Headlines

Finally, they're off. With the long-awaited call of five byelections in Ottawa, Windsor, London and Toronto the newspapers will be able to fill more column inches this summer--and incidentally five ridings will elect new MPPs.

The NDP and Tories are blasting the Liberals for their choice of timing of these elections, saying that the Liberals are trying to drive down turnout with a vote before the long weekend. Lisa MacLeod says "they will do anything in order to stay in power." The Liberals, in the person of Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Glen Murray, rejected the Tory criticism saying if the Tories had their way we'd already be in a summer general election.

Murray also tried the novel explanation that the day before a long weekend would actually be good for voter engagement, saying that people have a harder time engaging in the fall after the kids go back to school

The Globe and Mail explores the urban street cred of the Liberal nominees in Toronto's two byelections, calling it part of Kathleen Wynne's push for more of an urban focus at Queen's Park, where she will eventually, some day, endorse new funding tools for transit.

Etobicoke-Lakeshore is shaping up as an early race to keep an eye on, with rumours that Toronto Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday, who was Etobicoke's last mayor before it was folded into the megacity of Toronto, may run under the Tory banner against Liberal nominee Peter Milczyn. As yet, nobody has confirmed that the already-named Tory candidate Steve Ryan is stepping aside. Holyday would make that riding a star-versus-star race, and could improve the Tories dismal chances there.

Both Milczyn and Holyday still have their day job, however, and that meant voting yesterday to explore cutting the Land Transfer Tax yesterday at Rob Ford's executive committee. It's a bit awkward for Milczyn, since the Liberals have been saying Ford can avoid a fiscal mess by not cutting the LTT. Milczyn would undoubtedly say that any real decision on the LTT is months away.

In Ottawa, the replacement for former premier Dalton McGuinty is emerging from the shadow of his old boss. McGuinty's right hand John Fraser is running to replace the former premier in the riding a McGuinty has held for more than a quarter century. It must help when people ask "what will you do for me" to be able to point to a long record, though perhaps Fraser can be forgiven for gliding over the last part of McGuinty's career.

In Windsor, NDP candidate Percy Hatfield hit the ground running, having already done some door-knocking in the pre-writ period. The Windsor-Tecumseth all-candidates debate will be two weeks from now, and the Liberals will be struggling until election day to catch up to Hatfield.

In London, Ken Coran had a rocky Day One according to the Free Press, with that newspaper having caught Coran out on a number of small-bore fibs during his acceptance speech earlier this week. On their own these mistakes may not matter, but Coran's nomination wasn't uncontroversial to begin with.

And there's even things happening in the province that aren't election news: Ontario beekeepers are calling for neonicotinoid pesticides to be prohibited due to their perceived role in the collapse of bee populations; toxic algae in Lake Erie are expected to be bad again this summer, and Legal Aid Ontario could really use some help.

Events

The Premier continues to be on vacation this week.

Tim Hudak will have a media availability in Scarborough today at 11:00 a.m. after touring Automatic Coating.

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