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Andrea Horwath is a two-faced environmentalist nutbar, Progressive Conservative leader Doug Ford charged Friday, abruptly changing the direction of his campaign to lead Ontario.
Until now, Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne and her party’s record have been Ford’s target, with Horwath an afterthought. But with polls suggesting Horwath might be the more serious threat to Ford’s ambition, he’s taken fresh aim at her and the New Democrats.
“Let’s be real honest with each other,” Ford said, addressing Horwath Friday at a leaders’ debate on northern Ontario issues in Parry Sound. “You don’t support the people of the North. You support your buddies in downtown Toronto, that’s who you’re going to huddle with.”
The New Democrat candidate in Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston, Ramsey Hart, is a food-bank director in Perth who used to work for MiningWatch, an environmental group that studies the impact of mining, argues for tighter regulations and shames companies for conduct it considers harmful or unethical.
“He’s an extremist. An environmentalist,” Ford said. “Andrea, are you there to protect the people of the North like I am or are you there to protect your extremist environmentalist friends?”
The mining industry has shifted so companies think more about long-term effects of their operations, Horwath replied, and people like Hart have helped. Governments need to enforce environmental rules, she told the audience, “so that your communities can benefit economically but not be left with an environmental mess at the end of the day.”
Ontario’s north is mostly New Democratic territory. The Tories’ best chances to win more seats north of Lake Simcoe will come at the NDP’s expense. Repeatedly, Ford accused Horwath of being a Toronto elitist, huddling with other Toronto elitists to make decisions against northerners’ interests.
The setting for the debate wasn’t ideal for Ford: A roomful of councillors and mayors from the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities, with written questions posed through its president Al Spacek, the mayor of Kapuskasing. These people spend their days immersed in dense policy disputes between the province and their cities and towns.
It’s one thing to say you’ve been to Sioux Lookout, Cochrane and Kenora and you know that the people want tax cuts and government out of their business, something else to answer a detailed question about whether Northern Ontario should get a special power to say yes to would-be immigrants who have skills the North needs.
We should try it, Horwath said. Wynne agreed. Ford seemed to suspect trouble after he heard the idea associated with federal Liberal minister Navdeep Bains.
“I’d be more than happy to sit down with the folks and look at a pilot project. I’m a pretty generous guy,” he said cautiously. But we have to take care of our own first, he said. “When we exhaust, we exhaust every single avenue, we don’t have anyone that can fill the job, then I’d be open to that.”
Wynne has promised to spend $1 billion on roads and railways to a remote northern chromite deposit, the so-called Ring of Fire; in 2014, she promised to do it even without matching funds from the federal government, that’s how serious she was. Hasn’t happened. Negotiating details with local authorities and First Nations councils has taken longer than it was supposed to. Also the world price of chromite crashed and U.S. mining company Cliffs Natural Resources sold out of its major investment there in 2015, all but halting the private push to start digging.
Ford’s promised to get the Ring of Fire mined if he has to climb into a bulldozer himself.
Chromium prices are back up and plans are finally moving forward again, but it’s strange to see Progressive Conservatives beating up on the Liberals for not having sunk a billion dollars into an iffy venture fast enough.
“For years, all we’ve heard is talk, talk talk. No action whatsoever. We’re going to work with the people of the North, we’re going to work with the First Nations, we’re going to respect the treaties that are in place right now. But we’re not going to talk. We’re going to get in there, after the agreements, and get to work,” Ford said.
Wynne practically threw up her hands. Doing things right takes time, she said, and the agreements you just mentioned are made by talking. “You’re just going to drive a bulldozer right across northern Ontario,” she said.
Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford, left to right, Ontario Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne and Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath take part in the second of three leaders’ debate in Parry Sound, Ont., on Friday, May 11, 2018.
Same thing with the Liberals’ closing part of the publicly owned rail service in the North, the Ontario Northlander between Toronto and Cochrane. The Northlander was always a money-loser; the province subsidized it to the tune of $300 per rider and the Liberals have replaced it with cheaper, wider-reaching, but less comfortable bus service.
The Northlander was also a symbol, a piece of northern heritage. Both the Tories and the New Democrats promise to roll the trains again.
Wynne defended the decision by saying there was just no business case for a heavily subsidized passenger rail line that served communities you can reach by road.
“There is no business case for public transit in the South, either,” Horwath said, but we have it anyway. “It is all publicly subsidized.”
Ford didn’t engage on the details, though he repeatedly accused the New Democrats of not having fought for the Northlander (they did, loudly but ineffectually).
“I’m going to have the economy booming up here,” he promised simply. He loves the North like he loves nurses and doctors and firefighters and the little guy and the people. Everything will be better when he’s premier. We’ll just have a lot of details to work out later.
dreevely@postmedia.com
twitter.com/davidreevely
查看原文...
