Still wondering who to vote for? Today we’re running profiles of the four major leaders, their platforms, and their scandals. Click here to see the rest of them.
Tim Hudak (Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario)
Place of Birth: Fort Erie, Ontario in 1967.
Religion: Roman Catholic.
Education: BA in Economics at University of Western Ontario, and a Masters degree in Economics at University of Washington in Seattle (on full scholarship).
Family: Married to Deb Hutton, who was once a senior advisor to former Ontario premier Mike Harris. His maternal grandfather was a socialist and union leader.
Life Before Politics: Traveling manager for Wal-Mart in the mid-nineties.
Political Background: Hudak ran for Mike Harris’s PC’s in 1995 on a whim as a replacement for a friend who flaked, and won, unexpectedly becoming an MPP for Niagara South (1995-1999). He was later MPP for Erie Lincoln (1999-2007), and MPP for Niagara West-Glanbrook (2007- ).
Current Position: Leader of the Opposition (2009- ).
Tim Hudak
Net News Ledger
Tax Policy:
Hudak wants to reduce taxes of every kind in his quest to create a million jobs. Corporate taxes would go down 3.5% making all of downtown Toronto happy, eco-fees (taxes on tires and electronics ostensibly for environmental reasons) disappear, personal income tax is reduced by 10%, and inter-provincial tariffs between Ontario and Saskatchewan, Alberta, and BC are eliminated.
Remember kids, less taxes mean more jobs. The logic there is that if companies have to spend less on taxes and tariffs, they will use that newly available money to hire new employees. While your average family might not use their tax savings to hire a new cleaning lady, there are companies who might want new labor.
Spending Policy:
Once again, Hudak wants to cut everything with the goal of balancing the budget by 2016-2017. 100,000 public sector workers are getting the boot, the College of Trades will be abolished, and more. Remember kids, less spending means more jobs, or something.
Education: Increase classroom sizes by 2-3 students, get more children into kindergarten by eliminating early education instructor requirements, and cancel raises for teachers. Not likely to get the teachers’ unions on his side, but at least he’s sticking to his guns on this one.
Transit: He plans to put the province in charge of all rail-based transit and major highways in the Greater Toronto Area, and establish a new east-west express line connecting Etobicoke to Scarborough, through Toronto’s downtown to eliminate gridlock. No, not in the legislature. Just in the city. A much more reasonable goal.
Scandals:
Bad Math: Several economists across the country have attacked Hudak’s proposed “Million Jobs Plan” as being laden with mathematical errors, including simply multiplying all the figures by 8. After telling us during the debate that math was his favourite subject in school, the bad math in his Million Jobs Plan is even more embarrassing. He stands by the math in the plan, along with one of the economists from which the plans numbers are based, but of course they stand by it.
TractorGate (Part 2): After his party accused Kathleen Wynne of being a bad role model for allowing someone to ride shotgun as she drove a tractor, the Liberals posted pictures of Hudak in a similar position years earlier at a rural convention. Oh, the hypocrisy.
Does no one in this province know how to drive a tractor?
Natasha Luckhardt
Quotes:
“[A] hot, impressive young woman,” “[I] mildly hit on her” (in reference his first impression of his wife).
“She’s tied herself into a human pretzel,” (in reference to Andrea Horwath).
Be sure to check out the other three major candidate’s platforms here! And, if you want more hilarious and extensive Ontario election coverage as June 12 approaches? Go buy a shot glass or t-shirt from our IndieGoGo campaign! igg.me/at/truenorthtimes!