By Doug Draper
The Conservative’s Tim Hudak must be sensing a chance to make some big gains in Niagara.
Tim Hudak, holding his daughter Miller, as he talks to vendor at St. Catharines market with wife Deb Hutton to his left and Tory candidate Sandie Bellows to his right. Photo by Doug Draper
With only five days left before Ontarians go to the polls, the Tory leader’s campaign bus rolled into Niagara this October in support of his party’s candidates in the ridings of St. Catharines, Welland and Niagara Falls. The only other provincial riding in the region is Niagara West-Glanbrook is already in Conservative hands and is likely a secure on because it happens to be Hudak’s own.
In the other three ridings, Hudak is looking to first-time provincial candidate Sandie Bellows to knock off veteran Liberal incumbent Jim Bradley in St. Catharines, as well has Domenic Ursini to beat the NDP’s Cindy Forster in Welland, which has been an orange stronghold for more than three decades and George Epp to possible drive through the middle in what appears to be a tight race between Liberal incumbent Kim Craitor and NDP challenger Wayne Redekop.
Recent polls, including one published in The Globe and Mail this October 1, continue to show the race between the Conservatives and Liberals extremely tight with the NDP running a respectable third and in a good position to hold the balance of power in the province the outcome this October 6 is a minority government.
Tory leader Tim Hudak makes bus stop in St. Catharines this October 1. Photo by Doug Draper
In the final days before an election – especially one as tight as this – party leaders typically use what precious time they have left to visit ridings where they feel they have a winning chance, so Hudak’s internal polls must be telling his party sometime hopeful about the Niagara region.
Hudak is the second of the three main leaders to visit Niagara since the election officially began after Labour Day. NDP leader Andrea Horwath swung through the region on September 24 for stops in the Niagara Falls and Welland ridings. There s no word yet on a visit to the region by Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty before voting day.
The Tory leader’s first stop in Niagara this October 1 was at the farmers’ market in downtown St. Catharines where Bellows and supporters were waiting for him. Bellows, a victim of sexual assault when she was young, used the time while supporters waited for Hudak’s arrival to applaud his promise to get tougher on sexual offenders and to make it mandatory for offenders to where devices that will monitor their every whereabouts. She also pointed to her party as the best won for stimulating the province’s economy and getting people back to work.
(Niagara At Large invites you to share your views in the comment boxes below. Only comments accompanied by the first and last names of the writer will be posted on this site.)
Niagara At Large 
I saw the Hudak bus outside Market Square today, as I left the central library, and thought, ‘of course’… then got home to a “Forum” robocall about possible selections for the vote, which listed only Bellows, Lowell, and then Bradley, in that order. Obviously done by the Conservatives… as there are actually other candidates in my St. Catharines riding….. not mentioned in the robocall. What has the conservative candidate to offer other than her Victim Impact statement? Not a platform, or idea to be shared. but that’s just me.
I just wish it was over…. big sigh
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Tim Hudak and Domenic Ursini were also at the Port Colborne General Hospital around 4p.m. today and were met by enthusiastic hospital and ER supporters and were assured by Tim Hudak that, if elected, his party would reestablish Port Colborne and Fort Erie’s 24/7 ER. Way to go Tim. That’s what we wanted to hear.
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She is certainly playing up the victim role… Does she have no other points to campaign on?
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Let’s see, Tim Hudak was affiliated with the Harris government… If the people want a Harris type government, then they will get it. God Bless.
Maybe they’ll make all the hospitals P3, and profit-oriented. I wonder what they’ll do about universality. Actually, I know what will happen when it comes to universality; it will become an obsolete word.
NDP will open both hospitals (supposedly), and work harder for universality. If I have a choice between universality and more P3 fiascos, I’ll choose the former.
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I doubt any. All these Conservative candidates are about is cuts, cuts, cuts … their finances are secure. Yours and mine are not. They don’t care that you and I cannot afford private health care. They do not care if you and I do not have a private pension. They do not care what your family is actually going through, as the only families I seen them address are those families earning $93,700 or more who whine about their taxes. If my family brought in that much or more, I would be happy … and not complain about taxes, because I will have enough. If a candidate of their party even dares to cross my threshold I may well just tear them a new one if they think I am going to buy their BS about tax cuts creating jobs, because both you and I know that if this were true, our economy would be booming with jobs, and the US would have a substantial labour shortage.
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Let’s see, Tim Hudak was affiliated with the Harris government… If the people want a Harris type government, then they will get it. God Bless.
This is the same verbal nonsense as:
Let’s see, We had an NDP Government with Bob Ray… If the people want a Bob Ray type government, then they will get it. God Bless.
ARE ANY OF THEM WORTH THERE SALT – PROVE IT TO ME !!!
CHANGE THE WHOLE SYSTEM !!!!
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Well, I think for a struggling single parent we would all like to wear designer clothes and live in an upscale neighborhood. I don’t think that our candidate has the experience in politics and I know a lot of single working women that are just getting by month to month and live in rental housing and take public transit. Their universty aged children are taking out government loans to go to school. Good luck to the other candidates in this election, because my vote will not be for a conservative.
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The CONservative tool is using -if not forcing- a little girl into being a political prop for a puppetry show.
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I don’t watch much television, so I haven’t been exposed to much of the attack ad nonsense, but in Grimsby (Mr. Hudak’s riding), I’ve been exposed to a tremendous amount of PC propoganda in the local “papers”. I find it to be an insult to our collective intelligence.
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Some of you might have noticed a poll supposedly sponsored by Leger Marketing in the Toronto Stun (notice this is NOT a typo). The first one dealt with whether people felt the province should interfere with a school board’s decision to allow prayer meetings, and the second was about whether people felt that the private sector should be more involved in the delivery of health care, something like that. On the health care question, in favour or somewhat in favour was 57%. However, the pollsters did not ask the respondents if they still favoured this if they would now have to pay more out of pocket for basic health care, or even if they could afford to. I do sincerely believe their numbers would be a lot different. I would sense there was a reason for publishing a poll like this and I have a sense of who likely sponsored it.
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