In Regard to Who Won Last Eve’s Ontario Leaders’ Debate:
Hudak 1st; Wynne 2nd; & Horwath a close 3rd.
I concur with them, in fact I had my own scoring system and marked Hudak an overall 8.16 out of 10; Wynne 7.11; followed by Horwath at an even 7.
In the night’s seven categories, counting the wrap-up, I had Hudak winning 6 and tying 1; Wynne winning 1 (surprisingly the topic on Debt / Deficit) and Horwath tying one with Hudak (Education).
Hudak opened calm and statesman-like and continued as such throughout; Wynne opened rattled but quickly picked up steam; while Horwath opened and closed looking nervous and disorganized. In between she did okay.
So does any of this have anything to do with the price of tea in China?
That is to say, will it have any impact on next week’s Election?
And the answer is a firm ‘Maybe’.
To move into majority territory, Hudak needed a strong performance from Horwath…. and he did not get it.
To do really well, Hudak needs the Grit and Dipper vote to split and Horwath’s weak performance virtually counts that out.
Wynne’ s performance – good or bad – really did not matter that much. If you are a public service union employee, welfare recipient, a recipient of government largesse in general – you are going to vote Liberal in spite of what happened last night.
In other words, her low 30 % support is safe and may even go up since some Dippers now are likely to flee the Horwath campaign.
Will that be enough to launch her into majority territory? Not likely, but as I have said from the beginning, the Polls will soon tell us.
So back to Hudak. His numbers too should improve with his winning performance and the positive effect that will have on the large undecided contingent.
Will they improve enough to launch him into majority territory? Again, not likely.
And speaking of polls, I will do one more ‘let’s pretend it’s June 12th Election Day’ once the polling is in from yesterday’s debate.
The most important thing to come out of the Debate was Hudak’s promise last eve that he would not cut front line educators to those of special needs, rather he would actually increase their numbers.
As you know, recently I did a Blog on this very topic quoting several people who were planning not to vote for Hudak based on their fear that he would cut educators for autistic kids. Yesterday, he put that to rest once and for all.
In emotional language, Hudak cited the health issues he and his wife have with their own little girl and then he spoke of a chap he went to school with who suffered from autism. I have some strong ties to this issue and was so relieved to hear what he said. It also stands in contrast how former Premier and Wynne’s former boss Dolton McGuinty let autistics kids and their families down.
Finally, just to prove the Grits have not changed their stripes: the OPP Association recently came out publicly against Hudak pretending it was not being done in support of the Liberals. In spite of their protestations, it has been revealed just today that they were in extensive planning talks with the Grit Leadership in advance of their current anti-Hudak campaign.
We know we cannot trust the Grits but now have to add the Cops to list. Somebody has to get a handle on these out of control Public Service Unions but I fear if Hudak does not win a majority – Ontarians will be saddled with this for years and years to come.
A One Party State supported by an ever growing number of Public Servants making in excess of $100,000 k before plus pensions and benefits.
And if the Tories don’t win … you had better get used to it.
As I see it …
‘K.D. Galagher’
