While the provincial election is still three months away, the campaign is certainly heating up in this riding.
Recently, as part of the Progressive Conservative Party’s media blitz, Perth-Wellington PC candidate Randy Pettapiece appeared at several events throughout the riding to unveil his party’s platform and bash Premier Dalton McGuinty, with the help of Simcoe-Grey MPP Jim Wilson.
And last week, Liberal candidate and current Perth-Wellington MPP John Wilkinson responded by challenging Pettapiece to demand his leader “pick a lane” when it comes to taxes.
“If there is one thing I have learned over the past eight years representing our rural riding it is this; people are a whole lot smarter than some cynical politicians think they are,” Wilkinson said in a press release.
“People remember that Tim Hudak was for the HST before our government brought it in through a partnership with the Harper government.”
Wilkinson charged that Hudak then “flip-flopped” and was adamantly opposed to it.
“With Ontario now leading North America in job creation and attracting foreign investment, Tim Hudak’s platform now supports keeping the HST. But it doesn’t end there,” he said.
“Tim Hudak says he will remove the 8% provincial portion of the HST off of hydro bills, after voting against the new clean energy benefit that is already taking 10% off of hydro bills today. You don’t have to be a certified financial planner to know 10% is greater than 8%.”
Wilkinson continued, “My opponent seems to be a great admirer of Tim Hudak. But promising people at least $10-billion worth of tax cuts without saying specifically what vital public services you plan to cut reminds me of exactly what Mike Harris, Tim Hudak’s great mentor, said in 1995. That he could cut taxes and it wouldn’t hurt a bit. Instead real people were hurt by hospital closures, laid off nurses, labour unrest in our schools and fewer meat and water inspectors.”
