Hudak agrees to additional Northern Ontario debate

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Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak is willing to take part in a second leaders debate, this one in Northern Ontario.

The Conservative campaign said that after "weeks of negotiations," Mr. Hudak has agreed to head north to face NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, who challenged her two rivals in Ontario's election to meet her in the region last week.

"I wanted to do a northern debate," Mr. Hudak said Wednesday. "I'm very concerned about what is happening in Northern Ontario – whole communities are being wiped out with mill closures."

Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty is the lone holdout among the three main contenders. He told reporters Wednesday morning that he does not think it is necessary to have a separate debate in Northern Ontario on issues affecting that region.

"I am very much looking forward to the debate that has already been scheduled," he said in his hometown of Ottawa, after a speech to a business group. "I think it's a great opportunity for us to debate northern issues and to do it in a format that makes those issues of relevance and importance to all Ontarians."

Officials in Mr. McGuinty's office said he will push for one of the six segments in the all-party debate set for Sept. 27 to be devoted to northern issues.

As for Mr. Hudak, he suddenly appears to be looking for more face time with voters. On Tuesday, he also agreed to address the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce on Sept. 29 – the same venue where Mr. McGuinty spoke Wednesday.

But Erin Kelly, the Chamber's executive director who introduced Mr. McGuinty, said she spent the past six months trying to get Mr. Hudak to also address her group. She joked that she felt like she was "stalking" him.

Ms. Horwath, meanwhile, has been calling on the other leaders to join her in more debates for quite some time. "So far," she said Wednesday in St. Thomas, "they've preferred to stick to their talking points and 'groundhog politics': They pop their head up once a day and disappear again."

She'd be delighted to join Mr. Hudak in Northern Ontario, she said – and while they're at it, she invited him to talk with her in Southwestern Ontario as well.

"I'd be happy to have a debate on jobs right here. That's the kind of conversation I think Ontarians deserve."

The NDP started its campaign in Northern Ontario, getting as far as Thunder Bay, but the Conservatives haven't made a northern swing yet. The Liberals head to Thunder Bay Wednesday afternoon – perhaps accounting for the timing of the Hudak team's announcement.

The Ontario election took another sneaky twist earlier Wednesday, as the Liberal campaign distributed copies of Mr. Hudak's press materials an hour before they were to be handed out at an actual press conference.

On a normal day aboard the Hudak caravan, reporters are handed a copy of the day's press release just before they get off the bus for the morning question-and-answer session with the leader. Wednesday's release focuses on the Conservative plan to introduce tighter surveillance for sex offenders.

But releases started landing in reporters' inboxes an hour before the scheduled press conference. A Liberal campaign staffer said it's the second day in a row someone within the Conservative camp has leaked information their office – but the Tories have suggested the material was never secret to begin with.

"That goes out to 700 people every morning," a Conservative insider said. "It goes across the province every day. If the Liberals want to help us get our message out, that's fine with us."

With a report from Anna Mehler Paperny in St. Thomas