Dalton McGuinty is staking his political future on a 30 per cent cut in university and college tuition for middle-class students.

But his past haunted him Monday as he launched the Liberals’ Oct. 6 campaign platform — a 56-page manifesto with 45 new pledges — amid charges he will break a promise not to raise taxes for the third election in a row.

McGuinty repeatedly refused to say in a full sentence that he would not increase taxes, opting to say a simple “no” and “we will not” during a news conference.

“Ontario families have made a contribution and have done their share, and what an enormous difference that has made,” the Liberal leader said.

His almost-comical reluctance to give a clear sound bite fuelled charges from rivals that he is poised to unveil more tax hikes like the 2004 health premium and the harmonized sales tax introduced last year.

“It comes down to a question of trust,” said Paul Ferreira, the NDP candidate for York South-Weston.

Two blocks from the Marriott Eaton Centre hotel, where McGuinty released his election platform and held a rally with 300 supporters, the Progressive Conservatives set up a giant red inflatable elephant in a Bay St. parking lot.

“Dalton McGuinty doesn’t want to talk about the elephant in the room,” said Andrea Mandel-Campbell, the Conservative candidate in Don Valley West, referring to taxes.

McGuinty countered by deflating the Tory platform, which would put provincial prisoners to work on chain gangs, as “not a serious plan…that will cost us more and it will jeopardize our safety.”

“These are serious times and they call for a serious plan,” he said of the Liberal platform titled “Forward. Together.”

Public opinion polls have shown the race tightening over recent weeks, with a longstanding Conservative lead steadily shrinking.

A CTV-Nanos Research survey released Monday night put the Tories at 35.4 per cent, the Liberals at 31.9 per cent, the NDP at 22.8 per cent and Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner Leader at 4.1 per cent. The telephone poll of 1,005 people, conducted between last Tuesday and Thursday, is considered accurate to within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

McGuinty’s plan includes $1.5 billion annually in new promises, the cornerstone of which is the pledge worth $1,600 a year in tuition relief for full-time undergraduate university students and $730 for college students.

Conservatives questioned where the $1.5 billion would come from.

“How do they find $1.5 billion?” a senior party official said in a conference call. “There’s no spending reductions in here whatsoever.”

The tuition break would be available only to students from families with a gross household income of $160,000 or less a year — about 86 per cent of the 360,000 students currently enrolled — and would take effect Jan. 1.

It would be directly applied by the universities and colleges when they send out tuition bills and would cost $423 million in its first full year. Existing breaks for low-income students would remain.

“There’s simply no better investment a society or economy can make than in its youngest generation by equipping them with the best possible skills,” said McGuinty, whose government expects to run a $15 billion deficit this year. That figure was quietly changed in the platform from the $16 billion that Finance Minister Dwight Duncan stated two weeks ago.

He unveiled other planks for students: an after-school program for kids aged 6 to 12 to keep them active “instead of computer games at home that keep them sitting;” a $63 million annual “healthy snack program;” and a council to reduce the childhood obesity rate by 20 per cent over five years.

The Canadian Federation of Students said it likes the tuition break but would have preferred a freeze because fees can keep rising.

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“Any support for students and struggling students is absolutely welcome . . . but we’re left wondering, why not just reduce tuition fees up front?” said Nora Loreto of the CFS.

The tuition policy comes as Ontario students pay the highest fees in Canada in a province with the lowest per-capita funding.

With the election campaign officially starting Wednesday, the Liberals were the last party to release their platform.

Conservative Leader Tim Hudak announced his plan in May — with his key planks the removing of the provincial portion of the HST from home heating and hydro bills and a five per cent tax cut on the first $75,000 of income.

Most of NDP Leader Andrea Horwath’s platform was unveiled in June — including a gradual reduction in the HST on gasoline and energy bills.

Other platform highlights from the Liberals include:

A tax credit of up to $10,000 to reimburse businesses for hiring and training “highly skilled” immigrants such as architects, accountants and lawyers so they can get Canadian work experience. It will be available to 1,200 newcomers here less than five years.

More GO Train runs, in addition to hourly and rush-hour service, at a cost of $8 million in the first year.

60,000 new spaces in postsecondary educational institutions, including three new satellite campuses of existing universities.

A home renovation tax credit of up to $1,500 to help retrofit homes with ramps and walk-in baths so seniors can live there longer.

Funding $60 million in house calls by doctors so that more seniors and people with mobility challenges can get medical care helping them to live in their homes longer.

Doubling the existing children’s activity tax credit to $100.

Reducing the small business tax rate to 4 per cent.

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