"she said the NDP's own plan for Northern Ontario was "fantastic" and would be released in the coming weeks."

With Provincial elections Oct.6, we shall see "show time" very soon. Horwath calls her Northern Ontario plans "fantastic."

The focus appears to be on the NORTH from all three parties. Not much time left to keep the ROF secret.

What is amazing here is that ALL three parties agree that that the Ring of Fire is a priority.

All three parties are focused on outdoing eachother in all matters ROF. Yet, the stock price would have you believe we have 1 in 3 support ...not 3 in 3.

http://www.midnorthmonitor.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3235093

Horwath eyes McGuinty’s job

Says NDP must form government to affect change

By Craig Gilbert

Updated 2 hours ago

Andrea Horwath, leader of the Ontario New Democrats says she wants to form the next government at Queen's Park.

She visited Mid-North Monitor headquarters in Espanola Thursday during a tour of Algoma-Manitoulin with local candidate Mike Mantha and a Toronto Star columnist in tow. The member for Hamilton-Centre started her day in Greater Sudbury where she announced an NDP government would take one per cent of the Harmonized Sales Tax from the price of gas in each year of their mandate, should the people give them one.

Horwath is making no bones about being after Premier Dalton McGuinty's job.

"We can't implement any of these policies if we're not the government," she said. "And that's exactly what we're shooting for. We have a great group of candidates."

When asked if the recent swell in support for the federal New Democrats boded well for the Ontario party, Horwath said Jack Layton had built a strong base for the NDP from coast to coast.

"I think he created a lot of energy and excitement around the party," she said. "Our nomination meetings were well-attended, even where they weren't contested. So there were people coming out of the woodwork."

She said there was concern that after two other elections in the fall, volunteers could be tired and donors could be tapped out.

"But because of the great gains we made at the federal level, there is a wind in our sails in terms of the excitement; it's palpable everywhere we go."

Layton, who recently announced he needed a leave of absence from the leader's office to battle cancer for a second time, kept in close contact with the leaders of the provincial parties.

"We would speak often on the phone, I had no qualms about picking up the phone to ask for advice ... and he had no qualms about picking up the phone to give me a heads up about something."

Asked if the two are Facebook friends, Horwath looked at an aide and said she wasn't sure off the top of her head because she has so many.

She said the Liberal Northern Growth Plan was a "plan to make a plan," because there are no dollars tied to it. New Democrats have been comparing the NGP unfavourably to a plan the Quebec government announced, which they say is costed out.

Answering a question about what she thinks the greatest challenge for the NDP in the North would be, she said the NDP's own plan for Northern Ontario was "fantastic" and would be released in the coming weeks.

"I have been up here quite a bit," she said. "When I asked Northern New Democrats to support me I made a very clear commitment that I would be no stranger to the North."

Themed "affordable change," the NDP platform also promises to drop the HST from the cost of home heating and electricity. Read next week's Mid-North Monitor for the full conversation.