tim-hudak - Politics Live - News, commentary and analysis from The Globe and Mail's politics desk

Hudak bet Liberals wouldn’t bother to vote. Here’s how he was wrong

By Adam Radwanski

This morning, I wrote broadly about how some very incorrect assumptions led Tim Hudak’s Progressive Conservative astray. It’s perhaps worth a closer look at a few numbers that tell the story.

Mr. Hudak’s strategy revolved largely around the premise that in battleground ridings, particularly in the Greater Toronto, turnout among PC voters would be higher than among likely Liberals. If it failed, members of his campaign team predicted, it would be because the NDP collapsed and failed to split the centre-left vote.

What didn’t seem to concern most Tories was the prospect of Liberal supporters being as motivated as their own – let alone more motivated.

And yet, if one compares this election’s results in those battlegrounds to the results from 2011, it appears that’s exactly what happened. Increases in Liberal votes surpassed increases in PC votes (if the PC votes went up at all) in virtually any riding it’s worth looking at, and not significantly at the expense of the New Democrats.

Here, for example, is the difference in 2011 and 2014 vote totals in Richmond Hill – the sort of bellwether GTA riding the Tories probably needed to take in order to win government.

Election results in Richmond Hill

That one, like a bunch of others, was at least kind of a wash – which is better for the Tories than what can be said about Mississauga-Erindale, where the Tories thought they had a chance of taking out an incumbent (Harinder Takhar) who didn’t even decide to seek re-election until the campaign had started.

Election results in Mississauga-Erindale

Not only did this phenomenon prevent the Tories from taking Liberal seats; it also accounted for them losing ones they’d long held. The most dramatic example, where the Tories seemed to also suffer for supporters deserting them for other parties, might be Durham – a riding that was vacated by veteran PC MPP John O’Toole when he retired:

Election results in Durham

And venturing over to the province’s southwest, where the Liberals were supposed to be losing seats rather than gaining them, here’s what happened to incumbent PC MPP Rob Leone in Cambridge:

Election results in Cambridge

I could go on, but you probably get the general drift.

As a side note, while still nowhere near winning anywhere, the Green Party experienced more growth than one might have expected. Whether that’s a tribute to Green Leader Mike Schreiner or just a reflection of none-of-the-above sentiments is probably best left to another day.

For now, we’re still sorting through why the Liberals did better than most anyone expected and the Tories much worse. An important caveat with the turnout story is that it’s probably not a completely straightforward one. For instance, the Tories may have motivated more of their base than previously, while losing some of their more moderate supporters to the other parties.

Still, looking at the above numbers, it’s hard not to think that the Tories vastly overestimated their motivation skills, and vastly underestimated how much Ms. Wynne – with a big assist from Mr. Hudak – could motivate Liberals.

Hudak to resign as PC leader: ‘We did not receive the results we wanted’

Ontario PC leader Tim Hudak, right, announced will be stepping down as party leader after being defeated.

Ontario PC leader Tim Hudak, right, announced he will be stepping down as party leader after being defeated, at his headquarters in Grimsby, Ont. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

"I will not be leading the party into the next election," @timhudak says, making official the inevitable #voteON

— Adrian Morrow (@AdrianMorrow) June 13, 2014

Tim Hudak won his riding of Niagara West-Glanbrook, and will stay on as MPP.

Hudak arrives to big cheers from the crowd. Here with wife Deb Hutton. #onpoli #voteon pic.twitter.com/pHac8dGLnG

— Kaleigh Rogers (@KaleighRogers) June 13, 2014

"We did not receive the results we wanted," Hudak says, but "couldn't be more proud" of campaign #onpoli #voteon

— Kaleigh Rogers (@KaleighRogers) June 13, 2014

Jeers and shouts of "resign!" as Liberals watch @timhudak's concession. Have some humility, people #voteON pic.twitter.com/YbbukO8Z4U

— Adrian Morrow (@AdrianMorrow) June 13, 2014

"I have boundless hope for Ontario," Hudak says. #onpoli #voteon

— Kaleigh Rogers (@KaleighRogers) June 13, 2014

Agree or disagree with him, @timhudak deserves a lot of credit for running on what he believes and striking a real contrast with the Grits.

