Not ‘healthy’ for Ontario to have government dominated by Toronto: Hudak

NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. – Ontario shouldn’t have a government that’s dominated by Toronto and its suburbs, Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak said Friday.

“It is not healthy for our province to have a government that’s overwhelmingly concentrated in the city of Toronto and its nearest suburbs,” Hudak said a day after his party was defeated in the polls.

Hudak, who failed to make inroads in the Greater Toronto Area that his party needed to win the election, said his larger, stronger Opposition has “important work to do” to turn those ridings Conservative blue.

The Tories nearly matched the Liberals in terms of the popular vote and expanded its seat count to 37 from the 25 they held when the election was called, Hudak said.

“We didn’t make the progress I’d hoped for in the city of Toronto and the (surrounding) areas,” he told reporters in Niagara Falls.

“We made a lot of progress provincewide. I mean, we were neck-and-neck in the popular vote across the province, and it’s great progress.”

Some experts say Hudak killed his chances of winning any Toronto seats when he attacked a promised Liberal tax credit for hiring new immigrants as an affirmative action program for “foreign workers.”

He also stood by a campaign flyer that stoked fears about the province’s sex education curriculum and was branded by some groups as homophobic.

Hudak, 43, said he won’t step down as leader, even though many political observers say he squandered the healthy lead the Tories enjoyed just a few months ago with divisive comments.

“Our party’s feeling great about the progress we’ve made,” he said. “We would have liked to have gone further, no doubt about it. Next time, we will.”

Before the writ dropped, many public opinion polls suggested the Tories were well ahead of the two-term Liberals. But as the month-long campaign dragged on, the tide turned, with polls indicating the Tories had erased their lead and were trailing the Liberals.

The polls proved prophetic as voters handed the Liberals a historic third term Thursday night, but with a reduced mandate of just 53 seats – one short of a majority government.

Premier Dalton McGuinty says he won’t try to lure one of the newly elected Conservatives or New Democrats to cross the floor and give him the extra seat he needs. But Hudak said he doesn’t believe him.

“I think Dalton McGuinty will try to get around the message of change from voters,” he said. “Dalton McGuinty is a guy who will do backroom deals – we’ve certainly seen that in his eight years in office.

“But from the Conservative party point of view, we have strong, dedicated MPPs who want to bring change to this province, sitting MPPs who are given an even stronger mandate this time around … And they were elected because people want change.”

The Tories will fight for lower taxes, private sector job creation and balancing the budget, he said.

“Now Dalton McGuinty cannot unilaterally put things through the house, and it’s going to be awfully difficult for Dalton McGuinty to get any more of his tax increases through the legislature,” Hudak said.