Nycole Turmel, left, and her Ontairo counterpart Andrea Horwath in Toronto during the Labour Day March for Jack on Sept. 5, 2011.Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press
Since before Ontario's election campaign began, Andrea Horwath has engaged in a delicate balance of using the goodwill surrounding Jack Layton's death to fuel her party's momentum, and seeking to get out from under the late federal leader's shadow.
But on Tuesday she told her local candidates they should stick to their script: Campaign on policy, she said, not on Mr. Layton's memory.
"I'll reminisce, like anybody else who wants to. It's still fresh for folks and they want to get it off their minds," she said. "But we're running a provincial election campaign and when we're in that role, doing that job, the focus should be on that campaign, what we're offering to the people of Ontario. … I think that's where the line is."
Mr. Layton's wife and son, however, both of them active politicians, say they've seen nothing in the plethora of memorials – many of them politically affiliated – that bothers them. "It depends how it's done," said Olivia Chow, MP for Trinity-Spadina, who's in Quebec for the federal NDP's caucus. "That's the last thing on my mind."
Ms. Horwath's remarks were a response to robo-calls run on behalf of NDP candidates in two Toronto ridings. Spokespeople for the Horwath camp said they'd received no complaints about the calls, each of which ran briefly earlier this month. But the comments from the top illustrate the campaign's careful dance as it tries to build on better momentum than Ontario's NDP has seen in years while differentiating its leader as more than Layton Lite.
On the first day of campaigning, Ms. Horwath agreed it's strange to be riding an orange wave not of her own making. At the time she said she's happy to talk about Mr. Layton, but "I'm not going to bring it up."
She has, though, in spite of those intentions. Mr. Layton is impossible for her to escape entirely: People lining up to get their photos taken with her at a Brampton mosque thought she was his replacement; in the basement of a Sturgeon Falls community centre, a portrait of Mr. Layton sat beside a handwritten French translation of his last letter. Ms. Horwath has cited that letter herself in speeches.
The campaign got word late Monday that two candidates had been running near-identical robo-calls in the two Toronto ridings: In Scarborough Southwest, NDP MP Dan Harris spoke on behalf of candidate Bruce Budd; in Beaches-East York, Michael Prue phoned, asking for support.
"This has been a difficult time for New Democrats everywhere, with the incredible loss of our leader, Jack Layton," Mr. Harris's call said. "It's up to us now. In just a few short weeks, we have an opportunity to meet Jack's challenge. … In the upcoming provincial election, will you join me by voting for Bruce Budd and the Ontario NDP? Please press 1 for yes; 2 for no; or 3 for unsure."
Mr. Prue's call was almost identical. They both asked whether residents would like to receive lawn signs.
The Horwath campaign got the text of the calls by late Tuesday morning. By the time her people phoned those campaigns, neither candidate was running the calls any more. But Ms. Horwath wanted to spell out her position.
"I made it very clear to my team their messaging should be about this campaign, about what we're offering, about a positive choice for change that puts people first in this election. And to stay on that track," she said in Windsor.
"As I've done, respond to people who are talking about Jack, who still want to have that conversation. But don't do things the way that we've heard that they were done in those telephone calls … I don't think that's the right way to do things, frankly. And when I found out it was being done that way, I made it very clear I don't want it to be done that way any more."
Neither Mike Layton nor Ms. Chow have heard the calls.
Mike Layton argued that as a consummate politician, his father would probably be happy to be on the hustings in some form. And the left-leaning Toronto city councillor notes he's invoking his dad himself, attempting to stave off a threatened round of cuts.
"I mentioned him today in a speech at the Board of Trade, saying the programs that he helped champion, that he helped build for our city are now under threat," he said. "He would want us to fight – to keep pushing in that direction."
Ms. Chow was hesitant to speculate on what she would or wouldn't consider appropriate, in terms of ways to memorialize her husband while furthering his political message.
"It depends on the motive. I can't speculate," she said. "So far I haven't found anything offensive yet. But I haven't gone out looking."