CityVote Day 16: McGuinty visits BT, Horwath tops barbecue poll

Health care was a top priority for Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty on the sixteenth day of the provincial election campaign — the same day a poll was released that suggests NDP Leader Andrea Horwath has an edge with voters when it comes to personal appeal.

Horwath was the most popular leader in a recent Ipsos-Reid barbecue poll, with more respondents saying they’d like to spend time around their backyard grill with the NDP leader than her two main rivals.

McGuinty stopped by Breakfast Television Thursday to talk about his plans for health care, particularly in regard to seniors to help them stay in their homes longer.

“We’re going to bring back house calls. We’re going to provide much more home care,” he said.

“It’s great for all of us because that care is so much less expensive than a long-term care home or a hospital.”

Click here to watch Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty on BT

He’s also promising to create a tax credit up to $1,500 per year allowing people to install home care equipment, such as walk-in tubs or ramps.

Advance polls opened Wednesday and McGuinty said he’s expecting a strong response.

“My expectation is we’re going to have the highest advance election turnout ever,” he said.

McGuinty also addressed transit issues in the GTA and touted his plan to expand GO commuter train service.

“We want to double two-way, all-day GO service,” he said. “We want to give [commuters] a real, viable option to use a great GO train service.”

He spoke at the Canadian Club of Toronto and plans to make an announcement at the site of the new Oakville hospital at 3:30 p.m.

Horwath and Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak were also in Toronto on Thursday.

Hudak responded to the results of the barbecue poll by issuing a call for a cook-off with McGuinty and Horwath.

“Once they taste my ribs, once they taste my pulled pork, I think I can turn them around,” he said.

More than 8,000 Ontarians were questioned for the survey that was conducted between Sept. 16 and 20th.

According to the poll, 37 per cent picked Horwath, 32 per cent chose Hudak and 31 per cent said they’d like to grill with McGuinty.

The survey has a margin of error of 1.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

On Wednesday, Horwath promised to create four new birthing centres staffed by midwives and implement a breastfeeding strategy to help new mothers.

Hudak vowed not to raise taxes on Wednesday and challenged McGuinty to do the same.

With files from The Canadian Press

Top Stories

Top Stories

Most Watched Today