Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath speaks to a packed room of supporters at an NDP rally in Brampton, Monday, May 21, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Galit Rodan

BRAMPTON, ONT.— With less than three weeks to go before the Ontario election, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath is introducing her candidates to party discipline.

After a number of candidate controversies risked pushing Horwath off message over the long weekend, Horwath told reporters Monday that all candidates will have to back her platform during the campaign and in government if that’s where voters send the NDP next.

“Every candidate that’s running as a New Democrat understands very well what our expectation is,” she said.

Since Friday, the checkered histories of some of her candidates were pushed to the limelight — from one pushing a 9/11 conspiracy theory to another who said she doesn’t wear a poppy. Horwath at first brushed the controversies aside, telling reporters the party isn’t the “thought police.” But on Monday the Liberals pointed out a candidate who appears to be out of step with the platform the party is campaigning on.

The now deleted Facebook posts sent out by the Liberals shows Paramjit Gill at a rally against reforms to the sex-ed curriculum. Tagging him as an “anti-sex-education crusader,” the Liberals suggested he should be booted from the party.

In response to the latest attacks from the Liberals, Horwath said her candidates would fall in line.

“We’ve actually put together a pretty specific platform,” she told reporters after a rally in Brampton.

“We expect our candidates during the campaign to stand behind those offers, if you will, to Ontarians and […] should we be given the honour of governing this province, we would expect our MPPs to continue to support those policy pieces.”

Liberals, Progressive Conservatives focus in on NDP

The attacks from the Liberals and Progressive Conservatives ramped up over the long weekend and are scheduled to continue on Tuesday.

For the second day in a row the Liberals are holding a press conference with the sole hope of skewering the NDP. On Monday it was about the $1.4 billion mistake in the NDP platform that still leaves their deficit below the Liberals own projections.

Today the Liberals’ press conference is about the NDP stance on the Pickering Generating Station.

Premier Kathleen Wynne isn’t scheduled to attend the press conference and will instead show up for a mental health announcement in the new downtown Toronto riding of University—Rosedale. She is also dropping in on Scarborough Southwest — a Liberal stronghold since 2003.

Often a sign that a party is going negative, the Progressive Conservatives are also hosting a press conference in downtown Toronto without their leader on hand. Ford will instead spend the day in the new riding of Pickering—Uxbridge, with an announcement and then a rally.

Horwath will spend her morning in the Liberal-held riding of Etobicoke—Lakeshore before hitting up University—Rosedale for a youth roundtable.

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