Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath was back in London on Tuesday supporting candidate Peggy Sattler in the final push to get voters to the ballot box in the tight London West riding.
And part of the NDP strategy appears to have former Liberals working to convince people to vote orange.
Diane Dempsey is an elementary school teacher who used to volunteer on Liberal campaigns, but she has now joined the Sattler team.
“None of the elementary teachers that I’m aware of would support Ken Coran and the Liberals,” she says.
Horwath says she’s grateful for the support because “Sometimes it’s tough to publically state you were somewhere else before politically and you've changed your mind.”
But the Progressive Conservatives say a vote for the NDP is still a vote for the status quo, pointing to the NDP’s support for the Liberal budget that prevented a province-wide election.
London West PC candidate Ali Chahbar says “If you vote for the Liberals, you’re voting for the NDP. If you vote for the NDP, you’re voting for the Liberals…People are upset with the Liberals. They're upset with their track record of waste and scandal and mismanagement and incompetence and they're looking for change.”
Horwath echoes the latter sentiment, saying “People are tired of the Liberals and the way that they have behaved, they're disenchanted and in fact in some cases they’re very angry.”
But Liberal candidate Ken Coran, who has been endorsed by the local high school teachers’ union, says that’s not what he’s hearing at the door.
“Every day more and more people are excited. They’re excited about going out to vote and they’re very supportive of our campaign and our platform.”
As for Dempsey, she isn’t sure about the connection and says “I can’t really see that a vote for Peggy would be a vote for either one of the other parties.”
About 7,600 people have already cast their ballots in the advanced polls, in line with the last provincial election.
