Some senior Liberal strategists want Premier Dalton McGuinty to delay the St. Paul’s by-election out of fear the governing party could lose the key Toronto seat to the Progressive Conservatives.
With McGuinty poised to call the by-election on Wednesday for a Sept. 17 vote, Liberals are scrambling to stall for at least another two weeks to give newly minted Liberal candidate Eric Hoskins a chance to get to know the riding.
They are especially spooked because Tory Leader Tim Hudak has convinced well-known Toronto Sun city hall columnist Sue-Ann Levy to be the PC candidate.
One Liberal insider urged the premier to delay, saying Hoskins “has had no time to put his name out in the riding and there’s been no transition since Michael Bryant.”
In June, Bryant, economic development minister at the time, resigned the seat he had held since 1999.
Hoskins, a doctor and co-founder of the War Child Canada charity, won a hard-fought nomination battle last Wednesday over lawyer and riding association treasurer Charles Finlay and former senior bureaucrat Judith Moses.
The Liberals are bracing for a bruising battle with Levy, who is Jewish and openly gay in a riding with a significant Jewish population and a healthy contingent of socially liberal, fiscally conservative voters.
Levy, a vocal critic of Mayor David Miller in her tabloid columns, could blame the Liberals for giving city council the power to impose a slew of new taxes on Torontonians, including higher car registration and land transfer fees, another Liberal insider said.
A third Liberal said although Hoskins should win, it could be bloody.
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So, the liberals want to campaign for two weeks before the campaign starts. Why did they wait so long to get a candidate. If the impression is true that libs could run a dog in TO, and win, what is the problem.
Ahhh this is great, make my day. That fanatical Christian fundamentalist Hudak has brought Sue-Ann into the fold ..I think she just had a wedding, to another woman.
Soon people will learn that there are Cabinet Ministers in Ottawa that are gay and that those awful right wing Conservatives don’t really care what goes on in your bedroom any more than Trudeau (correctly) did.
The next provincial election is Hudaks to lose and he should be out there NOW attacking, probably the worst provincial government this province has seen since Billy Bob (I ruined Ontario first) Rae.
Hudak has the same problem as Harper. He has to convince Toronto.
I’m not certain he can.
Perhaps we should use some of the money Harper is thowing around to dig a deep trench around the city…fill it with water…and then divorce it.
I know…I’m dreaming in technicolor but it’s a thought.
Right now, the best weapon for Hudak and the PCPO is Mayor Miller…
Is there a limit as to how long the Premier can delay a byelection?
Geez,I didn’t know she was a dy…..,oops,I mean a lesbian.
Not a problem,she’s got my vote,and when I say she’s got my vote,I mean I’m in her riding.