The corporate media and their loyal spokesthings are worried about Andrea Horwath.
It seems likely now that the NDP will hold the balance of power after the election this Thursday and the burial of Tim Hudak. So a little cherrypicking of the NDP platform by the biz folks, and some energetic spin, shouldn’t surprise us at this point in the campaign.
Horwath, if you can believe it, is a dangerous radical [Globe editorial] who threatens life in Ontario as we know it. No, it’s not the proposed one-metre bubble around cyclists—which frankly made me lose a lot of interest in the campaign at the start—but a promised “Buy Ontario” plan to create new jobs in the province.
And pension reform. Helping those on welfare. Establishing a Jobs Commissioner to brainstorm with stakeholders about job protection and creation.
Capping executive salaries in the public sector. Freezing crippling tuition costs, and keeping transit fares low to encourage ridership.
Scary.
And raising corporate taxes. OK, stop right there, comrade. Send in the shills to beat the Bolsheviks.
I’m not crazy about the current NDP campaign, which reeks of Third Way politics. Taking the HST off gasoline is one of the most striking anti-green measures one could imagine, and this from an allegedly pro-environment party. The cyclist thing was odd, to put it charitably.
There’s nothing very daring about Horwath’s policies, indeed, nothing very progressive. The Ontario NDP have been running a visionless campaign, trying to look as much like the other guys as possible. They have my vote—Anil Naidoo is running in my riding, and he’s a heckuva fine candidate—but not my admiration or respect.
Meanwhile the great grey Dalton McGuinty, like the proverbial tortoise, plods to the finish line.
Don’t worry, Bay Street, the Winter Palace is not about to fall. More’s the pity.