Premier assists Blair campaign

 By Hedy Korbee

Scarborough Southwest federal Liberal candidate Bill Blair opened his campaign office on Saturday with some high-profile help from Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne.

Wynne was invited to the event by Blair, who said he’s had a strong professional relationship with the Premier since he was a “young cop” and she was a school trustee.

“It was a pretty big deal. I’m tremendously honored that she came,” Blair said. “I’m also really pleased to be surrounded by other elected representatives, provincial representatives and municipal representatives. I think it’s really important that people work together in the best interest of the people. That’s really the only thing that’s important.”

Working productively together turned out to be the theme of the official campaign kick-off at an office building at Kingston Rd. and McCowan.

In her remarks to an enthusiastic crowd of Liberal supporters, Wynne again criticized Prime Minister Stephen Harper, accusing him of not working collaboratively with the provinces.

“We need a Prime Minister who understands how important the federation is to the health of this country,” Wynne said. “Ontarians are Canadians. They are not a different group of people.”

Wynne’s beef with Prime Minister Harper is his refusal to help Ontario administer its new retirement pension plan, but extends to what she sees as a lack of cooperation on infrastructure projects, the economy, jobs and climate change.

Liberal leader Justin Trudeau will govern differently, Wynne said.

“Bill Blair has chosen to run with Justin Trudeau because he knows that that’s the kind of leader Justin Trudeau is. He knows that Justin Trudeau will be the kind of Prime Minister who will sit down with the premiers, who will work with premiers on national projects, who has the imagination and the scope of heart, if I can say, to understand that those national projects are possible.”

Wynne told Birch Cliff News that she decided to attend the office opening because she’s worked with Blair for a long time and has a lot of respect for him.

“My experience with Bill is that he’s someone who is a problem solver,” Wynne said. “He was always very engaged in the community policing side of his job and I saw the benefits of that in the riding I represent. And so my respect for him was really rooted in the way he approached community.”

Tight race in Scarborough Southwest

But like any other Liberal, Premier Wynne also knows that in order to form the government the party needs to win back Scarborough Southwest and many of the other ridings the party lost in the 2011 election.

Blair is in a tight race with NDP incumbent Dan Harris and it’s led to two high-profile visits to Scarborough Southwest in the last few weeks, a riding not accustomed to getting national attention.

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair, July 20 at Variety Village

On July 20, federal NDP leader Tom Mulcair held a “Rally for Scarborough” at Variety Village to support not just Harris but other Scarborough New Democrats who have a chance of breaking through on October 19th.

The rally was attended by about 700 people, which Harris saw as a sign of momentum for the NDP.

“It’s incredible what a difference a few months makes. I don’t think six months ago we could have pulled together that kind of crowd in Scarborough,” Harris said.

No Conservative candidate 

Oddly, the Conservatives have yet to nominate a candidate in Scarborough Southwest, even though they finished second in 2011.  Repeated emails from Birch Cliff News to the Conservative riding association have not been returned.

“To me this is a sign of how seriously they take the riding of Scarborough Southwest,” said Blair campaign Co-chair Tim Weber. “They’re still not ready.  This is a big, well-funded machine and they can’t take the time to find a candidate to put forward in Scarborough Southwest.”