Map of riding 20 - Eglinton - Lawrence
Joe Oliver's challengers are impatient to debate him, but not in the same way.
The Liberal candidate in Eglinton-Lawrence, Marco Mendicino, envisions a north Toronto venue with a helping of national security issues on the agenda. Mr. Oliver's NDP opponent, Andrew Thomson, says he'd be interested in something hosted by the Toronto Board of Trade.
In a riding looking at a serious case of vote-splitting, the federal Finance Minister faces two high-profile opponents with strategies that could hardly be more different. Both will also be representing their party platforms in a riding that's sure to stay in the national spotlight until the Oct. 19 election.
Eglinton-Lawrence voters say indecision is strong in a riding that rejected Liberal representation in 2011 after more than two decades, but where Tory affiliations haven't fully taken hold. Mr. Thomson, 48, the former finance minister of Saskatchewan who moved to Toronto in 2008, says he's banking partly on voters thinking strategically.
"It's quite a different kind of election because it's about a historic change in the government," he said. "When you look at the national polls, this is coming down to a choice of whether you want a Conservative government or whether you want an NDP government."
NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair announced Mr. Thomson's candidacy late last week, and the party hasn't had lawn signs printed. Mr. Thomson lives in downtown Toronto but has spent much of recent years overseas while working for Cisco Systems Inc.. When he began canvassing voters this week, he talked about transit and child care, he said.
First elected as a Saskatchewan MLA at 27, Mr. Thomson eventually introduced sweeping tax cuts there. He says he doesn't feel at odds defending Mr. Mulcair's proposal to hike corporate taxes, saying different situations call for different measures.
But Mr. Thomson isn't up against just any political newcomer. When asked when he found out about the surprise candidate, Mr. Mendicino quipped "which one?" After onetime-Conservative MP Eve Adams crossed the floor to run against Mr. Mendicino for the Liberal nomination in Eglinton-Lawrence, he responded by upping his ground game, returning repeatedly to Liberal homes to make sure he caught voters in person.
Mr. Mendicino, 42, lives in the riding, where his two young daughters go to school. Driving home from canvassing last weekend, he stopped to call greetings to a fellow parent. Mr. Oliver is a "good soldier" and a "mouthpiece" for Ottawa, he says, and Mr. Thomson is a parachute candidate.
A lawyer and law professor, he says that record helps him on the campaign trail. He helped secure one of the first convictions in the Toronto 18 terrorism case, and he dives into discussion of Bill C-51, saying it's "flawed" and "incomplete" but not all bad.
"You know, I happen to be one of those individuals who has actually applied Bill C-36, which is the original anti-terrorism legislation … in the courtroom context," he said. "Joe Oliver talks a big game about keeping the country safe. I've actually done it."
Left-leaning voters in the riding, which is mostly middle-class with large Jewish and Italian populations, say they will be watching polls closely.
Paul Di Prospero, a 31-year-old teacher, is the only resident on his street with a Liberal lawn sign, but he wavered when asked what he would do if Mr. Thomson appeared to pull ahead. "That's going to be a hard one for me, let's put it that way," he said. After thinking for a few minutes, he said he would definitely vote Liberal.
"I'm sort of centre, you know, and I'll waver left to right," said Brian Ferstman, a 63-year-old lawyer living a few houses away. "I've been a Harper supporter generally, because I didn't think we had much of a viable alternative…[but] I worry about a party being in power too long."
So far, Mr. Oliver's lawn signs dominate the riding, and local polls put him ahead, but by a slimming margin. A Forum Research poll two weeks ago had Mr. Oliver at 41 per cent, Mr. Mendicino at 34 per cent and the NDP at 20 per cent.
Mr. Oliver did not provide an interview, but in a statement e-mailed by his campaign team, he listed seniors' benefits and a $42-million Aging and Brain Health Centre among the benefits he had brought to the riding as MP and as minister.
Two debates have been proposed, but the time and place are not set.