Ontario provincial debate thread

Stephen · Joined: 02 Sep 2006 Posts: 645 votes: 5 Location: Ontario

Alright... John Tory, Dalton McGuinty and Howard Hampton square off tonight in the leader's debate.

Any predictions?

What does Tory have to do?

What does McGuinty have to do?

What does Hampton have to do?

What are you watching for?

Matt

cosmostein · Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2007 11:37 am Post subject:

I think the unofficial theme will be:

"Dalton you got some splainin to do"

Howie for all his faults is a tactful leader, and will not waste time going after Tory when he knows his best route to secure votes will be to shake them loose from the Liberals.

Tory on the other hand has not acknowledged the existence of the NDP during this election in any of his blitz's.

It will be a two on one brawl, and I don't think McGuinty has an slick answer to every broken promise, and it just takes ONE sound byte to sink an election so I would imagine a win for Dalton is not adding to the current "Broken Promise Issue"

I feel that Tory will do what Tory does, be an excellent speaker and come off as a leader a win for him as landing a SINGLE blow to McGuinty.

As for Howie, same does as for Tory.

My early call based on what I have seen of them thus far is a "Tory Victory" but I wouldn't be surprised if Howie did not win the attention of some undecided voters

kwlafayette · Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2007 12:17 pm Post subject:

Tory should bring up Caledonia, and ask McGuinty if there is any area of responsibility that he is willing to take a leadership role in. I mean, if Ontario sovereignty and rule of law is not his problem, then what is? What are the people of Ontario paying him to do?

Louise M. · Joined: 30 Jul 2007 Posts: 243 votes: 1 Location: Ottawa

Hampton will be a big help to Tory in cornering McGuinty on his broken promises, poor leadership and Colle-gate.

McGuinty will be positioned in the middle of the two other leaders. I don't envy him.

I'm not sure about raising Caledonia. Action against protesters was taken yesterday and the voters may think that vindicates McGuinty. I'd leave it alone.

It's Tory's first debate. Either he will shine or flop. We'll see.

Stephen · Joined: 02 Sep 2006 Posts: 645 votes: 5 Location: Ontario

McGuinty got emotional talking about Tory trashing his reputation.

McGuinty's key line has been "Let's not be so negative"

The response: "But we're talking about your record!"

kwlafayette · Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2007 10:37 pm Post subject:

I heard that there was a major power outage in Toronto a few days ago. Did Tory make the connection between the McGuinty promise to shut down coal power, and the power troubles of today? Should have been a no-brainer.

biggie · Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2007 11:09 pm Post subject:

Just watching it now...

but Tory definitely made some good points on the FBS funding issue..

Still don't agree with it, but its dropped on my list of priorities.

kwlafayette · Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 10:43 am Post subject:

So I take it that McGuinty got a free pass on his energy policy with regards to the power outage?

cosmostein · Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 10:57 am Post subject:

cosmostein · Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 11:03 am Post subject:

My general thoughts are that both the Howie and Tory got some good shots in,

I generally found McGuinty unable to counter many of the points raised and he kept sort of falling back into the standard "We have lots of work to do" mode although that quickly stopped when Tory generally asked why has this "lots of work" only been done in the weeks leading up to the election?

Or my favorite "When we start a job we can blame our predecessor for a few weeks maybe even months but after four years? come on "

While I think Tory came out very strong within the debate, I have to give credit where credit is due. Howie did a good job for his cause and while I disagree with much of the platform he did very well.

If Howard Hampton was the Federal NDP leader I think they would be our opposition party today.

kwlafayette · Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 11:08 am Post subject:

I did not see the debates, and I don't plan too. I am seeing exactly the result I expected though; Toronto Star and Kinsella are crowing about McGuinty's debate victory. People here are crowing about Tory's slam dunk. I imagine the Rabble boards are all joyful about the other guy's victory too.

I think it is time to declare the election debate as obsolete and completely useless.

cosmostein · Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 11:43 am Post subject:

Matt · Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 3:26 pm Post subject:

I have two takes on the debate

the partisan take (in response to Kinsella's list pointing to Liberal friendly headlines): http://splatto.net/blog/?p=736

The unpartisan take, written immediately after the debate but published this morning: http://splatto.net/blog/?p=734

triple M · Joined: 20 Feb 2007 Posts: 83

I really feltTory hit the nail on the head when it comes to Dalton he is just to damn complacent and if Ontario is going to get back to where it needs to be we need to do much better than that. I know many don't agree with Tory on FBS but can we afford another 4 years of directionless Government.