the story in the Globe and Mail

Focusing on the province’s debt and deficits, Mr. Flaherty told a Empire and Canadian Club audience that Ontario “can’t afford four more years of the same Dalton McGuinty government.”

Mr. Flaherty, who spoke after provincial Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak at the Toronto lunch, raised the spectre of sovereign debt crises in Europe as he warned about the perils of ignoring the province’s $14-billion deficit.

“I spend time at G20 meetings and there are problems in Europe and weakness in the U.S.,” he said. “Our country needs Ontario to get back on the right track.”

The federal minister’s actions run the risk of poisoning relations between Ottawa and Ontario should Mr. Flaherty’s preferred party fail to come out on top when Ontarians head to the polls Oct. 6.

His comments also appeared at odds with an edict issued last month by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office, urging federal Conservatives against “becoming the story” in provincial elections. The memo urged MPs to avoid statements that could make it difficult for the federal party to negotiate with the eventual winner.

Mr. Flaherty – a former Mike Harris cabinet minister – also put in a word for his wife, Christine Elliott, who is running for the PCs in the suburban GTA riding of Whitby-Oshawa. “I received some guidance at home this morning about what I may say,” he said.

Part of Mr. McGuinty’s campaign message is that he is better placed to represent Ontario in upcoming negotiations with Ottawa over the renewal of federal-provincial transfers for health and social spending.

The Ontario Liberals were quick to respond, pointing to a report showing the federal deficit had tripled in July compared to a year earlier. Campaign co-chair Greg Sorbara said bringing Mr. Flaherty to speak before a joint meeting of the Canadian Club and Empire Club was a sign of desperation in the final days of the campaign.

“Today’s speech was full of anger and vitriol,” he said. “I’ve been in a lot of campaigns, and I know desperation when I hear it.”

Mr. Sorbara said the provincial deficit is largely the result of increased government spending through the recession, as governments around the world borrowed heavily to stimulate economic growth.

“This is part of the dishonesty of Tim Hudak,” he said. “He knows very well the Ontario and federal [deficits] were part of a nationwide agreement to make sure Canada could weather the economic storm.”

The platforms of the Ontario Liberals, Progressive Conservatives and NDP all promise to erase the province’s deficit by 2017-2018.

This isn’t the first time questions have been raised over the role of federal Conservatives in the Ontario race. Mr. Harper’s parliamentary secretary – Peterborough MP Dean Del Mastro – apologized after commissioning a local poll in response to a local newspaper’s poll that showed the Liberal candidate with a commanding lead.

And questions also surfaced after it was revealed that Mr. Harper’s chief of staff, Nigel Wright – who penned the order to MPs about not becoming the story in provincial campaigns – played host at a $250-a-ticket wine and cheese fundraiser for Mike Yen, the PC candidate in Trinity-Spadina.

Mr. Flaherty’s spokesman rejected the notion that the federal finance minister had become the story Friday.

“Stop the presses! Jim Flaherty supports Ontario PCs and Tim Hudak,” Chisholm Pothier wrote sarcastically in an e-mail. “The news today was Mr. Hudak’s speech. Regardless, we’ll work with whatever government there is in Ontario.”

Federal NDP finance critic Peggy Nash said Mr. Flaherty’s comments could hurt Ottawa’s relations with Ontario should the PCs lose the election.

“One would expect that the federal finance minister, who will have to deal with whatever kind of government is elected in Ontario, might [find it] a bit more difficult if he’s very, very actively engaged in the election,” she said.

Mr. Flaherty is the second Harper minister to provide a personal endorsement on the campaign trail. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney called Mr. Hudak “a champion of equality of opportunity” at a Moon Festival dinner in Toronto two weeks ago.

For his part, Mr. Hudak was beaming after the endorsement as he took questions from reporters.

“I’m very pleased,” he said. “His words meant a lot to me.”

Andrea Horwath may be the leader of Ontario’s traditional party of labour, but she is steering it toward the middle ground, the turf currently occupied by the Liberals.

This shift could leave Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty feeling squeezed from both the left and the right, because Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak has already essentially adopted all of his main rival’s health-care and education policies.

Read the story with Karen Howlett at the Globe and Mail

“Our platform has ideas borrowed from all kinds of different places. …,” Ms. Horwath told The Globe and Mail’s editorial board on Thursday. “We have to be practical and borrow from ideas in other places, regardless of what the ideology is.”

Ms. Horwath, who took the helm in 2009, is essentially refashioning the NDP in her own image, just as its fortunes are on the rise. Her platform contains wallet relief in a bid to reach beyond the party’s base, but very little on core principles such as the environment and social justice. With one week before voting day, the Liberals and Progressive Conservatives are running neck and neck with the NDP a competitive third.

