Ontario Liberal leadership contender Sandra Pupatello played “the Toronto Card” Thursday as she addressed the Canadian Club. All the other candidates are too Toronto in their thinking and general interests to lead the party back to power, she said. That group would include Kathleen Wynne (Don Valley West) Glen Murray (Toronto Centre Rosedale) Eric Hoskins (St. Paul’s) Gerard Kennedy (not a member of the Legislature) and even Mississauga MPPs Harinder Takhar and Charles Sousa. “If you live in Toronto you probably don’t realize that there are 217 locations in rural Ontario that have mini-liquor stores inside the grocery store,” said Pupatello, referring to LCBO agency outlets. “There’s a big old province out there,” Pupatello said. The Liberals were almost wiped out in rural Ontario in the Oct. 6, 2011 election that cost McGuinty his two-term majority, resulting in an unwieldy minority government. Pupatello, a former MPP and cabinet member, currently lives in Windsor.
