Monday, October 01, 2007

Tory's Days As MP Numbered?

John Tory is set to achieve the political double-whammy, lose an election, lose a seat:
Now, the grimmest news yet has emerged from Mr. Tory's own backyard, where he is trailing badly behind his Liberal opponent, according to an Ottawa Citizen/COMPAS poll.

The poll shows Mr. Tory with the backing of 37 per cent of decided voters in the race for the riding of Don Valley West, well behind the 52 per cent for Liberal Kathleen Wynne.

Decided voters in that Toronto riding are giving the Green party six per cent support and the NDP five per cent. The poll, which surveyed 333 voters between Sept. 25 and Sept. 29, is considered accurate within 5.6 percentage points 19 times out of 20.

That is a huge gap and with little evidence of vote splitting, Tory looks doomed.

Trivia time. John Tory made the following comment today, as he flipped on faith based schools:
"On this issue, I have been open and honest about my views, and the motivation behind them," he said.

"I have been clear today, before the election, that there will be a free vote and I have declared my own position in the matter; and I have always had the same position in public as I have had in private."

Can someone find the quote during this campaign, where Tory spoke about a "free vote"? Why the clarification, if today's announcement is consistent? Tory argues that he held a conference call with all his MP's, called a press conference, to announce nothing new. Leadership might matter, but apparently common sense doesn't.

3 comments:

Lord Kitchener's Own said...

He definitely said, just last week, that there would be no free vote on this issue.

I'm still looking for the exact quote itself (it's bound to be on T.V. tonght, as I'm certain I HEARD and SAW him say it).

What I've found so far is this from the Star, which doesn't actually have the quote, but says: "Just last week, when Tory MPPs like Bill Murdoch of Owen Sound and Bob Runciman of Brockville said they were hearing from constituents that they were unhappy with the plan, Tory said there would be no free vote on the question."

Steve V said...

Maybe Tory is hoping no one is paying attention.

Steve V said...

Maybe Mr. McGuinty should travel the province and call him anything but a liar:

"Mr. Tory maintained that allowing a free vote on faith-based school funding was not a flip-flop on policy, noting that he still supports the initiative.

But Liberal operatives outside the business luncheon handed out repeated Tory statements where he indicated a vote along party lines.

After Bill Murdoch, the Progressive Conservative incumbent in Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound, said last week that voters were unhappy with the key promise, Mr. Tory was asked whether he would allow a free vote on the issue. He said no.

In Guelph last Monday, Mr. Tory said: "It's obviously an important element of our platform and I would expect that people will support what's in our platform. It's do what you said you would do."