Robert
Benzie

Queen’s Park Bureau Chief

Premier Dalton McGuinty warned Conservative Leader John Tory during last
night’s leadership debate that his plan to fund faith-based schools would
undermine public education in Ontario.

It was one of McGuinty’s crucial lines of defence of his four-year record as
premier. Another was to attack Tory over the "mess" he had been left by the
previous Conservative government when he became premier in 2003.

"It hasn’t been easy cleaning up the mess that was left behind by the
Conservatives," said the Liberal leader, who spent most of the 90-minute live
televised debate on the defensive as Tory and NDP Leader Howard Hampton
harangued him about broken promises from the 2003 election.

Tory and Hampton used opening after opening to pounce on shortcomings of the
Liberals’ four years in office – including "broken promises" on such things as
raising taxes and fixing school funding.

"You may want to talk about the Conservative record, but this is about your
record," thundered the NDP leader.

Tory said: "Broken promises are more than a politician going back on his
word. Broken promises have consequences. … Ask the children who suffer from
asthma because Dalton McGuinty broke his promise to close coal plants, or people
who live in fear of criminals set free by Dalton McGuinty’s catch-and-release
justice system."

For much of the contest – the only leaders’ debate before the Oct. 10
election – McGuinty, 52, appeared to be staring at his shoes as he weathered the
tag team of Tory, 53, and Hampton, 55.

But McGuinty was at his most passionate when talking about Tory’s $400
million scheme to bring 53,000 students now attending Jewish, Muslim,
fundamentalist Christian, Hindu, Sikh and other faith-based schools into the
public system.

The PC leader said it’s only fair to offer other religious groups the same
educational opportunities as Catholics.

McGuinty, a staunch defender of Catholic schools, warned that Tory’s plan
would undermine the public system.

"Have you looked at the number of faiths in the yellow phonebook? There’s the
traditional ones and then there’s all the new ones," charged McGuinty.

Tory fired back: "Other provinces have managed to come to grips with these
issues without creating any damage to public education, without creating the
kind of chaos and gloom and doom you’re talking about." The PC leader said
Ontario should "either fund all faiths or fund no faiths."

McGuinty reminded viewers of the tumult under the Conservatives from 1995 to
2003, when a number of teachers’ strikes occurred.

Hampton, despite his own opposition to Tory’s proposal, turned the issue to
attack McGuinty for failing to fix the school funding formula.

McGuinty tried to tackle head-on his most infamous broken promise –
introducing the annual health tax of up to $900 a person – by noting the Ernie
Eves PC government left behind a hidden $5.6 billion budget.

Tory countered by saying: "You kept so few of your promises it’s destroyed
the credibility of all politicians. Why should anyone believe you?"

"I can’t be nearly as negative as my colleagues," McGuinty said at one point,
complaining Tory has been "calling me a liar in everything but name" for the
broken tax pledge.

He even glared at Tory, complaining: "You’re making this up."

TVOntario host Steve Paikin, who moderated the province-wide debate held at
the CBC Broadcast Centre and aired on CBC, CTV, Global, CP24, Sun TV, TVO, and
CPAC, struggled to maintain order during the anti-McGuinty barrage.

Hampton, who with Tory hammered McGuinty on failing to
deliver enough services for autistic children, acknowledged after the debate
that the PC leader was more moderate than his predecessors Eves and Mike
Harris.

"Mr. Tory, I may disagree with him fundamentally on all kinds of issues but
he’s not a scary guy, so let’s drop that. He’s not an ugly guy either."

Going into the debate, polls suggest the election will be a tight race, and
last night is unlikely to change that. Recent polls show the Liberals with leads
ranging from 3 to 9 percentage points over the Conservatives, with the New
Democrats well back. Green Party Leader Frank de Jong, 51, who is polling at a
respectable fourth in the race, was not invited by the broadcasters’ consortium
to participate in the debate because his party does not yet have a seat in the
Legislature.

The historic referendum on electoral reform being held in conjunction with
the election was never raised during the debate.

Ontarians are being asked whether they want to keep the current
first-past-the-post system of electing MPPs or adopt a new mixed-member
proportional representation system that would increase the Legislature from 107
members to 129.

There would be 90 directly elected MPPs and 39 selected from lists submitted
by the political parties so the Legislative Assembly reflects the popular vote
tally. The new system would likely see smaller parties like the Greens winning
seats for the first time.

Outside the CBC Broadcast Centre, a smattering of demonstrators protesting
everything from new nuclear plants to inadequate autism services jockeyed for
sidewalk space with Liberal, Tory and NDP supporters, along with members of CUPE
and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. A heavy police presence ensured there
were no problems.

With files from Richard Brennan, Rob Ferguson and Kerry
Gillespie