NDP target of attacks

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 during a campaign stop in Toronto.

“I absolutely get that...It’s a really, really important election for this province because it is an election about what our province is going to look like going forward.”

Two recent polls suggest that the NDP now has the most support in the election, along 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 (Progressive Conservative Leader) 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.”