Ontario NDP leader Howard Hampton let the media have it last week for ignoring issues that he and the NDP (and no doubt a lot of Ontarians) care about. Hampton opened up on the fourth estate while being questioned by reporters during a campaign stop in Hamilton during the final week of the campaign.
The NDP leader was angry that the media was ignoring issues such as the minimum wage, health care and the living conditions of seniors. It seems that the media, as they have from the start of the formal campaign, only want to talk about faith-based schools. The central issue in the campaign, at least made so by the Liberals and their buddies in the media, has been John Tory's proposal to fund faith-based schools in the province. Currently, only Catholic schools receive funding on a par with the province's public schools. Tory, the Red Tory, had initially proposed funding of schools for Evangelical, Jewish, Muslim students as well as a bunch of religions that no one outside of its practitioners have ever heard of, because "it's fair". Tory later somewhat backtracked and promised to hold a free vote on the issue if his PC party obtained power on October 10.
When the campaign started off, it was a two-way race between Premier Dalton McGuinty's Liberals and the Progressive Conservatives. If there was ever a time when voters were in the mood to toss a Liberal government out after one term, this was it. Dalton McGuinty, a virtual stranger to the truth, angered right wing voters when he brought in a hefty health tax/premium/tax after promising, in writing no less, not to increase taxes at least before holding a referendum. The premier also angered those on the left by reneging on his promise to close all of the province's coal-fired plants by 2007.
Howard Hampton is a realist who never travelled the province announcing that he would be the next premier of Ontario. Let's face it--as long as any of us who lived through the Bob Rae government of the early 90s are still alive, there won't be another NDP government in the province. Hampton's best hope was for John Tory to do well and McGuinty to drop enough seats so that the result of the October 10 poll would be a minority government. The NDP would then hold the balance of power and have the leverage to impose part of their agenda in exchange for keeping the government in power. At the beginning of the campaign, it looked like Hampton would get his wish; the numbers were close and polls showed that a minority government would be the most likely outcome. But thanks in large part to the media, the tide turned and now McGuinty and his Liberals can expect a second majority government on Wednesday.
Hampton is perfectly correct in blaming the media for the predicament that he now finds himself in. In looking at the major media coverage of the election, the most important issue was funding for faith-based schools. John Tory's proposal eclipsed health care which, in Ontario, includes a severe shortage of doctors especially in rural areas. The environment, the trendy issue of the 21st century barely receives a mention as the coal plants that should have been closed this year, still emit their pollution into the atmosphere. On October 10th, Ontarians will not only be voting for their MPP but will be asked if they want to scrap our first-past-the-post electoral system in favour of a mixed member proportional system. This barely receives a blip on the radar screen of election coverage. The media has made faith-based funding the election issue of the 2007 campaign. Sure, the media will whine and throw out the clich
