Ont. NDP Kicks Off Campaign At Toronto Convention
Posted January 27, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
As the federal parties prepare their strategies should an election be called this spring, the campaigning for the next provincial vote kicked off Saturday for the Ontario NDP.
Party members attended the second day of their three-day convention in Toronto Saturday with leader Howard Hampton urging supporters to start spreading the “Get Orange” message.
Hampton laid out the framework for this election campaign in an hour-long speech at the meeting, dubbed Fresh Ideas, New Energy. The provincial NDP leader plans to focus on “issues that matter to working people”, including health care, employment, the environment, energy, property taxes, increasing the minimum wage and better funding for education.
Ontarians will head to the polls on Oct. 4, 2007 and Hampton believes his party will make great gains this time around because voters are disappointed by a string of Liberal broken promises.
Hampton also believes the fact that Opposition Leader John Tory is considered a moderate Conservative will also play to his favour and will alleviate any fears of strategic voting.
“The Liberals want another election based on fear — that’s the Liberal bread and butter — but it’s not working for them. John Tory may be a very Tory guy but he’s not a scary Tory guy,” Hampton said.
“The cloud that we’ve sort of had over Ontario for 20 years where everything was the politics of fear — `Oh, that Mike Harris is a scary guy, Ernie Eves is a scary guy’ — I think that’s gone.”
While the next election is still eight months away, Hampton is hoping to make gains in three ridings – Burlington, Markham and York South-Weston – in byelections on Feb. 8.
“Our message to Ontarians is clear: If you’re seeing red because Dalton McGuinty hasn’t delivered the change he promised, if the thought of Conservatives catering once again to the well-connected has you feeling blue, don’t get mad, get orange,” Hampton said.
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