Ford’s Conservatives win majority
‘Buck-a-beer’ populist promised cheaper gas and lower electricity rates
Doug Ford is projected to become the new premier of Ontario, with election results on Thursday showing a Progressive Conservative majority. Within 45 minutes of polls closing, the PCs had won or were leading in at least 70 ridings — a gobsmacking showing in an election once considered to be a tight race.
The NDP, which emerged midway through the campaign as the best hope for voters opposed to a Ford-led PC government, were firmly in second place — relegating Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals to third after 15 years as Ontario’s governing party.
At the PC election party at the Toronto Congress Centre, where Ford’s “For the People” campaign bus was parked inside the cavernous ballroom, supporters roared as early election results came through on TV. A huge cheer went up in the room every time broadcast showed projections that a Liberal cabinet minister would fall in their riding: Finance Minister Charles Sousa, Economic Development Minister Steven Del Duca, Treasury Board President Eleanor McMahon. But scattered boos broke out when the TV switched to victorious Green Party leader Mike Schreiner giving a speech on the need to fight climate change.
With Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne’s extraordinary admission that she won’t retain the premiership, the race became a choice between Doug Ford, the Progressive Conservatives’ surging populist firebrand, and Andrea Horwath’s NDP, who emerged midway through the campaign as the left’s best hope. Opinion polls showed the two parties locked in a tight race. And in the last gasps of the campaign, the Ford camp was beset by family drama when a lawsuit emerged with Rob Ford’s widow alleging Doug Ford mishandled his brother’s estate and destroyed the value of the family business.
But the allegations didn’t derail Ford’s prospects as much as expected. As Tory leader, Ford rolled out several popular promises, from cutting gas prices by 10 cents a litre to introducing buck-abeer, to cutting hydro bills. But he was accused of failing to be transparent by dodging calls to release a fully costed platform. With about one week left in the campaign, the party published a list of promises and their price tags, but didn’t indicate how they would pay for them, what size of deficits they would run or for exactly how long.
Horwath made a pitch to undecided voters Wednesday, framing the ballot as a “stark” choice between her positive plan to help families create better lives and the cost-cutting proposals of Ford.
The fast pace of the results was somewhat surprising, considering the peculiar series of events that had upended several polling stations throughout voting day Thursday.
Two separate police investigations thrust four schools into lockdown forcing Elections Ontario to extend voting hours at polling stations across several electoral districts — perhaps a fitting end to a rollicking campaign that saw a front-runner beset by family squabbles and the incumbent premier concede defeat in the week preceding voting day.
Elections Canada was adamant the delays had nothing to do with its new vote tabulating systems rolled out for the election.