Hudak skips northern debate

For his part, PC leader Tim Hudak went ahead with the events scheduled for today that he says prevented him from taking part in the northern debate, and he pounded home his message of government restraint and cutbacks.

Instead of heading for a northern region where there are no Conservative MPPs and Tory support might be hard to find, Hudak began his campaign day in Peterborough.

He was looking for votes in a key Southern Ontario riding that’s voted with the party forming the government in every election since 1977, and usually reflects the province-wide popular vote.

From there, on top of his plan to cut 100,000 jobs, Hudak was in Toronto promoting his idea of a two-year wage government freeze for everyone in the provincial public service.

“For so many governement workers, they never had it so good. Gold plated pensions, unaffordable pay increases, job security. The problem is that people have been falling behind not on the government payroll and have had to pay higher and higher taxes,” Hudak said.

CHCH spoke to communications consultant Allan Bonner, who told us that skipping the northern debate was a missed opportunity for Hudak. An opportunity for voters see him with the other leaders and hear what he has to say.

And even though he had a few cameras to himself for his events, Hudak is missing all the TV viewers who might be looking to the debate to make up their minds.

Hudak sidestepped questions from reporters about whether his strategy was wrong.

“I’m not slowing down. I hoped that it would work out with scheduling, it didn’t as you know. But I’ve got a job to do. We are in a debt and jobs crisis and what’s the first thing you’d do if you were deep in crisis in debt, you’d stop spending. I think it’s fair and balanced to say that begins with an across the board wage freeze for all of us in government.”

Throughout the day, Hudak stayed on message about a government wage freeze.

“No more wage increases. We’ve got to shut the door, we’ve got to lock the vault. We’ve got to balance the books and get our economy going again.”