Ms. Horwath is a threat to Mr. McGuinty because her party could siphon off Liberal votes – something Mr. Hudak hopes will happen. She is well-aware that she could play a pivotal role if Ontario elects its first minority government since the mid-1980s, but she said it is premature to talk about forming a coalition.

“I’m not in a position to pick a premier yet,” Ms. Horwath said. “Maybe I’m still in a position to be a premier, and that’s how I’m going to fight the last week of the campaign.”

Ms. Horwath has had to deal with the legacy of two former NDP leaders on the campaign trail. She has engaged in a delicate balance of using the goodwill over Jack Layton’s death to fuel her party’s momentum and trying to get out from under the federal NDP leader’s shadow.

And then there are the reminders of an unhappy chapter in her party’s history: Bob Rae’s term as premier in the early 1990s. He is now interim leader of the federal Liberals. People need to get over the Rae era and stop harkening back to it, Ms. Horwath said. As for her friend Mr. Layton, “he’s a big part of our DNA.”

Asked if she was dealing with two ghosts, the woman who is not known for mincing words joked, “I guess Bob’s not really a ghost if he’s still alive.” Perhaps, she added, he’s a “skeleton.”

For his part, Mr. McGuinty is campaigning as the only leader with the vision to manage the economy in difficult times. That vision includes making Ontario a leader in North America in the fledgling clean-energy sector, using that to spur job creation much the way the auto industry did in previous generations.

“I see an opening,” said Mr. McGuinty, who met with The Globe’s editorial board on Wednesday. “I see an opportunity and I want to drive hard. It’s a place for us to make our mark.”

As his opponents position themselves for a final sprint to election day, Mr. Hudak appears more energized on the campaign trail since his performance during this week’s televised leaders debate.

Mr. Hudak’s campaign took on a positive tone Thursday as he slammed a slew of last-minute announcements by the Liberals.

He also took aim at the NDP, saying, “they’re going to raise taxes just like the Liberals, but at least they have the courtesy to say so.”

He said the Liberal announcements – including stopping work at a gas-fired power plant in Mississauga and moving up the start date for a home renovation tax credit for seniors by 15 months – were signs of panic. At this stage in the campaign, he said, it’s too late to be introducing or enhancing platform planks.

“We’re seven days out and Dalton McGuinty has some brand-new, last-minute, panicked jobs plan,” he said. “Give me a break – you can’t make this stuff up on the fly. We have a plan, and we’re sticking to it.”

New lines are being drawn in the Battle of Ontario as the campaign heads into its critical last week, with political leaders fighting to position themselves as the candidate who can stand up to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and win concessions for the province.

Whoever is elected premier will soon end up at a table negotiating a new health accord for the province, and at Tuesday night’s debate Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty told viewers that Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak wasn’t up for the job.

Read the story (with Carys Mills) at the Globe and Mail

He resumed the attack Wednesday morning as he raised the spectre of the so-called “Ontario hat trick” Mr. Harper referred to during a summer backyard barbecue – Conservatives in Ottawa, Rob Ford in Toronto and a Progressive Conservative majority in Queen’s Park.

“Can you imagine Tim Hudak at the table with Stephen Harper negotiating a 10-year health accord?” Mr. McGuinty asked supporters at a rally in Vaughan. “A conservative hat trick may have a nice ring for some people but I think we need to ensure we have a champion for Ontario.”

Mr. Hudak was just down the road as Mr. McGuinty made his speech, and was quick to fight back and position himself as a provincial defender. He used the opportunity to hammer Mr. McGuinty on the $1-billion in losses at eHealth and the unknown cost of moving a Mississauga power plant that has already started to be built.

“I’ll always fight to put Ontario first,” he said. “Dalton McGunity can’t stand up for Ontario any more because he’s loaded down with a billion dollars on his back from eHealth and the whole Mississauga power plant fiasco. How can you go and ask for more money at confederation when you’ve blown so much money on waste?”

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath also chimed in and declared herself the best negotiator for provincial health care funds.

“The question voters need to ask themselves is who do they trust to stick up for a universal, affordable, and accessible public healthcare system,” said Ms.Horwath. “All provincial Premiers will be sitting at the table with Stephen Harper, who has, on multiple occasions, opposed public health care, promoted private options, and downplayed the Federal government’s role in health care.

“Ontario needs a strong voice at the table and Mr. McGuinty and Mr. Hudak’s track record speak for themselves.”

The Harper government has gone out of its way to stay out of the headlines during the provincial election, issuing orders on how best to interact with fellow conservatives on the campaign trail. MPs are encouraged to help local candidates where they can, so long as it doesn’t make them the focus of the news or jeopardize a relationship with whichever party ends up winning.

