NDP has ‘no interest’ in coalition with Liberals
Horwath also promises new hospital and a boost to health care in Brampton
Andrea Horwath has “unequivocally” ruled r out any possibility of a coalition wwith the Liberals to keep the Progressive Conservatives out of power.
Asked Monday about a social media post by PC Leader Doug Ford that alleged a backroom deal, the NDP leader said no way.
“It seems to me that it’s Mr. Ford who likes the backroom deals, with developers and paving over the greenbelt,” she said of a video that recently surfaced showing the PC leader promising to open up the protected lands, something he later backtracked on.
However, she added, “in no uncertain terms, I want to make it clear I have no interest in a coalition government with tthe Liberals. People have told me that tthey are very, very tired of a government that t doesn’t do what it says it’s going to do, and they don’t have any confidence tthat (the Liberals) are going to be able to fix f what they’ve already broken.
“I am unequivocally saying I have no interest in partnering up with that party ... New Democrats are in it to win it.” The PCs are in first place with Ontario
voters, according to the polls, with the New Democrats in second and the Liberals in third place.
“People want real change ... they want comprehensive change,” Ford said in Niagara Falls.
“They don’t want the NDP making a backroom deal to prop up the Liberals. I’m the only one that’s going to lower taxes.” Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne, speaking to reporters at a union training
facility in Downsview, said it is too early to speculate.
“We’re only in the sixth day” of a lengthy campaign, she said Monday. “I’ve never talked about who we’re going to work with or not work with.”
“There’s a strong consensus emerging tthat Doug Ford does not have the path f forward for the people of the province — tthat his agenda of cutting across educa- tion, across health care, across services, is not where we should be going.”
Horwath made a campaign stop in Brampton Monday morning where she promised a new hospital for the city, and to fast-track an expansion of Peel Memorial hospital.
Saying health care has not kept up with the booming population, Horwath called Brampton “ground zero for the kinds of cuts people have had to face, a and the impacts that those cuts have had on hospital care” in Greater Toronto.
She said that last year alone at Brampton Civic hospital, some 4,352 patients were treated in the hallway because of a lack of beds.
Right now, Peel Memorial offers mostly out-patient services, but should be operating around the clock, Horwath added.
She said, in the coming years, the area needs about 800 additional hospital beds, and an NDP government would work with the city to get the third facility built.
The NDP platform pledged $19 billion in capital funding over 10 years for health care across the province, as well as an immediate injection of $1.2 billion to ease wait times and overcrowding and add 2,000 new beds right away.
The Liberals said in a statement that the NDP put together the hospital announcement “hastily,” noting it’s not in ttheir platform. They said under Liberal leadership, Ontario opened 37 new beds aat Brampton Civic, and spent $a524 mil- lion for Peel Memorial. With files from Rob Ferguson