— Adrian Morrow (@AdrianMorrow) June 13, 2014

Liberals’ HQ elated amid news of majority win

By Aleysha Haniff

Ontario Liberal leader Kathleen Wynne speaks to supporters after winning the Ontario election in Toronto on Thursday June 12, 2014. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn

Kathleen Wynne spoke to supporters in Toronto after media outlets reported her party won a majority government Thursday night.

“You have put your trust in us to move this province forward with integrity and we will not take you for granted," @Kathleen_Wynne says

— Adrian Morrow (@AdrianMorrow) June 13, 2014

"Let me tell you: we are going to build Ontario up for everyone in the province. We are one Ontario," @Kathleen_Wynne says #voteON

— Adrian Morrow (@AdrianMorrow) June 13, 2014

Pumped-up Liberal supporters celebrated at the election-night headquarters.

It's getting electric in Liberal HQ at the Sheraton. The Grits have been leading all night and haven't let up pic.twitter.com/IxtzmuI1sx

— Adrian Morrow (@AdrianMorrow) June 13, 2014

Supporters watch results at Ontario Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne’s provincial election night headquarters in Toronto, June 12, 2014. REUTERS/Mark Blinch

Ontario Liberal Party supporters celebrate after a Liberal Party majority government was called at the election party headquarters of leader Kathleen Wynne in Toronto, June 12, 2014. REUTERS/Mark Blinch

Ontario Liberal Party staff members celebrate after a Liberal Party majority government was called at the election party headquarters of leader Kathleen Wynne in Toronto, June 12, 2014.

The mood at the PC headquarters was much more subdued. Polls had put party leader Tim Hudak neck-in-neck with the Liberals. But on Election Day, that wasn’t the case.

A small huddle of PC supporters here in Grimsby. Sombre mood as they watch the results broadcast live. #onpoli #voteon

— Kaleigh Rogers (@KaleighRogers) June 13, 2014

No music playing at PC HQ. No leader. Just a handful of disappointed faces glued to the live results. #onpoli #voteon

— Kaleigh Rogers (@KaleighRogers) June 13, 2014

A supporter of Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak watches the election results come in for Ontario’s provincial election in Grimsby, Ontario June 12, 2014. REUTERS/Fred Thornhill

Ontario PC supporters watch the results come in at Tim Hudak’s election night party in Grimsby, Ontario on Thursday June 12, 2014. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

An Ontario PC supporter reacts as he watches the results come in at Tim Hudak’s election night party in Grimsby, Ontario on Thursday June 12, 2014. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

And in Hamilton, a handful of supporters were present for NDP Leader Andrea Horwath’s election-night event.

Still a relatively sparse gathering here at NDP election headquarters. #voteON pic.twitter.com/FzZ5EhRDky

— Susan Krashinsky (@susinsky) June 13, 2014

Supporters watch results at Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Andrea Horwath’s provincial election night headquarters in Hamilton, Ontario June 12, 2014. REUTERS/Aaron Harris

A sparse crowd watches television coverage as election results are tallied at the Ontario NDP election night party for Leader Andrea Horwath in Stoney Creek, Ont., Thursday, June 12, 2014. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Aaron Lynett

Everything you need to read before you vote in the Ontario election

By Aleysha Haniff

The Ontario election campaign is in its last few days, with voters set to head to the polls on June 12. Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne is pushing for another stint in office, while PC Leader Tim Hudak has offered a very different vision for Ontario’s future and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says she would be a fresh face for the government.

Find everything you need to know about the leaders, their platforms and key events during the campaign right here before casting your vote.

THE PARTY LEADERS

Ms. Wynne, Mr. Hudak and Ms. Horwath are busy touring the province to share their plans for Ontario. Learn more about the people fronting each party with this quick summary of their biographies.

The three leaders also offered up their respective elevator pitches in this video, which features each candidate making a case for the premier’s office with only 30 seconds to speak.

THE PLATFORMS

If you’re looking for more than soundbites on the major issues, use this interactive to compare platforms from the Liberals, PCs, New Democrats and the Green Party. It highlights eight topics, including heath care, education and taxes.