It’s a fine balance, and MP Dean Del Mastro found himself out of step when he commissioned his own poll when he felt the Peterborough PC candidate was being underrepresented in a poll done by a local newspaper.

As he apologized, another story came out about Mr. Harper’s chief of staff hosting a fundraiser for a Toronto-area PC candidate.

“During these elections you may be called upon by a provincial candidate to assist them in their election. Please keep in mind that we do not want the federal government to become a story in any of these elections,” federal Conservatives were told in a memo. It added that any participation must be done in a way “that does not impair our ability to maintain appropriate federal-provincial relations and does not bring the federal government into disrepute.”

As the province’s political leaders plowed for votes in Southern Ontario, a more bare-knuckled version of democracy was breaking out in the North.

For the first time in 12 years, someone other than former NDP leader Howard Hampton will be sent to Queen’s Park to represent the sprawling 250,000-square-kilometre riding of Kenora–Rainy River. And the candidates are desperate to persuade voters they’ll find a way to bring jobs to a region that’s struggled to diversify from a forestry-based economy to one driven by both mining and tourism.

Read the story in the Globe and Mail

In a chalet-like conference room at a Super 8 motel, candidates argued fiercely over the fine details of northern development. But they agreed on one theme – the North and its wealth of natural resources are on the rise, and the south had best not stand in the way.

“There have been great ideas in the past,” said the Green Party’s Jo Jo Holiday, setting the tone in the opening minutes of the debate. “But they are Toronto people who think they know the North and think it goes no further than Sudbury. We are unique and we need to be treated as such.”

With Mr. Hampton out of the picture, NDP candidate (and former Hampton staffer) Sarah Campbell is in a tight fight with Liberal Anthony Leek and Progressive Conservative Rod McKay. The Northern Heritage Party – which dissolved decades ago but was recently resurrected in a bid to raise awareness of northern issues – is running Charmaine Romaniuk, an anthropology student from Lakehead University.

The party’s leaders have made northern development key portions of their platforms so far in the campaign, despite its relatively few legislative seats. Both the Liberals and NDP have visited already on campaign stops, and PC Leader Tim Hudak will face NDP Leader Andrea Horwath in a debate Friday night in Thunder Bay in what is being hailed as the first “northern” debate in recent history. (Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty had previously declined to participate.)

It’s a long way from the plowing matches in Eastern Ontario that the leaders took part in Tuesday, but both the NDP and Conservatives are promising to reduce the cost of electricity – a key issue in the North. And while they are likely to argue about the best way to develop northern resources, the 100 residents who braved the rain in Kenora and the candidates who want to represent them are more focused on local issues.

Campaign managers are working from a single truth: You don’t win over the riding’s 78,000 citizens with platforms, you win them over by campaigning against Toronto.

“It worked for Hampton for years and that’s what you’re seeing here tonight,” one manager said afterward.

While the candidates started out amicably, the debate quickly degenerated into a series of anecdotes and personal attacks the candidates said were borne out of a sense of frustration and a desire to move beyond planning to create jobs for the region.

Mr. McKay, for example, said he knew of specific examples of companies that considered bringing jobs to the region, but didn’t because of the amount of paperwork involved. He didn’t name names.

“Every day I got to work and I sit at an idle sawmill,” said Mr. McKay, who is the mill manager at Kenora Forest Products. “There is a lack of regard by Mr. McGuinty for the people and issues of Northern Ontario. I know our quality of life could be so much better and our economic security could be so much better with the right policies that reflect our northern way of life.”

While the mainstream parties have different policies, the end goals are largely the same – to keep more of the region’s wealth in the area by increasing its processing and refinement capabilities so materials are shipped elsewhere for value-added work.

There are also calls to widen highways and lower the cost of electricity to attract larger companies to set up in the region.

The NDP’s Ms. Campbell name-dropped Mr. Hampton several times during her remarks as she talked about how he tried to get a regional pricing structure introduced to lower hydro prices in the North. She also relied heavily on examples of how Manitoba managed to keep hydro rates low by ensuring the system is kept in public hands.

But her casual references riled Mr. McKay, whose attack against the former NDP leader set the tone for the rest of the night.

“She says how Howard has been talking about this for 12 years,” he said. “Well, that’s what you get when you don’t form a government and sit in opposition. All they can do is talk … we need to fix thing so they make sense instead of sitting down with environmentalists from Southern Ontario who don’t have any stake in our livelihoods in the North.”

As Mr. Hudak and Ms. Horwath prepare for their northern showdown, they may want to read over Ms. Romaniuk’s notes. After the other candidates bickered about each party’s record in office, she took to the lectern and shrugged her shoulders.

“I’m sure glad not to be involved in any of the actual arguments here,” she said. “There’s not a lot to fight with me about – I just want to see more jobs.”