The Tory campaign unveiled SmartTrack — a regional, two-way, electrified rail line — on May 27, in the middle of the provincial election. The plan originated in provincial Liberal circles. Both Tom Allison and John Duffy, the campaign’s policy chair, had seen a version of it more than 10 years earlier in then minister Glen Murray’s office. It was, on one level, a significant gamble. Kathleen Wynne was campaigning at the time on a pledge to electrify some Go Train lines. But Tim Hudak and the Progressive Conservatives had made no such promise. If Hudak had won, the Tory camp knew they might be in trouble.
It was also clear quite early that there significant technical issues with SmartTrack. David Soknacki’s campaign identified 14 of them right off the bat. But the Chow campaign made a crucial strategic error in their response to the plan, despite having a leaked copy before it was unveiled. Instead of going after SmartTrack on its merits right away, they tried to peg Mr. Tory as a flip-flopper for abandoning an earlier pledge to build a Yonge Street relief line. The charge never stuck. And by the time Ms. Chow turned her focus to SmartTrack’s technical end, months later, it was too late. It had become a brand.
