In Toronto on Sundays, only two newspapers publish an edition, The Toronto Sun and The Toronto Star. They’re usually among the most widely read of any editions either paper publishes during the week. And, as this is the last Sunday edition before Ontario chooses a premier and government on Thursday, both papers are using their Sunday soapboxes to push their favoured candidate.
Here’s how they look. Both papers have their champions on the front page. The Sun (above) goes with its standard tabloid front with a big picture of PC Leader Tim Hudak and a throw to the editorial endorsing the PCs “Time For Tim.” (The Star published its editorial endorsing Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals on Saturday). The Star (below) has a nice picture of Kathleen Wynne at the top of its page pointing readers to long profile piece inside the paper. (The Star gave near identical treatment — a front page flare plus long profile piece — to NDP Leader Andrea Horwath in its Saturday edition).
Then comes the “news” pages for each campaign. The Star on page 3 goes with the Liberal line of the day in its headline, that Wynne’s rivals are “desperate” and that they are throwing mud.
Of course, that “mud” happens to be reminders by the NDP and Conservatives of how the Liberals blew $1 billion on the gas plant scandal and now have the cops investigating what happened inside the Premier’s office when Dalton McGuinty was running things. The headline on The Sun‘s news file “Back to scene of Liberal crime” on page 7.
The Blizzard column runs on page 7. Readers turn to page 8 to find a Lorrie Goldstein column which hammers the “Liberals are corrupt” point being made by the NDP and the PCs.
The Goldstein column runs opposite a full-page graphic on page 9 comparing the positions of all three parties.
Page 9 of The Star on the other hand is a full-page ad from the union-funded third party group “Working Families”. They don’t like the idea of a Hudak government. This is the only paid political message in either paper.
Now while it is not a “paid ad”, The Star does give a valuable piece of its newspring real estate to Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne where, at the bottom of its op-ed page, she is allowed the chance to make a pitch directly to NDP supporters with that old Liberal tactic of trying scare New Democrats into voting Liberal. We’ve seen party leaders have op-eds published before but I can’t recall one getting this kind of prime placement so close to the vote. (The Star gave this same space to Tim Hudak on Tuesday June 3. In terms of readership, I guarantee Tuesday does not equal Sunday) If you can recall any, let me know in the comments section. This is on page A13.
A13 also has a columm by Haroon Siddiqui in which he argues that Wynne could be just about the greatest premier we’ve ever seen …
The Sun‘s editorial endorsing Hudak is published on page 17.
The Star, though, is not done yet. The front page of its “Insight” section is all about Wynne and, on the turn on page 2 of the section, a nice headline that Wynne has “cool, confident during a long campaign.” And there’s some nice heartwarming pictures from the Wynne family photo album.
So the corporate media is for Tweedledum and Tweedledee – what a surprise!!
Wynne -who signed off on the gas plant scandal and was co-manager of the then election campaign- is clearly complicit in this scandal, and its on-going cover-up. Her refusal to fulfill her previous three promises – and now come up with 70 new promises – is revealing of her political values.
Hudak – who brags of his Maths skills – has massively exaggerated his job creation projections – such that no economist supports the bogus claim.
Andrea Horwath has a positive, pragmatic and doable plan – unlike her opponents who would dazzle one with false promises that few people really believe.
Gas plants, ORNGE, eHealth… all is forgotten because it’s Billion$$$ lost and unrecoverable. The only issue is “jobs and the economy”, and the Public Service unions are openly attacking Hudak over PS jobs and wages.
It’s Hudak versus the big PS unions while Horwath and Wynne are essentially irrelevant. If the PS unions get out their 1.2 million member votes it’s a majority Wynne Liberal government because past NDP voters voted strategically to Stop Hudak.
You see, money always trumps ethics and principles.
You’ve just implied that everyone who belongs to a public sector union has no ethics or principles. Really? What an arrogant comment.
Yes, arrogant but true…. people vote primarily to protect their wallets… and ethics and principle be damned.
Remember folks, vote for the candidate in your riding who can best defeat the Harris clone!
Head of the public sector union came out yesterday (largest union in Canada) and Called Wynne a liar. He said in Wynne’s last budget that was defeated it had in it the removal of 60,000 public servants. He said at least Hudak is honest about what he will do. The liberals as usual liars. No matter who you vote for, those public sector jobs are gone. One person is lying and the other telling the truth.