‘The NDP is gaining momentum’
Polls suggest tie with PCs for most support
TORONTO • Ontario’s opposition parties seemed to write off the governing Liberals nearly halfway through the province’s election campaign, as new polls suggest the Progressive Conservatives and the New Democrats are tied for the most support.
Premier Kathleen Wynne — whose Liberals have fallen to third place in recent polls — appeared to concede Tuesday that it is not going as well as she might have hoped for her party, which has been in power for 15 years.
“I’m not under any illusion that this is not a challenging election for us,” she said in Toronto.
Two recent polls suggest the NDP now has the most support, roughly tied with the Progressive Conservatives. In the months before the campaign, polls had shown the Tories with a hefty lead, followed by the Liberals and the NDP.
“It’s pretty clear that people have decided Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals are not going to form government next time around,” said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath. “On June 7 there will be a new premier in the premier’s chair. The decision folks have to make at this point is: is that going to be Doug Ford or me?”
Ford similarly framed the choice facing voters.
“People are going to have a very clear, very clear choice,” he said. “When it comes to June 7 they’re either going to vote in a radical NDP … or they can vote for a Doug Ford PC government.”
Their assessment appears accurate, said Geneviève Tellier, a political science professor at the University of Ottawa.
“The NDP is gaining momentum and so they are becoming the main opposition or alternative … to the Conservatives, so basically the fight would be between the two,” she said.
“But if you look at different areas within the province, there’s kind of a different picture emerging,” she said, noting the battle within Toronto appears to be between the Liberals and the NDP.
What matters, however, is winning ridings, and it’s possible the NDP and the Liberals will split the vote, allowing the Tories to snatch certain areas, Tellier said.
“I think most Ontarians want a plan … want something to maybe not hope for but to believe in and we don’t see that with Doug Ford,” Tellier said. “I think the drop that we are seeing is people are not sure anymore if Doug Ford is really … the person that can deliver what they’re looking for.”
As the NDP’s popularity appears to rise, so has the attention from its competitors, who have increasingly focused their attacks on the party in recent days.
The Tories held a separate news conference Tuesday with two candidates to accuse the New Democrats of having several “radical” candidates, including Sept. 11 conspiracy theorists and
(PEOPLE CAN) VOTE IN A RADICAL NDP ... OR THEY CAN VOTE FOR A DOUG FORD PC GOVERNMENT.
a woman who is against wearing a poppy on Remembrance Day.
“Five NDP candidates … have radical and extreme views that do not reflect the people of Ontario,” said longtime Tory legislator Lisa MacLeod.
“I think it’s important that we recognize that Andrea Horwath has, for too long, just shrugged off any transparency and accountability on some of these candidates.”
The Liberals are also continuing to hammer the NDP on their platform funding, after Horwath admitted over the weekend that an error would leave them with a deficit that’s $1.4 billion larger than originally planned.