Ontario’s party leaders set to square off

TORONTO • The leaders of Ontario’s three main political parties will square off on the same stage for the first time Monday, just days before the official start of the province’s spring election campaign.

Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne, Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford and New Democratic Party Leader Andrea Horwath will all participate in the live debate in Toronto, which will be broadcast on City-TV.

It’s the first of three debates scheduled before the June 7 vote and observers say it will give voters a clear view of how the parties and their leaders intend to campaign once the writ drops two days later.

“The (party) strategists have had several months to think about how to package their appeals, which voters they want to collect to their side and how to try to depict the opposition’s limitations against their own virtues,” said Cristine de Clercy, an associate political science professor at Western University. “We’ll see a small template of their messaging.”

Many will be watching Ford closely as the newly minted Tory leader debates two seasoned provincial politicians, de Clercy said.

“It’s worth remembering he just got this job,” she said. “For him it’s a test of leadership: does he have the gravitas, control and focus to show what he’ll do as premier?”

Issues like Ford’s recent flip-flop on whether to allow development in a large protected green space around the Toronto region — first pledging he would, then reversing course — will take on added importance, she said.

“If Mr. Ford continues to take positions that he has to very hastily back away from ... he will not look credible or trustworthy on policy. That, for him, is a big liability.”

On Saturday, the Tory leader removed Tanya Granic Allen, an opponent of the province’s sex-ed curriculum, from the PC ballot in Mississauga Centre. Granic Allen’s dismissal came hours after the Liberals shared an edited video in which she expresses views the governing party described as representing “hatred and homophobia.”

Horwath, meanwhile, has to make an impact with voters, parlaying her high personal approval ratings into support for the NDP brand, which lags in the polls, de Clercy said.

For Wynne, the focus will likely be Ford, said Nelson Wiseman, a political-science professor at the University of Toronto. “Wynne is going to be tearing strips off Ford,” he said, adding the Liberal leader would likely try to associate Ford with his late brother Rob Ford, the infamous former mayor of Toronto, as well as U.S. President Donald Trump. “He’s got to try not to appear wild, like his brother,” he said.