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Stephen Harper may have designs on running a majority government but it seems that he doesn't care whether Ontario is a big part of it.

How else to explain that the Conservative Leader has turned his back on Premier Dalton McGuinty by refusing to say how he would deal with the grievances of Canada's most-populous province?

Mr. Harper did not respond by Friday's deadline to a letter that Mr. McGuinty had sent as part of his so-called fairness campaign.

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion and New Democratic Party Leader Jack Layton replied as did 28 of their candidates. Green Leader Elizabeth May didn't respond but 18 party members running for Parliament did. It was total radio silence for the Conservatives, however.

The Premier wrote to the party leaders and the more than 500 candidates seeking election on Oct. 14 to ask for their “commitment to fairness for the people of Ontario.”

The McGuinty government says there's a $20-billion imbalance between what Ontario taxpayers send to Ottawa and the services they get in return. The Premier has recently suggested that $11.8-billion of that is “discriminatory.”

In his letter, he wanted the leaders to answer six queries, including whether they advocated a reform of the equalization and Employment Insurance programs and whether they thought Ontario should get the same per-capita health-care transfer payments as the other provinces.

Mr. Layton's responses will warm Mr. McGuinty's heart. “We agree that we need to do more for Ontario and do it faster,” he wrote. The NDP Leader said he wanted an impartial review of equalization but that, meanwhile, if Ontario qualifies for a payout it should collect it. He advocated a revamped EI system (although he still seemed to favour a bias toward seasonal workers) and he said the $773-million health-care funding gap should be closed “over time.” He agreed that Southern Ontario should get its own economic development agency.

Mr. Dion was similarly receptive to Mr. McGuinty's concerns but a bit less specific in his responses. And he warned that a Liberal government would have “limited fiscal room to manoeuvre” to deal with Ontario's issues.

But he did promise he would “strive to close the gap” on health transfers and review the equalization and EI programs. Ontario would be allowed to collect equalization payments if it qualified, as some economists believe will be the case by 2009.

Perhaps Mr. Harper didn't reply because he thought it was a partisan set-up by a Liberal premier. If that's the case, he is ignoring the fact that the Ontario legislature last week unanimously passed a resolution supporting the broad principles of the fairness campaign.

Alternatively, the Conservative Leader may have concluded that he doesn't need the great bulk of Ontario's 106 seats to gain his hoped-for Commons majority.

Mr. McGuinty did not offer any comment yesterday in releasing the leaders' replies except to offer, in a statement, the same bromides about how much more he could do if he had some of that $20-billion.

It's not clear what he should – or could – do now with a week till voting day. He's been waging his fairness campaign for nearly four years – and three federal election campaigns – now. He's had some success in getting more money, both with former prime minister Paul Martin and with Mr. Harper, but there seems to be no peoples' revolution brewing.

When the campaign began, Mr. McGuinty urged Ontario voters to exert their clout to demand a better deal for their province. The fact that only 46 candidates took the time to write suggests that would-be parliamentarians are not getting pummelled about Ontario's grievances on the doorstep.

The Premier has been neutral in this campaign, refusing to endorse his Liberal cousin, Mr. Dion. But where will he stand now that it seems certain he will be dealing with Mr. Harper after the ballots are counted? The Conservative Leader has declared the fiscal imbalance issue dealt with and he's denied that Ontario gets a raw deal under the current EI rules.

And now he won't even write a letter to talk about it.