Quite a few of Tea Party Tim’s candidates and senior advisors (including his campaign manager) have been Big Tobacco lobbyists.  And Hudak, of course, voted against the Smoke Free Ontario Act.

Case in point: I got home late last night and found this on my door step, as it were.  It sure was an interesting read, so I thought I’d share it with y’all.

Reason 1,342 why I loathe these guys.

Open publication – Free publishing – More lobbyist

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Rafe and I are big in Kamloops. Well, he is, anyway.

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Horwath Caught Misleading Again
New revelations tie NDP directly to Cornerstone

TORONTO, Sept. 29, 2011 /CNW/ – Less than one day after it was revealed Andrea Horwath smeared her local hospital with a misleading story, new documents reveal that Andrea Horwath misled reporters and failed to disclose the true relationship between the Ontario Cornerstone Leadership Corporation and the Ontario NDP.

Asked this morning if Cornerstone plays any financial role in the NDP campaign, Horwath said “None whatsoever. None whatsoever. It’s a separate corporation, separate board of directors, no role whatsoever in our campaign, no financial, you know, no financial connection whatsoever. It’s completely separate.” (Andrea Horwath Media Scrum, September 29, 2011)

And she continues to duck questions on the whereabouts of $100,425 of taxpayer money and another $100,000 in union funds granted to Cornerstone for accessibility.

But that’s not the whole story. Horwath was in a position to know how her party raises money.

Documents obtained by the Liberals reveal that links between Cornerstone and the NDP are far greater than previously believed. Not only are all 8 members of the Cornerstone board current or former board members of the NDP, but the corporation is actually bankrolling the NDP’s campaign.

Land registry documents show:

• Cornerstone served as collateral for a $4,350,000 loan that is currently financing Horwath’s 2011 campaign

• Cornerstone served as collateral for a $3,450,000 loan that financed the 2007 NDP campaign

• And contrary to Andrea Horwath’s claim that Cornerstone “has nothing to do” with her, new documents also reveal that Andrea Horwath sat as an ONDP Vice President when the Cornerstone fundraising scheme was hatched, and served as the 2007 NDP Campaign Co-Chair. (OntarioNDP.com)

The Cornerstone campaign’s sole goal was to purchase a property that would finance NDP election campaigns:

“The Cornerstone Campaign is a 3-year capital campaign aimed at purchasing a permanent party headquarters in order to finance future election campaigns…purchasing a building will allow the Ontario NDP to continue to qualify for election campaign loans.” (NDP Cornerstone Campaign, The Business Case, pg. 1)

It’s time Andrea Horwath told reporters and Ontarians the truth on the NDPs intricate relationship with Cornerstone. It’s time she said what the NDP did with the $100,425 they received from the federal government and provided assurances that money was not funnelled to the NDP campaign.

It’s time she returned the money.

Read the documents here: http://www.scribd.com/NDPcornerstonelinks

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Open Letter

TORONTO, Sept. 29, 2011 /CNW/ –

Ms. Andrea Horwath

Room 113, Main Legislative Building
Queen’s Park
Toronto ON M7A1A5

Dear Ms. Horwath:

In the past 48 hours you have made a series of shifting claims about the treatment a member of your family received at Hamilton Health Sciences Centre. As you are aware, the Hospital you smeared has expressed frustration and doubt about your claims.

It’s incredibly disappointing that, under the pressure of a televised debate, you chose to misrepresent the facts.

To resolve what hospital staff have called the “unfairness” of your smear, we urge you to do everything you can to allow the Hospital to look at the specific issue you have raised and talk about it freely in the media.  You chose to raise this incident. Now you can choose to be fair and allow the qualified staff who work at your local hospital to defend themselves with facts against your smear.

Yours truly,

[original signed]

Laurel Broten
Liberal Candidate, Etobicoke Lakeshore

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Byline: I use homemade charts to show why McGuinty is outdoing the world.

Canada Live: Krista leads off the segment with the What Went Wrong Song!

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Photo taken by the Star’s Richard Brennan.  A good end to a good day.

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Some folks have been poking fun at my guy, Dalton, for using his hands to gesture during the debate last night.  Can you imagine? Gesturing!

So we got to thinking…is Dalton alone, in his fondness for gesturing?  Take our little quiz, and find out!

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So, there I was for Krista Erickson’s show, and Sun News – Sun News! – played our What Went Wrong Song right off the top!  And, when Tim came on her show right after me (I could write a whole column about our chat in the green room, and I just might), she too asked him: “What went wrong?”

So, here it is again – the top tune on Canada’s political hit parade!  (And – bonus! – the What Went Wrong Song ringtone!)

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We had a nice chat, too. I think I turned him into a Grit.

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