Full of praise for MPP Glenn Thibeault — and $150 million in new money for the NOHFC – Premier Kathleen Wynne rolled into Sudbury on Wednesday with two weeks left in the provincial election.
With the Liberals polling in third place – more than 10 per cent behind the New Democrats and Progressive Conservatives – Wynne took aim at both parties, portraying both as having platforms dangerous to Ontario.
She said the NDP would cut $85 million from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund, describing them as hostile to the business community.
If re-elected June 7, Liberals plan to increase NOHFC funding to $150 million a year by 2020-21. Since she became premier, the fund has helped create or maintain 15,000 jobs in the North, she said.
"That partnership has, in turn, generated billions of dollars in economic activity," Wynne said, speaking at Crosscut Distillery, a NOHFC recipient. "Right now, we don't have the same commitment from every party in this election."
She criticized NDP Leader Andrea Horwath's platform as having "major mistakes" made worse by the party's hostility to business.
"The NDP has historically -- and currently -- looked at the private sector as the enemy,” she said. “You just have to look at their platform.
"(Tory Leader) Doug Ford just calls any relationship like this corporate welfare. I just categorically disagree with that."
With the Liberals behind in the polls, Wynne said voters are taking a hard look at the detail in the NDP plan, and wondering where the details are to the Tory plan.
"The NDP promises a lot, but if you look at the math, the mistakes that have been made, their inability to explain some of the mistakes that have been made, then I think it's clear there isn't a realistic plan coming from them," she said. "They are dreamers, we are doers."
As for the Tories, voters are starting to wonder how Ford is going to accomplish everything he's promising without massive cuts to spending.
"I think people are asking, rightly, exactly what it is Doug Ford would do," Wynne said. "People are listening to the slogans Doug Ford is putting out, and they're inferring what it might mean in terms of cuts.
"But we have no idea where those cuts would come from."
In power since 2003, Wynne said voter fatigue with her party was expected, but she hopes Ontarians take a hard look at this critical moment in the campaign at what the Liberals are proposing compared to the PCs and NDP.
"We went into this election understanding this was going to be a tough election for us," she said. "We also know we've been building up this province."
She also had high praise for Sudbury MPP Glenn Thibeault, who emerged from the Sudbury byelection scandal to become energy minister.
"He has absolutely been a stellar and central part of my caucus and cabinet,” she said. “I believe people know that.
"He's a fine, fine man who has represented this community extremely well (but) the people of Sudbury will make the decision."
