Wanting just to catch her regular Go Train to Scarborough, Pickering resident Grace Flanagan unwittingly walked directly into the front lines of a tight political battle yesterday morning.
As she approached the terminal, Ms. Flanagan was deluged with campaign material from workers for both Janet Ecker, the current Finance Minister, and Wayne Arthurs, Pickering's mayor of 15 years who is making a run for provincial office as the riding's Liberal candidate.
In case she needed more than just one pamphlet to help her decide how to vote, Ms. Flanagan was also met by large signs for both parties, as well as the candidates themselves, each staking a claim to opposite sides of the bustling terminal.
With eight days left before the election, the rush-hour scene at the Pickering Go station yesterday illustrated just how close the race has become between Ms. Ecker and Mr. Arthurs.
Both candidates are well known in the community and both have been visibly involved in local decision making for at least the past eight years.
While Ms. Ecker is the incumbent -- often a competitive advantage -- her party is currently on the wrong side of the provincial momentum shift, which may be enough to level the playing field.
Still, Mr. Arthurs has to compete with Ms. Ecker's eight years' experience representing the riding at Queen's Park. As Ms. Flanagan put the campaign flyers into her purse yesterday morning, she said that being greeted by candidates on her way to work will do nothing to sway her vote. For that she'll have to sit down and review each available platform and be convinced that the given candidate is truly best for the area.
"I want to keep Pickering a safe place. I love Pickering," she said. "I've been here since 1997. I want to keep the balance of nature [and development] That's what separates us from downtown Toronto."
Mulling over the available choices, Ms. Flanagan said she was skeptical she would find any party that could ensure the area, with its many hiking trails and undeveloped land, remains protected.
In calling on the area's future leader to protect the area's green spaces, however, Ms. Flanagan hit on a high-profile issue in the Pickering-Ajax-Uxbridge race.
Since the spring, a group called the West Duffins Community Group Inc. has been running a strident campaign against Ms. Ecker and her government's commitment to protect certain areas of the riding from development.
"Stop the scam!" the group demands in its widely distributed glossy pamphlets.
"It's time to stop Janet Ecker from compromising our community."
The group is also spreading its message using large signs and costly newspaper advertisements.
At issue is the question of what to do with the Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve in north Pickering.
In 1999, all levels of government, including Mr. Arthurs as mayor of Pickering, signed an agreement to preserve the agricultural reserve as green space forever.
Ms. Ecker says she is holding to the agreement, while Mr. Arthurs is now in favour of development.
"I don't think we should preclude [the agricultural preserve]from consideration for development," Mr. Arthurs said yesterday.
While the debate remains unresolved, and the anti-Ecker campaign continues in earnest, all candidates think there are much bigger issues to be concerned with in the coming election.
"I don't think it's a key issue in the campaign whatsoever," said Mr. Arthurs. "I think things like energy and health care and education remain the key issues, and should."
For the most part, the voters seem to agree.
"I don't think it's really an election issue," said Dave MacLean, who plans to vote Conservative because, he said, of the current government's ability to stimulate the economy.
"I don't think it's something you can vote for or against at the election stage," he added.
On the top of her list of election issues, Ms. Ecker places health care, followed closely by education.
"People came to our communities to raise families," she said, extolling the Tory commitment to ban teacher strikes and that government's recent move to upgrade the Ajax-Pickering Hospital.
Mr. Arthurs feels the electricity issue is one of the more important in the riding.
"The hydro portfolio is a complete fiasco and we're in the middle of it with [the]Pickering nuclear [power station]here," he said.
He said one of his main concerns is the recently announced plan by the Ernie Eves government to privatize safety inspectors at the Pickering plant.
"This is not a time to put safety in private hands," he said.
"We're not prepared to set the stage for any potential risk, modest as it might be, because of the magnitude of what it might be."
Vern Edwards, the riding's NDP candidate, also agreed the green space debate is not central to the campaign, saying issues such as car insurance and hydro privatization should be at the top of the agenda.
He expressed concern that both the Liberals and Tories will have to sell public assets to balance the books, and wondered whether the Pickering nuclear plant could be on the block in years to come.
"This is not just another election," said Mr. Edwards, concerned about what irreversible decisions might be made by the next government.
"This is an election that will determine what direction Ontario goes in, at least for the next generation, if not more."
Pickering-Ajax-Uxbridge
2003 Candidates
PC: Janet Ecker
LIB: Wayne Arthurs
NDP: Vern Edwards
Green Party: Adam Duncan
1999 Result:
PC: Janet Ecker; 28,661; 68.2%
LIB: Dave Ryan; 16,881; 34.3%
NDP: Jim Wiseman; 2,814; 6.7%
Others: 894; 1.8%
SOURCES: G.P. MURRAY RESEARCH LTD., STATISTICS CANADA