No striking workers — including teachers — would be legislated back to work if an NDP government is elected June 7, New Democrat Leader Andrea Horwath says.“It’s a pretty heavy hammer...it’s very much against our values,” Horwath said Tuesday, citing her party’s labour roots in a wide-ranging, one-hour session with the Star’s editorial board streamed live on the internet, including questions from readers.She also addressed a $1.4 billion “error” in the NDP’s platform, concerns about the party’s ability to govern, her plan to buy back Hydro One, standardized testing in schools and lessons learned from Ontario’s only New Democrat government under Bob Rae, soundly defeated after one term.“The most important piece is that this isn’t 1990. It’s a completely different environment and this is a completely different election. And I’m certainly not Bob Rae,” Horwath said. “People can read into that what they like.”The NDP leader has been gaining momentum in the June 7 election campaign, outpacing Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals to grab second place behind Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford in a number of polls. A new Ipsos Public Affairs online poll of 1,000 Ontarians conducted for Global News between Friday and Monday shows Horwath at 37 per cent, Ford at 36 with Wynne at 23 per cent. It has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The improved fortunes of the New Democrats have put Horwath, her platform and candidates under increased scrutiny from rival parties. Voters seem to be checking her out as an alternative to Ford, who is offering cuts to gasoline and income taxes and unspecified cuts to government spending of $6 billion.Horwath said back-to-work legislation, particularly with public-sector workers, can be avoided with better funding of the education system, for example.“If we had been better funding these i ...
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