WATCH ABOVE: (May 14, 2014) Hudak releases campaign platform, including plan to cut spending and public sector jobs. Alan Carter reports.
Bigger class sizes. No more 30% tuition grant for post secondary students. Forget government cash to improve seniors homes.
Tim Hudak is a serious politician for what he characterizes as serious times. Kathleen Wynne is promising wage hikes for home care and child care workers. Andrea Horwath says she’ll cut your auto insurance premiums and stuff a c-note in your pocket from hydro savings.
Tim Hudak is promising to cut back, fire, and freeze wages. These are indeed serious fiscal times, he says: Ontario is saddled with a growing debt now pegged at $289 billion, and Wynne will help grow that red ink by another $12.5 billion this year. Mr Hudak is betting a stern face and a detailed plan to get back to balance is what voters want and need.
In Depth: Ontario Election 2014
In releasing his campaign platform, Hudak has foregone potential vote-getters such as beer and wine in corner stores, refusing to put water in his conservative wine.With no shiny baubles to entice you, Mr Hudak is promising coal under the Christmas tree this year with presents of tax cuts and jobs to come.
The estimated cut in the deficit in the first year of a Hudak government is $10 billion. That is an incision that will sting, regardless of the PC promise to create a million jobs.
When I asked Hudak in a press conference if laid off education workers will make good plumbers (Hudak is promising 200,000 jobs will be created by changing apprenticeship rules in the trades), he castigated me for not being serious.
“Let’s be serious. You asked a serious question” he said sternly.
As the buds come out on the trees after a long Ontario winter, voters will breathe in the warm air as they head to the polling booths. Mr Hudak’s political future depends on their wanting to mark an x beside cold austerity.
It’s a serious question. And Mr Hudak is a serious man.
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