THE LEADERS’ DEBATE

Ms. Wynne was attacked for her party’s spending scandals by both her opponents during the lone leaders’ debate on June 3. Didn’t tune in? Catch up with Adrian Morrow’s article on the debate, or get the abridged version of events from Kaleigh Rogers.

The three leaders also participated in a Globe Debate faceoff, with each touting the virtues of their respective economic plans. Check out their write-ups, and if you like, vote on one and see how you compare with other Globe readers.

THE LEADERS’ TOURS

The party leaders have spent weeks criss-crossing the province — and where they’ve been says a lot about which regions they hope to win. Take a closer look at the leaders’ tours with our interactive.

THE PRESSURE POINTS

It’s not an election without a few tough words. Issues that have cropped up during the campaign include:

The cancelled gas plants: The opposition parties hammered Ms. Wynne over the spending debacle during the leaders’ debate, and they received more ammunition when provincial police ramped up its investigation.

‘Bogus math‘: Economists poked holes in Mr. Hudak’s signature Million Jobs Plan, though he stands by his numbers.

Internal rift: Dozens of NDP members accused Ms. Horwath of abandoning the party’s roots by voting down the Liberals’ budget.

MaRS: The PCs accused the Liberals of secretly approving $317-million to bail out a real-estate development for a Toronto research centre.

The police: For the first time in its 60-year history, the union presenting the Ontario Provincial Police released a political attack ad. The television ad targets Hudak’s plan.

THE ENDORSEMENT

With the Liberals and the Progressive Conservatives leading the race, The Globe and Mail’s examined their platforms and the state of Ontario’s government and finances through a series of editorials. The last of the four pieces backed Mr. Hudak’s Progressive Conservatives, but with a minority government.

You can also check out the earlier parts of the series here.

Part 1: Advice for the undecided voter

Part 2: Sense and nonsense from the Conservatives

Part 3: Uncertainty surrounds the Liberal platform

As well, we’ve complied a list of editorial endorsements in Ontario elections from 1981 to present.

TIME TO VOTE

Polls open on June 12 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. (ET). Find out more about the voting process here.

Parties rely heavily on corporate, union donations

By Arik Ligeti

Almost half of all donations to the Ontario NDP come from unions or corporations, which are only four per cent of their contributor base, an analysis of Elections Ontario data shows.

All three parties count disproportionately on a select group of corporations or unions for their contributions.

The numbers include contributions up until May 14, the second week of the election campaign.

The average NDP contributor donated $90, compared to $250 for the Liberals and more than $500 for the Progressive Conservatives. But that’s not the complete picture.

Corporations, which are roughly four per cent of the NDP’s contributor base, gave more than $1.6-million to the party so far. Compare that to 13 per cent of Liberal contributors who gave a total of $3.6-million, and the PC’s, with 17 per cent of their contributor base giving $3.2-million. The PCs also lead the way with the largest overall percentage of campaign dollars coming from corporations.

Percentage of corporate donations

SOURCE: Elections Ontario (data from Jan. 1, 2013 through May 14, 2014)

The annual contribution limit caps out at $9,975 per party, per individual contributor. But contributors can also give up to $6,650 annually to each party’s riding associations, and another $6,650 to candidates.

Bruce Power is the heavyweight of contributors, donating $57,800 across all three parties, with about half going to the NDP and the rest split between Liberals and PCs. Labatt Brewing was a close second, giving almost $55,000, split fairly evenly among parties.

Provincial Building & Construction Trades Council Of Ontario is the largest Liberal contributor, with $32,855.

Top 10 Liberal donors

SOURCE: Elections Ontario (data from Jan. 1, 2013 through May 14, 2014)

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the top NDP contributor is the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, which gave more than $38,000. Nearly all of the NDP’s top 10 contributors were unions.

Top 10 NDP donors

SOURCE: Elections Ontario (data from Jan. 1, 2013 through May 14, 2014)

The PCs didn’t have a distinct top contributor, with the highest totals hitting just over $19,000, from companies including Rogers, Labatt and Shoppers Drug Mart.

Top 10 PC donors

SOURCE: Elections Ontario (data from Jan. 1, 2013 through May 14, 2014)

Note: The percentages included in this story are as complete a picture as possible. Elections Ontario data doesn’t differentiate between individuals and corporations, and so our analysis of the data is subject to error.

