GO Transit, Autism And Broken Promises Highlight Campaign Day

Elect a Liberal government and you’ll GO farther. That’s what Dalton McGuinty is promising voters in Barrie, as he pledges to restore train service from Toronto to the north by the end of the year. The Liberal leader vows the extension is part of the government’s $17.5 billion transportation plan and that it will make getting from the Big Smoke to Fresh Air country a lot more convenient for those forced to make the long and sometimes difficult daily commute. The total cost for getting four trains a day back on track: $250 million. Barrie has been without GO Train service since the provincial government cut it back in 1993.

McGuinty later made his way to Mississauga, where he re-announced his plans for MoveOntario, a major expansion for transit in the province and the GTA that we first told you about last June. (To see those plans again, click here.)

But those who will deal with the fallout from all those buses and trains hitting the streets aren’t sure the promises will be easy to keep – especially when the Liberals refuse to factor in money to operate everything. “Once you build it, you have to operate it,” points out TTC Chair Adam Giambrone. “It pays for staff salaries, it pays for the diesel for buses and it pays for the electricity for streetcars, it pays to make sure the buses are maintained.”

One thing that’s different with this campaign pledge is that the Liberals say the money has already been committed – and the projects will go through regardless of whether they win on October 10th or not.

John Tory wasn’t thinking about getting around on Tuesday, just about getting by as he visited with the families of autistic children in London. The PC boss calls the Liberal record on helping those affected with the syndrome appalling, accusing the Grits of using every possible means of standing in the way of parents looking to help their kids.

The government pays for autistic children to receive intensive one-on-one therapy, but there’s still a long waiting list and for those not eligible, it can cost up to $70,000 a year – an amount that leaves most families bankrupt.

Tory promises to give those parents an additional $75 million a year to extend the treatment, which he insists can’t wait. “Parents are being forced to choose between sending their kid to school without treatment or isolated at home to receive the therapy they need because their government has not done enough to provide that treatment in schools,” he maintains. “I believe the current government and the current premier has failed these families.” The PC leader charges the wait list for services has grown from 89 when the Liberals were elected to more than one thousand as of August.

And he wasn’t the only one leading the charge on a lack of leadership. NDP boss Howard Hampton travelled to Sault Ste. Marie to hammer McGuinty on his record of broken promises. He repeatedly played a tape from the 2003 election debate where the Liberal chief pledge not to raise taxes, and displayed 45,000 pennies reminding voters of the vow not to up their expenses by a single cent.

“Mr. McGuinty has a record,” Hampton reminds. “He doesn’t want to talk about his record, he’d like people to forget about his record, but he has a four-year record of saying anything, promising anything to get elected and then walking away from those promises and disappointing people. Part of our campaign is to remind people this is not what you voted for.”

A Hampton government wants to eliminate the health care tax for low income earners and reduce it by $450 for taxpayers that make up to $80,000 a year.

Advance polls now open

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