Del Duca faces test of grit against Tory
Liberal leader takes on PC candidate who won Vaughan-Woodbridge when riding formed in 2018
Steven Del Duca has his work cut out for him in Vaughan-Woodbridge.
A win for the Ontario Liberal leader, who is running in the riding again after he was defeated by the Progressive Conservative candidate in 2018, would solidify his leadership. It would also move the Liberals one step closer to regaining official party status after being reduced to seven seats in the last election.
But if he doesn’t win, “it’s going to get complicated,” said polling analyst Éric Grenier. A loss means tough questions about what is next for the party and its leader.
Win or lose, Del Duca has just under three weeks to make himself known to half of Ontario voters, who still don’t know who he is or what he stands for.
All of this makes Vaughan-Woodbridge a riding to watch. Del Duca is running against incumbent Progressive Conservative candidate Michael Tibollo, the twice-demoted minister who took the seat from him in 2018 in a PC sweep of the province.
Del Duca became party leader in 2020, but without a seat, he had no voice in the legislature.
“It was just a wave of negativity against Kathleen Wynne. People had enough. People were looking for change,” said Joseph Angolano, senior associate with EKOS Research Associates Inc., referring to the last provincial election.
Tibollo won with just over 50 per cent of the vote (21,687 votes), while Del Duca had 13,742 votes, or 31.9 per cent.
“In 2018, the Liberal vote was tanking,” Grenier said. It’s not that Del Duca’s track record was necessarily responsible for that loss, he said — more likely it can be attributed to most of the 905 region flipping from Liberals to the Progressive Conservatives.
“If the PCs win again, this is the kind of area that you’d expect them to hold their seats. And if the Liberals have a big surge in that kind of area, then you’d expect them to make their gains.
“It is the kind of riding that could be decided by a few points here or there. So it’s definitely, definitely one to keep an eye on, even if Del Duca wasn’t the candidate.”
The Vaughan-Woodbridge riding, created in 2015, is largely singledetached homes with an average family size of 3.2 people, according to census data, and has the highest percentage of Italian-Canadians in Canada, at more than half of the riding’s population.
Residents interviewed by the Star said they want a leader who prioritizes businesses and the economy. Woodbridge resident Nick Lima said he almost exclusively votes for the Conservatives for this reason.
“The Conservatives give a lot more incentives to small businesses,” he said.
Also top of mind for voters is affordability amid rising costs, said Angolano, noting home ownership rates in Woodbridge are high compared to other neighbourhoods in the Greater Toronto Area.
Public strategy and communications firm Navigator Ltd. found seven in 10 Ontarians identified the cost of living as the top election issue. It may be a top issue for Vaughan-Woodbridge residents as well, who have historically pushed for lower taxes. A 2021 report from LowestRate.ca found residents pay the lowest municipal property tax in the province.
“Interest rates are going up and mortgage rates are going up,” Angolano said, noting this may be an underlying issue that causes voters to sway one way or the other.
Mike Cavaliere, who has lived in Woodbridge for 15 years, said he doesn’t have any political affiliation, but he’s leaning toward a vote for Tibollo.
“I don’t like Del Duca because of his affiliation with Kathleen Wynne,” he said. “I am pro-business … I would like to see someone who’s more business friendly.”
Even though he plans to vote for the PCs, Cavaliere said he’s not keen on Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford’s plan to build Highway 413, as he wondered about its usefulness.
“I was just on Highway 7. I don’t know if these dedicated bus lanes are effective,” he added. “The buses are running vacant, there’s a lot of wasted money and the taxpayer carries the burden.”
Del Duca opposes building Highway 413, as do a majority of Ontarians, Angolano said, citing an EKOS poll that found the highway was only supported by 23.3 per cent of respondents.
Anna Vella, a resident of Woodbridge for 45 years, said she likes both Del Duca and Tibollo, but usually favour the Liberals’ policies.
“Some ways, Doug Ford handled COVID-19 well, some we doubt,” she said. “He flip-flopped … At first he was all for the Greenbelt, then he went with his buddies to let the builders get in on things (referring to Highway 413).”
Naweed Temori, who recently settled in Woodbridge from Afghanistan, said he likes the current administration because it seems to be handling the economy well and did so capably during the pandemic.
“The economy is important … if the economy is good, everyone can survive,” he said.
Despite this, he said he expects to vote for Del Duca, in part because of his recent promise to refund families for child care and also because he feels the party could support those coming to the country.
“The Liberals help refugees,” he said.
Del Duca’s Liberals are running on a platform that pledges improvements to education, health care and public services. Some of their top-line promises include removing more harmonized sales taxes, clearing surgery backlogs and repairing schools.
Meanwhile, Tibollo’s platform includes increasing manufacturing and skilled trades jobs, building highways and infrastructure, and lowering gas taxes and removing tolls.
Tibollo, who did not respond to interview requests, has been demoted from cabinet positions twice since 2018. Just four months into his senior cabinet position as minister of community safety and correctional services, he was demoted to the junior role of tourism, culture and sport. This came after the Globe and Mail reported Tibollo’s law firm was a defendant in five lawsuits in the preceding four years. He was demoted a second time in June 2019, to associate minister of mental health and addictions.
For the past decade, Tibollo has been “working and advocating” for Caritas, a residential community focused on addictions and mental health, according to his website. The site also says he was “instrumental” to the creation of Italian Heritage Month.
Meanwhile, under the Wynne government as transportation minister, Del Duca ran into controversy over his push to locate a new GO train station in what was his riding. Del Duca defended it as a legitimate political call for a minister to make.
Del Duca represented the former Vaughan riding, winning the 2012 and 2014 elections. Redistribution created the Vaughan-Woodbridge riding in 2018.
“I have always fought for the people of my home community of Vaughan-Woodbridge,” Del Duca said in a statement to the Star.
“As MPP for six years, I was proud to deliver the funding for the Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital, the Highway 427 expansion, Hospice Vaughan, and six new schools. After four years of Ford Conservative inaction, I look forward to building on the progress I’ve already delivered for my community.”
Also running is NDP candidate Will McCarty. McCarty said as a new father, he is focused on what kind of future he is leaving behind, and is proud to be running as a candidate that has “democratic solutions for real people.”
“(Doug Ford) bullies mayors and municipal councils,” using minister’s zoning orders to speed up development plans like the Bradford Bypass and Highway 413, McCarty said.
“We will restore integrity to the land process by ending the abuse,” he said.
The Ontario Green Party platform is focused on three pillars: housing, climate change and improving the health-care system. They’ve promised to double welfare and disability benefits if elected on June 2. In Vaughan-Woodbridge, Philip Piluris is running as the Green candidate. He did not respond to a request for comment.
As of Friday, the PCs led in polling by 11 points over the Liberals, according to the Signal, an election forecast tool developed by Vox Pop Labs.