Ontario campaign underway with election one month away
TORONTO Ontario’s election campaign is set to officially start Wednesday, after the lieutenantgovernor accepted Premier Doug Ford’s advice to dissolve provincial parliament.
Lt.-gov. Elizabeth Dowdeswell formally named June 2 as the election date.
On his way in to meet with Dowdeswell on Tuesday afternoon, Ford said people will have “a very clear choice” on June 2.
“This election is about one simple thing,” he said. “Either the people of this province are going to choose to go backwards ... or they’re going to choose prosperity, getting things built, bridges, roads and highways like we’re doing.”
Polls at this point suggest Ford’s Progressive Conservatives are poised for re-election, with the third-place Liberals potentially overtaking the NDP to form the official Opposition.
But NDP Leader Andrea Horwath maintained Tuesday that her party is the best bet for what she calls “job number one” — defeating Ford’s Progressive Conservatives.
At an event in Toronto, Horwath noted that her party formed the official Opposition in the legislature in 2018, while the Liberals are entering the race this time with just seven incumbent seats.
She also highlighted her party’s platform promises on covering mental health services under OHIP, hiring more health-care workers and providing more affordable housing as priorities for the upcoming campaign.
Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca said Ford and Horwath “seem to be on the same page,” with both attacking him, including each party running anti-del Duca ads last year.
“I get that they’re going to continue to focus on me ... I’m going to focus on the 15 million people who call this province home, and what they need and what they’re looking for and what they’re hoping for, as we come out of this pandemic for a quality of life that I think that they deserve,” Del Duca said.