Education Issue Still Follows John Tory
Posted October 5, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
John Tory may not want to talk about funding for faith-based schools anymore but the issue is not going away.
On a local radio show Friday morning, the Progressive Conservative leader said he backed off from his stance after listening to voters, promising to put the issue to a free vote if he’s elected. He admitted though that the heated topic has probably taken away from other issues in the election campaign.
“Did it distract from discussion of other issues? Yes, it did,” Tory said. “Is that unfortunate because there are things like poverty, like the doctor shortage, like the environment that didn’t get discussed adequately? That’s true. But we’ve got five more days so I’m just going to be out there, going place to place and putting forward my message.”
Tory also promised to spend $300 million of the gas tax on improving northern highways and roads and a $100 million research and a development fund for northern post-secondary schools.
Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty was in Markham Friday pledging to improve education in younger grades by putting $150 million toward reducing class sizes in grades four through eight.
“All the dreams that we have, there are none greater than those that we have for our kids. (We) want them to grow up strong and happy and do well and be the best that they can be,” he said. “We make that a reality and we breathe life into those dreams through our publicly funded schools.”
Meanwhil, NDP chief Howard Hampton attacked the media this week, accusing them of not covering the election’s real issues like ending child poverty and care for the elderly.
Election Day is Wednesday, October 10. Watch CityNews and CP24 for complete coverage.
