Horwath Tells Ont. NDP To Stop Relying on Jack Layton

Puts Ontario NDP in tricky position of having to "talk" about "issues."

Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath is telling her party's candidates to stop bringing up Jack Layton every chance they get and instead talk about, y'know, policies and stuff. While Layton's untimely passing was no doubt a boon for a party perennially stuck in third place in the polls, Horwath says there's more to the NDP than its association with the federal party. Some of the party's candidates have been openly invoking Layton's name in automated phone messages, leading Horwath to tell her caucus to stop relying on sympathy for support at the ballot box. Granted, the NDP hasn't even released their official campaign platform yet, so Horwath's not exactly making it easy for her candidates to pursue other lines of conversation, but bringing up Layton's name at every turn only makes that lack of policy all the more noticeable.