Until now, Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne and her party’s record have been Ford’s target, with Horwath an afterthought. But with polls suggesting Horwath might be the more serious threat to Ford’s ambition, he’s taken fresh aim at her and the New Democrats.
“Let’s be real honest with each other,” Ford said, addressing Horwath Friday at a leaders’ debate on northern Ontario issues in Parry Sound. “You don’t support the people of the North. You support your buddies in downtown Toronto, that’s who you’re going to huddle with.”
The New Democrat candidate in Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston, Ramsey Hart, is a food-bank director in Perth who used to work for MiningWatch, an environmental group that studies the impact of mining, argues for tighter regulations and shames companies for conduct it considers harmful or unethical.
“He’s an extremist. An environmentalist,” Ford said. “Andrea, are you there to protect the people of the North like I am or are you there to protect your extremist environmentalist friends?”
The mining industry has shifted so companies think more about long-term effects of their operations, Horwath replied, and people like Hart have helped. Governments need to enforce environmental rules, she told the audience, “so that your communities can benefit economically but not be left with an environmental mess at the end of the day.”
Ontario’s north is mostly New Democratic territory. The Tories’ best chances to win more seats north of Lake Simcoe will come at the NDP’s expense. Repeatedly, Ford accused Horwath of being a Toronto elitist, huddling with other Toronto elitists to make decisions against northerners’ interests.
The setting for the debate wasn’t ideal for Ford: A roomful of councillors and mayors from the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities, with written questions posed through its president Al Spacek, the mayor of Kapuskasing. These people spend their days immersed in dense policy disputes between the province and their cities and towns.
It’s one thing to say you’ve been to Sioux Lookout, Cochrane and Kenora and you know that the people want tax cuts and government out of their business, something else to answer a detailed question about whether Northern Ontario should get a special power to say yes to would-be immigrants who have skills the North needs.
We should try it, Horwath said. Wynne agreed. Ford seemed to suspect trouble after he heard the idea associated with federal Liberal minister Navdeep Bains.
“I’d be more than happy to sit down with the folks and look at a pilot project. I’m a pretty generous guy,” he said cautiously. But we have to take care of our own first, he said. “When we exhaust, we exhaust every single avenue, we don’t have anyone that can fill the job, then I’d be open to that.”
Wynne has promised to spend $1 billion on roads and railways to a remote northern chromite deposit, the so-called Ring of Fire; in 2014, she promised to do it even without matching funds from the federal government, that’s how serious she was. Hasn’t happened. Negotiating details with local authorities and First Nations councils has taken longer than it was supposed to. Also the world price of chromite crashed and U.S. mining company Cliffs Natural Resources sold out of its major investment there in 2015, all but halting the private push to start digging.
Ford’s promised to get the Ring of Fire mined if he has to climb into a bulldozer himself.
Chromium prices are back up and plans are finally moving forward again, but it’s strange to see Progressive Conservatives beating up on the Liberals for not having sunk a billion dollars into an iffy venture fast enough.
“For years, all we’ve heard is talk, talk talk. No action whatsoever. We’re going to work with the people of the North, we’re going to work with the First Nations, we’re going to respect the treaties that are in place right now. But we’re not going to talk. We’re going to get in there, after the agreements, and get to work,” Ford said.
Wynne practically threw up her hands. Doing things right takes time, she said, and the agreements you just mentioned are made by talking. “You’re just going to drive a bulldozer right across northern Ontario,” she said.
Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford, left to right, Ontario Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne and Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath take part in the second of three leaders’ debate in Parry Sound, Ont., on Friday, May 11, 2018.
Same thing with the Liberals’ closing part of the publicly owned rail service in the North, the Ontario Northlander between Toronto and Cochrane. The Northlander was always a money-loser; the province subsidized it to the tune of $300 per rider and the Liberals have replaced it with cheaper, wider-reaching, but less comfortable bus service.
The Northlander was also a symbol, a piece of northern heritage. Both the Tories and the New Democrats promise to roll the trains again.
Wynne defended the decision by saying there was just no business case for a heavily subsidized passenger rail line that served communities you can reach by road.
“There is no business case for public transit in the South, either,” Horwath said, but we have it anyway. “It is all publicly subsidized.”
Ford didn’t engage on the details, though he repeatedly accused the New Democrats of not having fought for the Northlander (they did, loudly but ineffectually).
“I’m going to have the economy booming up here,” he promised simply. He loves the North like he loves nurses and doctors and firefighters and the little guy and the people. Everything will be better when he’s premier. We’ll just have a lot of details to work out later.
dreevely@postmedia.com
twitter.com/davidreevely
查看原文...
