What’s up John Tory’s sleeve?
The latest polls and projections show the Liberals moving into majority territory, making gains at the expense of the Conservatives. I’ve just been emailing friend and fellow blogger John Lorinc about how dull the campaign has become. Everyone has been sticking to their one-note scripts (McGuinty: faith-based schools are bad; Tory: breaking promises is bad; Hampton: breaking promises is bad for working families). Stalemate. As long as the lines of attack don’t change, nor will the direction of the polls, which have had the Liberals on a slow but steady climb since the summer. I wrote Lorinc that Tory, who must surely be as bored with his own campaign as the rest of Ontario, will need to go out on a limb soon. That’s when Lorinc put forward this intriguing proposition:
The lottery scandal, also known as lottogate, and the citizenship-funding scandal, also known as “Collegate,” both ate up so many column inches all spring, then simply disappeared in the summer, around the time the Liberals started their climb in the polls. Those issues have received nary a mention from either Tory or Hampton since the campaign’s start. It could mean one of two things: Either 1) Their internal polling shows that those scandals don’t resonate with the public or 2) Their internal polling shows that they do resonate, and they’re saving them for a final ambush.
It’s just a guess. If it’s right, Lorinc gets the credit. Perhaps we’ll never hear a peep about them again until Mike Colle is reappointed to cabinet in the next McGuinty majority. But with voting day in sight, I expect that, somehow or other, someone will try to break the stalemate next week.
