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Kathleen Wynne gives three Liberal candidates a dressing down after posting “inappropriate comments”. We are told they are all contrite.

Things said on social media, perhaps in the heat of the moment, leave footprints that don’t go away. They can follow you around for years.

We have some beautiful examples here in Newmarket where there is a treasure trove of material.

The animosity between Newmarket’s Ward 6 councillor, Maddie Di Muccio, and her nemesis, Darryl Wolk, is available for all to savour (if you like that kind of thing).

On 14 March this year, at 8.32am, pushing her Corn Flakes to one side, Di Muccio tweets:

Dirty politics attracts bottom-feeding scum like @darrylwolk. I stay away from that poison.

On 14 April at 10.36pm, Wolk’s boiling resentment against Di Muccio erupts with this ferocious tweet:

You are a master of lies, smears, threats, dirty politics & personal attacks!

Having mulled things over for a further ten minutes, Wolk shoots this dart at Di Muccio, hitting her straight between the eyes:

I can’t wait until Newmarket fires this toxic human being on October 27.

But social media isn’t always a bear-pit.

The early-rising Progressive Conservative MPP hopeful, Jane Twinney, tweets in a happy, non-confrontational way. They are designed to leave a warm glow. They are full of fun! They are vacuous, not vicious.

Up with the larks at 6.12am on 8 May, Jane tweets:

Another day on the Campaign Trail… today is going to be a fun day again. Early start on this gorgeous morning. #keepingitblue #VoteTwinney

Another tweet, typical of the genre, leaves Jane’s keyboard at 7.26am on 5 May:

Looking forward to a busy day ahead on the Campaign Trail! Let’s get this Province back on track! #onpoli #pcpo #million jobs

You get the message.

Elsewhere on the so-called “Campaign Trail” Hudak touts tax cuts as part of jobs plan and promises he would never run a deficit.

The pollsters report that people are sceptical and his support is eroding but at least he has staked out a position and gets people talking.

Meanwhile the NDP focus on so-called “pocket-book” issues.

Horwath’s campaign has yet to catch fire. She is promising to cut out the waste from a bloated bureaucracy.

She puts the figure at $600 million. 

Oh dear! 

29 days to go.

 

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Tim Hudak today promises to cut income tax tomorrow.

We are told the 10% income tax cut will be “phased in” after the PC Government balances the budget in 2016-17.

These are all fantasy figures. Just like the 100, 000 jobs cuts in two years. This target is unachievable. From one end of the political spectrum to the other, the 100,000 pledge is ridiculed.

Meanwhile, the NDP “slams the Liberals over auto insurance rates”. No surprises there. Horwath’s well-worn pitch is all about making life “affordable”. She could be re-running the last election.

Don’t expect anything new and different (and specific) from the NDP. Instead of challenging the other parties with fresh thinking there is a policy vacuum.

The NDP locally is selecting their candidate for Newmarket-Aurora tonight.

30 days to go.

 

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The humiliation is complete as PC Leader and wannabe Premier, Tim Hudak, is “ushered off” a TTC subway car by transit police.

No permit. No photo op.

This exquisitely humbling “event” is picked up by the news media everywhere. A CBC video records it for posterity. The Toronto Sun reports the PCs blaming the unions. The Toronto Star talks about a campaign event going off the rails. The National Post is the kindest, saying the event was "almost" derailed. 

However it was reported, yesterday’s cock-up becomes a metaphor for Hudak’s campaign. Another day. Another gaffe.

And the Star tops it off with an editorial faulting Hudak’s math.

Meanwhile, Kathleen Wynne sails through a less-than-challenging interview with Matt Galloway.

Andrea Horwath is up in Thunder Bay prospecting for an extra seat or two and complaining the Liberals are “long on promises and short on delivery”. Unfortunately, the NDP platform is being dribbled out in stages to maximise media coverage. I still don’t have the long list of NDP promises.

Here in Newmarket, York Regional Council hopeful, Darryl Wolk tweets

@gordon_prentice To be clear, I have not endorsed anyone in the Newmarket-Aurora Provincial. Listening to issues, putting Newmarket first!

Then, for good measure, he tweets again:

@gordon_prentice I do not support cutting “non-teacher” positions. We must support special needs students. Our candidate should talk policy.

“Our candidate” is, of course, Jane Twinney.

On 11 March 2014 Wolk tweeted to his 3,744 followers:

For the record I plan to vote for @JaneTwinney in provincial election.

Now we know, that in the intriguing World of Wolk, that does not count as an endorsement.

31 days to go.

 

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Tim Hudak's pledge to cut 100,000 public sector jobs in two years is a game-changer. 

It is a bold move - kamikaze more like - designed to grab our attention.

It could – and probably will – blow up in his face.

The Barrie Examiner perceptively reports that Hudak made his breakfast-meeting pledge at Barrie Country Club in front of an audience of the faithful that had been shoehorned into “one of the golf club’s smaller rooms”.

This gets me thinking about how much real support there is outside the PC die hards for a remedy that seems a million times more toxic than the disease it is supposed to cure.

In his “Paths to Prosperity” platform paper Hudak talks cautiously about phasing out 10,000 non-teaching positions to save $600m. That measured approach has been thrown out of the window in his bid to capture the headlines. The precise location of the other doomed 90,000 jobs remains, for now, a matter for conjecture.

All in all, 10% of public sector jobs are to go but doctors, nurses and police officers are to be protected. No forced job cuts there. But teachers are singled out as legitimate targets.

Almost 11,800 teachers and support staff work in York Region – the third biggest School Board in Ontario - and they may feel a tad nervous.

For those who escape the scythe, Hudak is promising a public sector wage freeze.

In her biography posted on her website for the 2010 Municipal Election, PC candidate, Jane Twinney, speaks about being active at Meadowbrook Public School where she ran the school lunch programme. With that background, I am left wondering where she believes the axe should fall in our schools. 

That's not something she should be allowed to dodge.

 

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The left-leaning Toronto Star takes aim again at Andrea Horwath’s NDP. Columnist Rick Salutin tells his readers the NDP is selling its soul for a mess of populist pottage. I agree.

Horwath will have to start putting flesh on the bones pretty quickly otherwise she will be written off as a gadfly with nothing serious to say about anything that really matters. I want to be proved wrong but time is running out.

Meanwhile, here in Newmarket things seem to be hotting up. One of my spies tells me she spotted a lot of “blue” action at the corner of Mulock and Leslie at 8.20 on Thursday morning. She saw a cheerleader with pom poms and five people jumping up and down and waving PC signs, including Jane Twinney. (Is this true Jane?)

Jane – with the famous name - is an enigma. She won the PC nomination without a contest. Stephen Somerville pulled out saying his family had been threatened and the brittle Maddie Di Muccio self destructed.

Jane Twinney’s views may be unformed. Or, less likely, she may be keeping them from a curious public. That flashing smile coupled with bouncing cheerleaders and pom poms may be the right mix to win in Conservative Newmarket.

Some of Jane’s supporters think she is a closet Liberal. Darryl Wolk, who dreams of defeating Regional Councillor John Taylor, tweeted on 8 March 2014

PC nomination was a slap in the face to grassroots members and basic democracy. Win or lose we get a Liberal at Queen’s Park.

Again, after further reflection, Wolk tweeted on 21 March 2014

My opinion is Newmarket-Aurora ends up with a Liberal regardless of who wins in Newmarket-Aurora.

Does Jane Twinney want that kind of endorsement?

Does she give a toss what Wolk says? Probably not.

She has a fundraiser in Aw Shucks on Monday.  Maybe things will be clearer then.

33 days to go.

 

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