“Is there a Tim here???” the woman behind the counter at Lick’s Homeburgers shouted out, clearly not realizing why the restaurant was full of hulking security men and people in blue t-shirts. So who is this Tim guy and what does he want – on his burger at least?
The PC leader stopped in for this photo op at the Don Mills Lick’s location and had a look at the current results of the burger poll that, surprise, surprise, shows him with a comfortable lead. If poll numbers had been reversed you can be sure lunch would have been at Mickey D’s.
After a week of disappointing poll results showing momentum going to the Liberals (although voter support remains tied between PCs and Liberals) you could forgive Hudak for seeking solace in some deep fried good news. Lick’s has held a burger poll for every election since 1980, and founder Denise Meehan says usually their poll is within a few points of the actual results.
It’s what Ms. Meehan says after Hudak leaves with his burger and onion rings that should worry the PC camp. She says the energetic and affable man she met in person is different than the candidate she’s seen reflected in the media and in campaign ads through the first week of the election. “You need to get more of that into the campaign,” she scolded me, apparently mistaking me for a Tory staffer.
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That’s a tall order for a candidate that has struggled to go off script in his press conferences, returning again and again to the same message. You sometimes suspect that regardless what the question, Hudak will answer “Dalton McGuinty will raise your taxes.” That is in contrast to the man who seems so at ease with reporters when the cameras aren’t rolling.
Hudak, in an interview aboard his campaign bus, disagrees with that assessment, saying he’s simply doing what he can to talk about himself, where he comes from, and where he wants to take the province. But from voters like Denise Meehan, just like the woman working behind the burger counter, you might forgive more shouts of “is there a Tim here?”
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