Liberals too much like Tories: Hampton

Frank Miclash isn’t concerned about running against NDP leader Howard Hampton in the new Kenora-Rainy River riding in the next election.
Neither is Hampton. He said yesterday he doesn’t see the Liberal party posing a huge threat to his chances of getting re-elected here.
“The problem the Liberals have is while they complain about Mike Harris and the cuts of the Mike Harris governments, Liberals support, and would do nothing about, the Harris income tax scheme [causing] all these cuts,” Hampton charged.
“If you’re not willing to roll back that income tax scheme and all the benefits it gives to everyone who’s wealthy, I don’t think you’ll have any money for education, health care . . . or any other thing the Harris government has cut,” he argued.
Another factor going for the NDP is the addition of part of the old Lake Nipigon riding to the new Kenora-Rainy River one, which Hampton noted has been solidly NDP for some time, making up somewhat from the loss of Atikokan from this riding.
That, plus strong support from this area and Hampton’s claim that “we’ve always done well in Kenora,” should be enough for an NDP victory here, he said.
Hampton also didn’t buy much into the theory that the Liberals and NDP could split left-wing support, allowing a PC candidate to come up the middle and win the riding.
“I don’t think you’ll see the Conservatives get 25 or 30 percent of the support in Northern Ontario,” Hampton said. “In the Nickel Belt, they put all kinds of money, made all kinds of promises . . . there and the best they could do was get 30 percent of the vote [in a recent by-election].
“You can’t win any riding in this province with 30 percent of the vote,” he stressed.
Hampton believed the Harris government will call an election either this winter or this summer.
“I think this will be a very interesting election campaign for people across Northwestern Ontario,” he said. “I expect people will be more interested in the debates and the discussions, and there will be more focus on the issues.”