Get Ready For A Lot Of Free Bar-B-Ques

Ontario: First, the good news
By LORRIE GOLDSTEIN

The good news about having a fixed election date in Ontario is that everyone knows it's Oct. 10.

The bad news is that it makes politicians even more skittish, meaning a much longer election campaign than normal. For all intents and purposes, Ontario's political parties are now embarked on a four-month campaign. Heaven help us.

Given the recent Sun Media/SES Research poll showing the Liberals and Tories dead even, with the NDP poised to hold the balance of power, prepare for a long, hot summer.

Even for promise-breaking Premier Dalton McGuinty, it took chutzpah to adjourn the Legislature almost a month early this week, mainly because he didn't want the Liberals subjected to more opposition questions about their novel way of handing out money to multicultural groups. Apparently this involves firing it out of a cannon and accidentally (?) hitting a number of Liberal-friendly organizations.

Still, McGuinty's most outrageous stunt happened just before Christmas, when he and his MPPs snuck out of the Legislature after voting themselves a 25% pay raise.

If only Conservative Leader John Tory and his caucus hadn't gone along in voting for the cash as well, it could have been, dare we say it, a major election issue. Big mistake!

To save you time, here are the main election pitches of the three major party leaders.

McGuinty will portray Tory as a right-wing, "Mike Harris clone", Tory will counter that McGuinty is a serial liar and NDP Leader Howard Hampton will portray both of them as two sides of the same coin.

McGuinty's comparison of Tory to Harris is silly. Tory's a Red Tory in the Bill Davis mould, whom he once served as principal secretary.

As for Tory calling McGuinty a liar, that's going to get old, fast. More relevant are questions such as what would Tory do to address gang and gun violence -- before it happens.

Hampton will argue, as usual, that working people who want real change should vote NDP.

So be prepared for a lot of full-blown political rhetoric over the summer that could have waited until after Labour Day.