The most baffling miscalculations made by each of Ontario’s parties

By Adam Radwanski

Political parties invest great amounts of time and energy into preparing for election campaigns – far more, generally, than the media covering them. For all that we’re constantly questioning their strategic decisions, an awful lot of thought and research goes into most of them, and even if they don’t pan out there’s usually a good explanation behind them.

Still, this election has contained its share of mysteries when it comes to what the parties were thinking. Here’s a quick look at what was, to these eyes, the most baffling miscalculation by each party.

The Liberals’ debate prep

Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne takes part in the Ontario provincial leaders debate in Toronto, Tuesday June 3, 2014. (Mark Blinch/Canadian Press)

Yes, it was bad luck for Kathleen Wynne that the very first topic in her first leaders’ debate – before she’d had a chance to let her nerves settle – was the gas-plants scandal. But that still doesn’t explain why she didn’t have a better plan for the inevitable questions on that subject than to repeatedly apologize while uncomfortably staring straight ahead as the other leaders berated her, then make an awkward and unsuccessful attempt to change the channel to Tim Hudak’s math problems.

Ms. Wynne was being prepped for the debate dating back to last year, so it’s not as though no thought went into this. One theory offered by some Liberal insiders is that, somewhat in keeping with the way their party has made both political and policy decisions since Ms. Wynne took over, there were a lot of people in the room during those sessions – and enough conflicting advice that she didn’t have a clear idea of what she was supposed to do.

Another explanation also floating around is that while they expected Mr. Hudak to be tough on her, the Liberals failed to adjust to the aggressive persona Andrea Horwath had taken on by the time the debate happened. Instead, by this account, Ms. Wynne was prepared for the folksier version of the NDP Leader from the 2011 campaign, and left flummoxed by the attack from both sides.

Or maybe the prep just didn’t take as it should have, with Ms. Wynne’s nervousness getting the better of her. Whatever happened, if the Liberals lose on Thursday, they’ll have cause to look back on the debate with some regret.

The Tories’ hard sell of 100,000 job cuts

Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak shares a laugh with workers at Automatic Coating Limited in Toronto on Tuesday, May 6, 2014. (Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)

The more obvious choice for a Progressive Conservative mystery in this campaign might be how Mr. Hudak’s policy advisers managed to badly botch the math behind his pledge to create a million new jobs, causing him no shortage of embarrassment. Chalk that one up to sloppiness, albeit of the fairly remarkable variety. What’s even more confusing is how the Tories rolled out their plan to cut 100,000 jobs from the broader public sector.

When they announced that pledge, a few days in, it seemed obviously intended as something to seize the electorate’s attention and become the talk of the campaign. If it wasn’t, then surely Mr. Hudak would have soft-sold it as relying largely on attrition rather than giving the impression that it involved firing a lot of people.

But by the accounts of many within their party, the Tories were genuinely caught off guard by how much the proposed cuts overshadowed other policies they rolled out in the days that followed, and the extent to which it gave their opponents something to rally against. So in subsequent the weeks, Mr. Hudak did start talking more about attrition – but only after the other parties had reasonably been able to characterize his proposal as mass layoffs.

Prior to the debate, several PC sources have said, there was starting to be a degree of finger-pointing within their party about both the million-jobs math and the jobs-cuts roll-out. A better mood set in because of the perceived momentum swing in their favour, which seemingly had much to do with the focus shifting to Liberal scandals. But there will again be plenty of second-guessing if the motivated centre-left keeps them from office.

The NDP’s slow start

Andrea Horwath speaks at a campaign stop in Toronto on May 7. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press)

Frankly, almost the entire NDP campaign has been baffling. While there have been occasional signs of what could have worked – Ms. Horwath is a more confident performer than she was in 2011, and when anyone has actually seen them their ads have been pretty good – it remains unclear why the New Democrats forced an election for which they lacked both a policy agenda and enough money to compete with the other parties.

What is especially confusing, though, is why Ms. Horwath was so unprepared for the campaign’s first week. In the run-up to the May 2 provincial budget, neither of the other parties could be certain how the New Democrats would respond. But in retrospect, considering that their rejection of that left-leaning budget clearly had little to do with its contents, the New Democrats should have known well before it was presented what they were going to do. And if they had bluffed publicly about weighing their options while making preparations behind the scenes, they might have run the smoothest campaign out of the gate.

