Leaders readying for debate night

(Updated)

There are only 10 days left until the provincial election. And Tuesday night — the three main leaders will square off in a televised debate.

Political scientist Nelson Wiseman is in Washington but said that this election reminds him very much of the last election, and the one before that. That is, in the beginning, it’s a Conservative race to lose. But the Conservative lead gets smaller as the race progresses because in all three cases, the Liberals have succeeded in making the election about the Tories, their leader, and their policies.

The legislature dissolved three days before a parliamentary committee was to release a report on Ornge air ambulance, which found a lack of ministry oversight, and a lack of training for pilots flying at night. Outgoing PC MPP Frank Klees, who was on the committee, released the report Monday, accusing the Liberals of shutting down government before the report could be heard.

At an event decrying the jobs that would be lost under a PC government, Kathleen Wynne rebuffed the criticism: “If Frank Klees hadn’t stood up the day the budget was tabled and said he wouldn’t support it, that report would have been released

Tory Leader Tim Hudak meanwhile says he is the only leader being honest about the need to reduce the size of government, and he defended his plan to cut 100 thousand public service jobs. But he was also defending the math behind his ‘million jobs plan’: “We could have a great argument about whether it’s going to create 80, 100, 120, jobs. the bottom line is, it’s going to create jobs. We need it. So lets get on with it.

For the first time in its history, the union representing the Ontario Provincial Police released a political attack ad. They’re concerned about their collective agreement and pensions. Jim Christie is the association President: “I think Tim’s gone too far, and after the election, depending on how it goes, some of the caucus members would probably agree with me.”

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, meanwhile, released a new app to help voters calculate how much money they would save under an NDP government: “The reason we put this together was because we are the only party that has been talking about the fact that Ontarians are finding it tough to make ends meet. They’re literally falling off the chair at the kitchen table when they open their hydro bills.”

The Liberals also released an app spoof today — called the hudalculator. Input a number, it multiplies the number by eight — it jokes that now everyone can do math the way Tim Hudak did to come up with his million jobs plan. But Hudak is likely looking forward to Tuesday night’s debate. Of the three leaders, he has the most experience.

CHCH will be airing the debate at a special time. Our coverage begins at eight o’clock and will continue until 10pm with a half hour of post debate analysis. All three leaders say they’re looking forward to the debate.