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[5]By Evan McClelland [6]
BELLEVILLE – In a speech to a capacity crowd in Belleville, Doug Ford railed against Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government [7].
Ontario Progressive Conservative [8] leader Ford visited Belleville for a breakfast meet and greet Wednesday morning, and spoke to some potential voters.
In his speech he talked about the energy crisis and called Ontario a “have-not province.”
“We have the highest subnational debt in the entire world (and) each and every one of us in this room is servicing that debt,” Ford said.
Then toward the end of his speech he shifted to his main rival.
“Together we can turn this province around, and together we’ll get rid of Kathleen Wynne,” Ford said.
That brought the loudest cheer of the morning from the crowd.
In an interview with QNet News afterward, he said that the province is in so much debt it is “practically bankrupt.”
“We used to be a booming province, the engine of Canada, the backbone of Canada.”
A Conservative government would find efficiencies with an audit, he said.
Asked what he meant by efficiences, he replied: “We’re going to go line item by line item. We’re going to bring a third party evaluation.” That’s a method Ford said he and his brother, Rob, used in Toronto when Rob Ford was mayor and Doug Ford was a city councillor.
QNet News also spoke to some voters at the event.
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[11]“I haven’t decided who I’m voting for, and I want to see what (Ford) has to say,” Debbie Shaw said.
“It’s a whole new ball game for Ontario, and I want to see his platform.”
Her friend Colleen Edwards agreed, adding that she wanted to “see how he answers people’s questions”
Wylie Sheridan, who called himself a longtime Conservative voter, was more sure of who he will vote for.
“I’m fed up with Kathleen Wynne’s lies and deceit, and with the Liberal party overall,” Sheridan said.
Janine LeClerc, a Trenton resident, also expressed displeasure with the current provincial government.
“I’m voting for Ford because this province needs drastic change … the corrupt Wynne government is destroying this province,” she said.
Todd Smith (right), the Conservative MPP for Prince Edward-Hastings and the party’s candidate in the new Bay of Quinte riding in the June 7 election attended the event to support party leader Doug Ford. Photo by Evan McClelland, QNet News
Prince Edward-Hastings Conservative MPP Todd Smith, who’ll be seeking election in the new Bay of Quinte riding in June, arrived at the event at Ford’s side.
While Smith supported Christine Elliott in the recent PC leadership election [12], he told reporters that he supports the new leader.
As energy critic for the Conservatives, Smith has been vocal in his of criticism of Hydro One and the Liberals’ energy policies generally. Ford’s speech included a reiteration of his promise to fire Hydro One’s chief executive officer as his first act if he’s elected premier.
That promise caused some controversy in the media because the Liberal government sold off a majority stake in Hydro One to the private sector. This strips the government of the authority to fire the CEO. Smith himself has said that firing the CEO is not directly possible.
When QNet News asked him about Ford’s promise, he said, “The first step is removing the (Hydro One) board, or at least asking the board to deal with this situation.” The government can do this because it still has a large share in Hydro One, he said.
Both Smith and Ford spoke out against Ontario’s cap-and-trade [13] system, which puts a limit on the emissions a company can produce and allows companies that are below the limit to sell the spare emissions levels to those that exceed it. Smith said, “You actually have to take concrete steps to getting (greenhouse gases) from the air, and there are other ways to do that.”
One option is to give big polluters an incentive to use green technology, he said, giving the example of replacing diesel trains with hydrogen ones.
“If you incentivize the businesses to do it, they will do it.”