Instead, the New Democrats looked more surprised than anyone by the government falling. It took them the longest to get their logistics sorted out, and more important they lacked a compelling explanation for why they had decided to bring the Liberals down. This was probably the time to make the strongest possible argument about Liberal corruption, as Ms. Horwath tried to do much later; instead she stumbled through a less-than-compelling case about liking Ms. Wynne’s promises but not trusting her to deliver on them.

As a result, Ms. Horwath squandered the spotlight that was on her in those first days. Before long, with the other leaders campaigning more strongly, the narrative of a two-way race had taken hold – one the New Democrats were never able to shake in the weeks that followed.

With ‘Dark Knight’ door hanger and misleading letters, Liberals, Tories accuse each other of dirty tactics

By Kaleigh Rogers

As the Ontario election campaign winds to close, the Progressive Conservative and Liberal parties are both accusing one another of playing dirty.

On one end, a Liberal candidate apologized on social media Wednesday for a door hanger his campaign distributed that the PC Party called “terrorist literature.” On the other, the Liberals are accusing the Tories of intentionally misdirecting voters to the wrong polling station.

The offending door hanger features a photo of PC Leader Tim Hudak walking with his head thrown back laughing. The image — taken earlier in the campaign at a visit to a food packaging manufacturer in Niagara — was superimposed over a scene of a hospital exploding from the movie The Dark Knight. (Mr. Hudak replaces the Joker in the shot.) Underneath it, the door hanger read “Do you trust Tim Hudak and the Ontario PCs with your future?” The door hanger was distributed by the campaign team for Steven Del Duca, Liberal candidate for Vaughan, throughout his riding.

Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak, centre, laughs before he makes an announcement at a packaging plant about creating 40,000 jobs in Ontario with affordable energy during a campaign stop in Smithville, Ont., on Monday, May 12, 2014. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)

The original photo. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)

The PC Party released a letter from Mr. Hudak’s campaign manager, Ian Robertson, calling the material “disturbing” and “horrifying.”

“Tim and our team have broad shoulders,” Mr. Robertson wrote. “But to first suggest that Tim Hudak would somehow threaten disabled children — as you did this week— and now suggest he would blow up a hospital shows just how unhinged you have become.”

The letter, which also proposed that Mr. Hudak’s children may see the image and become upset, was addressed to Liberal campaign co-chairs, Deb Matthews and David Herle.

Mr. Hudak spoke about the door hanger at a press conference in Mississauga Wednesday, placing the blame on Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne.

“That’s way across the line and the Kathleen Wynne that I used to know never would have stooped to that type of tactic just to cling to power,” Mr. Hudak said.

Early Wednesday morning, Mr. Del Duca tweeted an apology directly to Mr. Hudak, calling the door hanger a “mistake.”

.@timhudak Please accept my apology. The flyer was a mistake for which I am sorry. #onpoli #voteon

— Steven Del Duca (@StevenDelDuca) June 11, 2014

Mr. Del Duca’s campaign office later clarified that the door hanger was not sent out by mistake, but was a mistake in judgement, which they now regret.

Ms. Wynne also condemned comparing Mr. Hudak to a Batman villain while at a campaign stop Wednesday.

“That’s not acceptable,” she said after touring an elementary school in east end Toronto. “I haven’t seen that piece of literature, but this kind of campaigning is not acceptable. It’s not consistent with what we have been doing throughout this campaign, and I understand Steven Del Duca had apologized.”

While the PCs were shaming the Liberals, the Liberals were firing right back, accusing the Tory campaign office of intentionally misdirecting voters to the wrong polling stations.

The Grits drew attention to letters sent to voters in London and Ottawa from the PC party encouraging them to head to the polls. Some of the letters, including a few sent to Liberal supporters with lawn signs, indicated the incorrect address for the area’s polling station.

The letters were sent from the campaign head office in Toronto and were worded similarly to letters that had the wrong address for polling stations sent out during the Niagara by-election.

Ms. Matthews — who is also the Liberal candidate in the London riding where they discovered a letter — said it’s clear the PC Party was intentionally trying to misdirect Liberal supporters.

