Ontario election countdown: two days
Posted Oct 4, 2011 07:00:09 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO, Ont. – With just two days to go until election day in Ontario, a new poll shows Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty may have a slight edge over Conservative Leader Tim Hudak, while another one shows the race is still a toss-up.
The daily Nanos Research poll, done for the Globe and Mail, has the Liberals widening the gap between the Conservatives by four points, at 37 per cent and 33 per cent, respectively. The NDP is up to almost 26 per cent popular support.
However, even the four-point Liberal lead is within the margin of error so the Liberals and Conservatives are in a statistical tie around the 35 per cent range — a long way from the 54 seats that are needed for a majority.
However, the vote splits will likely play a huge role in the final count.
A Forum Research survey published by the Toronto Star, Tuesday — which polled more than 20,000 people in 27 key ridings — concludes the Tories and Liberals could actually split the legislature with 45 seats each, leaving 17 seats for the NDP to hold the balance of power.
Such a situation would require unprecedented consideration from Lt. Gov. David Onley.
The technical procedure is that is no party wins a majority, it will be up to one of two of the party leaders to convince the lieutenant governor that they can form a government with the confidence of the legislature.
The leaders will spend the final two days in key ridings.
On Tuesday, McGuinty attended events in Bolton, Cambridge and Pickering. Hudak was in Ottawa, Peterborough, Pickering and Vaughan, while NDP Leader Andrea Horwath started her day in Toronto and then headed to Thunder Bay and Sudbury.
Two of the three main party leaders spent the day talking education on the campaign trail.
Conservative Leader Tim Hudak stood by a controversial Conservative campaign flyer condemning the Liberals’ sex education curriculum.
The Liberals called the flier homophobic and misleading but Hudak insists Dalton McGuinty is trying to keep parents in the dark about what is really being taught in schools.
“I think the only one who has explaining to do is Dalton McGuinty, who wants to bring in a sex-ed curriculum that would start in Grade 1 when kids are six years old,” he said while visiting a restaurant in the premier’s Ottawa-South riding.
The pamphlet warns the new program teaches “cross-dressing for six-year-olds” but the Liberals say it completely misrepresents the sex education curriculum which has not changed since the Conservatives were in power.
Both McGuinty and Hudak had stops in Pickering, Tuesday, about an hour and a half apart.
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath spent most of the day in northern Ontario.
She hopes voters will be turned off by the mudslinging between McGuinty and Hudak and will cast their vote for her.
“If they want their leadership candidates, their premier candidates to have a more honest conversation about the real issues and not just the mud slinging,” said Horwath.
An Ipsos Reid poll, released Tuesday and conducted for Ottawa Citizen, showed the Liberals are in position to win a minority with a 10 point lead over the Conservatives, and could push forward to form a majority government.
