Ontario PC leader Doug Ford arrives for a candidates round table in Newmarket, Ont. on Monday, May 28, 2018. The Canadian Press/ Frank Gunn

TORONTO— The fight for the populist vote has the NDP targeting beach time while the Progressive Conservatives target beer o’clock.

In one of Ontario’s poorest ridings, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath promised that an NDP government would guarantee three weeks of paid vacation to anyone who has worked at the same job for more than a year. Currently, after one year employees are entitled to two weeks paid vacation.

Horwath pitched the announcement Tuesday as something that would help families with “work-life balance.”

The party says right now in Ontario you have to work with the same employer for five years before they get three weeks vacation. The NDP says they would give employers at least one year to prepare for the changes.

The catchy announcement comes on the heels of Progressive Conservative leader Doug Ford’s promise to bring beer and wine to corner stores and make way for $1 beer (plus deposit).

Horwath dares Ford to release a platform

Adding to the attacks levelled on Sunday and Monday, on Tuesday Horwarth dared Ford to release a platform.

“I think not only is it shameful that they haven’t put a platform out but it’s insulting to voters,” Horwath told reporters. “There’s no way Ford as a business person would sign a contract without the numbers filled in.”

[READ MORE: Ford promises to level with voters on the numbers, at some point]

In Port Colborne, Ont. Ford again refused to give reporters a due date for his platform release except to say “by the end of this campaign we will have fully costed platform.”

There are eight full days until voters elect their next government on June 7.

Candidate controversies keep piling up

On Tuesday, Horwath defended one of her star candidates who came under fire from the Toronto Sun for holding a sign that read “f— the police” in a protest in 2006. Gurratan Singh — federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s brother — apologized for the sign and Horwath said he has since “turned his life around” and now works in the justice system as a lawyer.

On the same day Ford had Donna Skelly at his candidates’ roundtable to promote his potential cabinet, Press Progress slammed Skelly for promoting what it called an “alt-right” website Free Bird Media. The information was posted late Monday and Ford hasn’t yet been asked to respond to it. Skelly tweeted on Tuesday that she didn’t know what the group was.

Ford says climate change is man made, but eschews carbon price

Doug Ford is adamant he believes in “man-made climate change,” but a plan to tackle it is so far elusive.

Ford was asked about his climate change policy at the Sunday leaders’ debate in a scrum with reporters afterwards and, again, on Monday.

“I’m a strong believer of climate change, man-made climate change actually,” Ford said yesterday but, as with his answer in the debate on Sunday, he avoided saying what he would do about it.

What he has made clear is he will axe Ontario’s cap-and-trade system. Pricing carbon, he argues, doesn’t work.

“We don’t agree with hurting families,” he said about it. “The carbon tax does nothing for the environment.”

Ford’s view is strongly disputed by organizations like the Ecofiscal Commission, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Still, he’s in line with his federal Conservative cousins: Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe and Alberta United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney.

“We believe in keeping our rivers cleans, our lakes clean, our air clean, our parks clean,” Ford said. “We put half a billion dollars to the side to make sure that we have a strong environmental policy.”

So far, the party isn’t explaining how the money Ford announced Monday will be used. In contrast, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath has said she if she wins government she would keep Ontario in the cap-and-trade market with Quebec and Ontario.

She also said she would make tweaks like making more money available for low income and rural Ontarians to adjust to the financial pressures of cap-and-trade.

Ford returns (again) to Southwestern Ontario

On day 21 of the provincial election campaign Ford is, again, returning to Southwestern Ontario. The Tory leader has spent several days there for each of the last three weeks of the campaign and isn’t letting up.

On Tuesday he will spend his entire day in Niagara Centre with an announcement and a rally. The NDP MPP from the riding isn’t re-offering in this election.

The latest polls released Monday from Ipsos/Global News and Maintstreet show Ford in competition with Horwath for the top spot in the popular vote. Ipsos gives Ford the upper hand while Mainstreet gives it to Horwath.

In contrast to Ford’s one-stop shop, Horwath is hitting up four ridings starting in the outskirts of Toronto and ending near the province’s most southern corner. Her first stop is in Liberal-held York South—Weston, then onto the empty Liberal seat in Brantford—Brant, from their she starts targeting Tory territory in Perth—Wellington and Chatham-Kent—Leamington.

Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne starts her day in Burlington where her cabinet colleague Eleanor McMahon is in for a tough fight to hold onto her seat. She ends her day in the long-time NDP riding of Toronto—Danforth.

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