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The Victoria Day holiday weekend is one of the slowest points in the news cycle of the entire year and, as such, one of the easiest times to score big coverage weights in an election campaign.

So what did Ontario Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne do on the weekend? She took Saturday off, for the second weekend in a row. Then on Sunday, she took her morning run in a charity event, and went to a birthday party for her granddaughter. On Monday, she went for a morning run along the Toronto waterfront and announced a ban on condos at Ontario Place. Not exactly over-scheduled.

While the premier had her feet up on Saturday, the Liberals put up a 50-second online attack ad entitled: ‘Harris and Hudak: Same Empty Promises’, suggesting Tory Leader Tim Hudak was nothing more than a clone of Mike Harris. The heart of it was a clip from the 1995 leaders’ debate, with Harris promising government spending cuts wouldn’t affect hospitals and health care. “Can Tim Hudak be trusted?” the voice-over asked.

Pretty scary stuff. Gosh, that was six elections ago. There are people voting in this election who weren’t even born then.

As the Liberals were going negative, Conservative deputy leader Christine Elliott released a positive 40-second online spot entitled ‘Hope is on the way’. (Thanks, Barack Obama.)

Images included sunrise over Toronto, a glimpse of cottage country (on the very weekend most folks open the cottage), Niagara Falls, Hudak meeting families on their doorsteps and workers at their jobs, narrated by Tim.

It’s easily the best “creative” of the present campaign, reminiscent of the famous ‘Morning in America’ moment of Ronald Reagan in 1984.

The Conservative storyline is that hope is on the way in the form of their Million Jobs Plan. Not “one million jobs”. The Million Jobs Plan. Upper case, not lower. And since it’s the title of the Conservative platform, the mainstream media have been going along with it.

It’s no accident that Elliott released the ‘Hope’ spot in Whitby, at the Abilities Centre, a symbol of hope for the disabled which she co-founded with her late husband, Jim Flaherty.

But Elliott minced no words as she zeroed in on Wynne. “Kathleen Wynne’s negativity will not put anyone back to work,” she declared. “Our Million Jobs Plan will.” (Upper case.)

The Conservatives have done a very good job of branding their platform. Voters still have their doubts about Hudak — he started the campaign with by far the lowest approval numbers of the three leaders, but at least now he’s a man with a plan. Which leads voters to consider whether it’s a credible plan, and whether Hudak is ready to govern.

Hudak has learned the importance of message discipline. Reporters can ask whatever they want in his daily media availability, but he’ll be talking about his Million Jobs Plan. (Upper case.)

This much is clear: Hudak has improved a lot as a campaigner. At two important events last week — the Canada 2020-iPolitics lunch in Ottawa and the platform rollout in Toronto — he spoke without a teleprompter and without a text, and appeared very comfortable.

He’s also learned the importance of message discipline. Reporters can ask whatever they want in his daily media availability, but he’ll be talking about his Million Jobs Plan. (Upper case.) He did so Monday, and then tweeted that he’d just “announced our plan to create 84,000 new jobs by reducing red tape as part of our MillionJobsPlan.com.” Not only upper case, but three words in one at a web address.

There’s no doubt that creating a million jobs over eight years is an ambitious target, especially when the plan includes shedding 100,000 jobs in the provincial and municipal public service, mostly through attrition and outsourcing, over the next four years.

The downsizing of the public service, to what the Conservatives maintain is 2009 levels, would certainly help Hudak meet his goal of balancing the provincial books in 2016, as opposed the Liberals’ objective of achieving balance by 2017 but with no path to it in the April budget.

The fiscal framework is where the narrative gets ugly for the Liberals. Ontario’s current deficit of $12.5 billion is twice the combined $6.26 deficit of Ottawa and other provinces in the red, according to a chart from RBC Economics. And Ottawa’s current deficit of $2.9 billion includes a contingency reserve of $3 billion, so you can make the case the federal books are already balanced. During the Liberals’ decade in office, the province’s debt has also doubled to $300 billion, or nearly 40 per cent of debt-to-GDP.

Moreover, on the Liberals’ watch, Ontario became a have-not province, a recipient of federal welfare. Ontarians don’t see themselves as recipients of handouts from the feds. For example, a report by the Mowat Centre showed that in 2011 Ontario received $2.2 billion in equalization, or about 15 per cent of all the $14.7 billion distributed to have-not provinces.

That’s not to mention the $1.1 billion in cancellation costs for those two gas power plants — one of which, in Mississauga, was the backdrop for a Hudak photo op at the weekend, where he promised a judicial inquiry into the whole affair. It wasn’t subtle, but it was effective.

In a similar vein, the NDP released an attack ad with a waste clock running up to $2.8 billion, saying it was time to “put the Liberals in the penalty box.” In a campaign where Andrea Horwath is having trouble getting traction, that may be one message that’s working for her in a change election.

L. Ian MacDonald is editor of Policy, the bi-monthly magazine of Canadian politics and public policy. He is the author of five books. He served as chief speechwriter to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney from 1985-88, and later as head of the public affairs division of the Canadian Embassy in Washington from 1992-94.

The views, opinions and positions expressed by all iPolitics columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of iPolitics.