“They’re telling voters to go to the wrong place. They know exactly what they’re doing,” she told reporters Tuesday outside a Tory campaign stop in London.

“It’s intentional. It’s blatant. It’s irresponsible. It’s outrageous.”

The PC Party apologized, saying it was an honest mistake due to the abundant number of letters they had sent out. Mr. Hudak said there was no foul play, just a mix-up, and said the PC candidates in London and Ottawa have agreed to go door-to-door to apologize in person and give voters the correct information.

“I’m excited to share [our plan] with as many voters as possible. Sometimes you’re mailing out that size of letters, they don’t always go to the right address,” he said.

“I want them to get out and vote.”

With a report from Adrian Morrow

Unions’ attacks on Hudak weren’t quite what the Tories expected

By Adam Radwanski

Only a few weeks ago, Tim Hudak’s Progressive Conservatives were bracing themselves – and trying to brace the public – for a barrage of attack ads from the union group Working Families Coalition.

As it turns out, while the Tories were entirely right to fear an onslaught from organized labour, they were a bit off in predicting where it would come from.

Working Families has indeed been running ads, but the organization has been less of a factor than in elections past. Whatever one thinks of spots like this one, the buys for them just don’t seem to have been as big as in other campaigns (and the lead-ups to them), including 2011’s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edvhpyH0448

But if the coalition has been relatively quiet, individual unions have more than stepped in to make up for it. In the three weeks between an early-campaign advertising blackout and another one that will be imposed on Wednesday, it’s been hard to turn on the TV without seeing ads like this one, from the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5k5MTLPmbQ

Meanwhile, on many radio stations, pretty much every commercial break has included ads like this one from the Ontario Nurses’ Association:

It’s hard to say precisely why unions have gone it alone more than previously. Working Families has always been a bit of an unwieldy group with plenty of potential fault lines, including between public- and private-sector unions, and it’s possible they just had their own ideas of how to go about things. As much as anything, it seems to be that with Mr. Hudak running on an agenda much more threatening to them than the one he campaigned on last time, unions wanted to be more hands-on.

And maybe they figured that going directly to voters as teachers, nurses or other generally well-liked professions would be more effective than as part of an amorphous coalition that the Tories have spent a lot of time trying to discredit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfTbxix21Gw

Whatever the case, the way it’s played out has rendered pre-emptive efforts like the one above somewhat useless. But particularly with the likes of the Ontario Provincial Police Association joining the fray (and yes, to the chagrin of many of us, also a union that represents journalists), the impression that the Tories are under simultaneous assault from pretty much every union in the province is, if anything, likelier to stir a debate about third-party spending rules than if it were mostly just Working Families again.

In the improbable event that Mr. Hudak wins a majority government, one has to imagine he’ll move fairly swiftly to try to prevent anything like this from happening again.

Update: A couple of people have pointed out that, while less heavy on TV this time, Working Families has taken more of a plunge into radio, online and print advertising. Perhaps that has something to do with individual unions largely covering off the TV side of things, and it’s almost certainly related to the relative scarcity of ad space in that medium with the parties and the third parties all competing for it after a sudden election call.

Yes, Tim Hudak won the Ontario leaders’ debate

By Adam Radwanski

As part of the ongoing Listening Post project to help us see this election through the eyes of voters, Innovative Research Group surveyed 1,100 Ontarians through its online panel on Wednesday and Thursday to get their impressions coming out of Tuesday evening’s debate.

As usual, the survey asked respondents to identify which party (if any) they normally support, to get an impression of how the leaders and their parties are playing with different vote groups. And it also asked off the top whether they had watched all of the debate, only some of it, had followed it only through subsequent coverage, or hadn’t paid attention to it at all.

We’ll start with a look at impressions of the debate itself, with a big caveat that – as you’ll see in some other findings we’ll be rolling out over the next day or so – “winning” or “losing” in that venue doesn’t necessarily translate into voters breaking in one direction or the other.

Having said that, the research seems to confirm what many would suspect: By most available measurements, Tim Hudak won.

To begin with, here’s how survey participants who said they watched some or all of the debate (42 per cent of the total group) responded when asked who they thought did best.