The story leaves you with a creepy-crawly feeling about Tea Party Tim – particularly the revelation that he and his brain trust (oxymoron alert! – ed.) were on the lookout for some pretext to go anti-immigrant months before the Ontario Liberal platform launch.

But the best part, hands down, is the cover. Ouch.

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Amazing.  When icons like this man turn their back on Andrea Horwath’s disappointing Dippers, it’s time to go back to the drawing board, I think.

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…and that’s just the nice stuff he says!

Where is Hudak campaign going?
The Belleville Intelligencer
Sat Sep 17  2011
Page: A7
Section: Editorial/Opinion
Byline: JAMES PHIEFFER
Column: Sand In The Shorts

As we pass the one week mark of the provincial election, I’m taking a moment to say I’m sorry to be proven right (so far). Tim Hudak’s Liberal-Lite campaign has resulted in the Liberals erasing a
10-point PC lead in the last month.

Why? Because Hudak has given Ontarians no reason whatsoever to vote Progressive Conservative rather than Liberal.

Locally, the PCs have a strong candidate in Todd Smith, although he is up against Leona Dombrowsky, a skilled campaigner and someone who has a strong base in Belleville.

But he is being wasted as the PC deep thinkers allow themselves to be distracted by the insignificant story of the week. Add to that the “foreign workers” idiocy of week one, and the question has to be asked — who’s running this circus?

This is still a winnable election, and as the old saw goes, “There’s only one poll that counts”.

But for Oct. 6 to be a good day for the PCs, and for the province as a whole, there has to be a change in how the Hudak campaign is run.

“A horse. A horse, my kingdom for a horse…”

The weak, flea-bitten glue piles that Hudak has tried to ride to victory thus far now need to be put down for good…Tim Hudak and his great minds in Toronto need to get ahead of the game…

James Phieffer ran for city council in the last election. Read his blogs at www.jamesphieffer.comor thewobblypuck.ca or follow him at www.twitter.com/jamesphieffer

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Does it exist?  Beats me.  There are exceptions to every rule (cf. the Lopinski Theorem).  But one thing’s for sure: the “hat trick” call was dumb, dumb, dumb. It started Tea Party Tim on a slide from which he really hasn’t recovered.

Hebert:

In the past, the province’s voters have tended to use Queen’s Park as a counterweight to the federal government, tilting in different and sometimes opposite directions at the provincial and the national levels.

More so than in any of his previous campaigns, Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty needs that longstanding reflex to help trump a cyclical desire for change if he is to earn a third mandate on Oct. 6.

On that score, the advent of a Conservative majority government last May, Mr. Harper’s vocal wish for a Toronto-Queen’s Park-Ottawa right-wing triangle earlier this summer and the fact that Quebec dominates the official opposition in Parliament have all provided Mr. McGuinty with a stronger narrative.

 

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He used to be my editor.  He was a good editor.  He should have stuck to that.

To wit:

As well, an insider familiar with the campaign says that Denley is not doing well on the doorsteps. He has a bad habit of telling people what he thinks rather than asking the voters what they want. That doesn’t leave a good impression. Chiarelli, a political veteran, is outstanding talking to voters.

Apparently Denley was weak on a recent radio appearance, analyzing his own campaign rather than campaigning when he had a chance. According to one insider, Denley must decide really soon if he is a journalist or a politician.

So the riding could go either way, but the impression is that Chiarelli is gaining traction

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Unfortunately, Hudak did not take questions from the media. So as he was shaking hands on his way out, I pulled out my tape recorder and asked him if he would guarantee the CS Wind jobs. He just walked past me. Following, I asked him again. And then again.

Though he didn’t answer, he told me to set up an interview with his media liaison behind him.

So I made arrangements, and emailed the next day. But, alas, no interview. Just like in the film.

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I know that a lot of reports are suggesting that Fratboy Tim has dropped the anti-“foreigner” garbage because he’s slipping in various polls. It seemed that way to me, too.

But the fact is he he hasn’t, as this and this and this make clear. He and his team of xenophobes are now just trying to do it in a way that you won’t notice.

Either way, all of us know what it for what it is. Like Dan Gardner wrote, this afternoon, ‎”[Hudak] drags up hatreds and waves them for all to see, hoping that ugly emotions will serve his political purposes.”

So, if I was updating this for a new edition, I’d be including a few passages about the shameful politics practiced by Tim Hudak and his party in the Fall of 2011.

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For those of you outside Toronto, that’s Rob Ford behind the wheel of the car. He should have had Stephen Harper in the passenger seat.

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…but he does it when he hopes no one is looking.  Anyone else experiencing this sort of thing?  Email wkinsella@hotmail.com if so.

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