X Marks the Spot

All right, we're ready.

Just in time for the video opening statements.

Dalton McGuinty said he broke an election promise. Why hadn't anyone mentioned this before?

Howard Hampton, it turns out, is "there for working families." Where "there" is, and whether or not non-working families exist, I'm not sure.

John Tory's friend, Cathy the Ontarian, said Dalton McGuinty broke a promise. Tory agreed with Cathy the Ontarian. Dalton McGuinty broke promises. And, apparently, John Tory thinks leadership matters.

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6:42
Woohoo. First question is from Olga in Mississauga. She wants to know about funding faith-based education.

Tory wants to bring people together.

Dalton fixed education. It's perfect. There's nothing wrong with it.

Wait, wait, Howard is saying Dalton didn't fix education. "I think we should focus on funding our neighbourhood schools properly." And Tory has it wrong on funding faith-based education.

Tory: "We have an opportunity to include people."

McG: You can either devote yourself to getting test scores up and class sizes down ... or plunge this province into this controversial debate...what faiths will be funded?

HH: The real problem: Our school funding formula isn't fixed. It's a private decision and the public shouldn't pay for it...there's always someone who'll want to work outside the system.

John Tory's winning. Dalton's very skinny.

***

6:49 p.m.
Tory says he's inviting faith kids into public system, and I know what he's getting at, but he's wrong. Sure, the school would be part of the public system, but they'd still be in classrooms with exclusively kids of only their own faith.

***

6:50 p.m.
Steve Paikin's hair is remarkable.

***

6:51 p.m.
Man, Dalton's really happy about his record. He doesn't stop smiling.

Meanwhile, HH appears physically incapable of smiling.

HH says kids can't play in schoolyards, and that schools are crumbling, and that there's too much fundraising, making schools in rich areas better than schools in poor areas.

JT hates split grades, loves looking down at his notes. Doesn't he have that stuff memorized yet?

The number of split-grade classes has not actually increased - it has decreased, according to McG's tracker. John said Dalton should call in a repair man because the tracker's broken.

Someone should have told Howard not to put his hand in his pocket on television.

***

6:56 p.m.
John Tory's still winning. He's pounding McG on not living up to his promises, and Dalton's standing there saying, "We've come a long way. We've come a long way."

This, of course, was expected. If McG comes out of this alive, the Liberals have to consider it a win.

***

6:57 p.m.
Transit time!

What's wrong with HH's left hand? Why can't he get it out of his pocket? Wow - I think he just tried to smile.

JT will take every single cent of gas and fuel tax and dedicate it to transit and roads, on top of what's already there. Meanwhile, he says, McG's building new subways even though cities don't have the money to keep the current subways running.

HH keeps asking Dalton questions. JT keeps accusing Dalton of being a bad Premier. That's why JT's winning. "You did nothing until the election was at hand."

Oooh - Dalton fights back. HH keeps telling him he's downloading services to municipalities, and he's deflecting the criticism to JT, saying JT's party downloaded them and his own party is uploading.

***

Running to the kitchen for a fresh beer. Why don't these things have commercials?

***

7:08 p.m.
Tory says when you take a new job, you can blame your predecessor for a couple of weeks or a couple of months but not for four years. That's a fair statement, though most people don't take over jobs in which they have to get rid of a $5.6 billion deficit.

***

7:11 p.m.
I'm sick of hearing about broken promises. It bores me now.

HH makes a great move, says that McG must have been the only person in Ontario who didn't know the previous government had a deficit.

HH is also pulling a Stephen Harper, saying he's only making six commitments. Just six commitments. Commitments are similar to priorities, and six is close to five.

JT's going to shake hands with Ontario, then Ontario will know he'll keep his word. Or something like that.

***

7:15 p.m.
JT's pounding McG on his broken promises. He's livid. And McG weakly defends himself, his voice barely audible.

Tory continues to win.

***

7:16 p.m.
JT asks why McG, even though the health tax was to fight the deficit, isn't willing to get rid of the tax now that we have a big surplus. And why is McG saying he'll review the health tax even though he has also said he won't cut the tax anyway.

***

7:20 p.m.
McG: "Have we lost jobs? You bet we have." But, we have supports for those people who lost their jobs.

McG is making fun of the NDP record on employment...in 1995! 12 years ago!

Tory's funny: "By the time we get to the end of this broadcast, you're going to be bringing up John A. Macdonald and blaming him for something."

***

7:26 p.m.
Howard Hampton is wearing a red-and-blue striped tie. Strange.

***

HH - $10 minimum wage now. Public health dental plan for poor people. Roll back tuition and apprenticeship fees.

Tory likes the Ontario Child Benefit and will keep it, and congratulated McG on bring it in. That was nice of him to say. What a great guy. Maybe I should vote for him. But it was McG who brought it in, so maybe I should vote for him. SO conflicted.

***

Dalton dodges poorly. Hampton catches him on the other side, repeating JT's question about his health tax hurting poor people disproportianately. He dodges again. JT starts dogging McG. This fight seems unfair. It hurts a little bit to watch.

***

They should really have commercials. Just half an hour left.

***

HH says people are committing crimes because they've lost hope. The NDP will find it for them.

JT says people can't keep their doors unlocked at night anymore. Which raises the question, who was stupid enough to keep their doors unlocked at night, ever, anywhere?

McG - Ontario has the lowest rate of crime in Canada and the second lowest rate of violent crime in Canada. Still more to be done. Ban handguns.

JT- "Handguns are effectively banned already, and you know that."

***

HH is going to rollback tuition to 2003 levels and freeze them there. One assumes the money would need to come from the government to make up for that.

***

7:44 p.m.
Beer run to the kitchen, with a pit stop at the washroom. I'm lobbying for more commercials in the next debate.

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7:47 p.m.
McG - "We're going to have to have nuclear energy for the foreseeable future."

HH wants us to reduce consumption. New appliances for everyone!

***

7:49 p.m.
The HOG (Hell-of-a-guy) factor: none of them have it.

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7:50 p.m.
Question from the public: How come there are still big emergency room lineups and people don't have doctors even after we paid all this money on this new tax?

McG said the money's going to insulin pumps, etc. (That is a big etc.)

JT asks, Is delivery better than four years ago? There are 1 million people without doctors in 2003. Same today.

McG asks people to consider JT's plan of cutting taxes, spending more on services, and balancing the budget. McG thinks he can't do it.

***

JT's neck seems to disappear when he gets angry.

***

McG says our health system is getting better. Wait times are going down for knees, hips, MRIs, cancer care, CT Scans.

***

Unless it happened while I was grabbing a beer, there have been no questions specifically about the environment.

***

7:56 p.m.
The last question was a softball. Basically, the question was, "Is Ontario still great?"

If that's not an opportunity to wax poetic, I don't know what is, but the three leaders let go of the chance to talk about Ontario's greatness. Granted, you need to push the platform, but there was time for something inspiring.

***

FINAL STATEMENTS

HH
"You deserve better."
"We can make life better for your family."

McG
"We've come a long way in four short years."
"Ban pesticides"

JT
"If you aspire to something better, I encourage you to vote Progressive Conservative."
"Leadership matters."

***

Tory wins.
Dalton survived, which is like a win.
Howard should take his hand out of his pocket.