It’s the final week of campaigning in Ontario’s snap election, Ontarians will go to the polls this Thursday, February 26th. Conservative leader and Premier Doug Ford has a commanding lead in the polls, focusing his campaign on fighting the tariffs threatened by President Donald Trump.
However, other party leaders are trying to re-focus voters' sights on other issues.
Doug Ford opened his re-election campaign with this message, and it continues to be the highlight, one he and his campaign managers believe will bring victory and another majority Conservative government to Ontario.
“I’m asking the people for a strong, stable four-year mandate. President Trump is threatening steep and sweeping tariffs that will devastate Canada’s economy,” Ford said.
Ford and his Conservatives hold a comfortable 12 to 15-point lead over the second-place-running Liberals as the campaign enters its final week. This week, just days before the election, he released his platform promises, 40 billion dollars in pledges including a plan to get rid of the minimum retail price for liquor, and build, as yet cost unknown, a tunnel under a major section of the 401 highway to ease traffic congestion.
Ford has become the self-styled Captain Canada in his defense of the country in the face of the tariffs and the absence of a new prime minister in Ottawa.
“President Trump was at it again yesterday. His tariffs are coming on time and on schedule. Those were his words. As long as Donald Trump is in the White House, Ontario will stare down the threat of economic risk and uncertainty. President Trump will use the threat of tariffs to get what he wants. We need to be ready for anything. We’re going to be ready for everything. With your support with a mandate from the people, I’ll do whatever it takes to protect Ontario, to protect Ottawa,” Ford said.
Opposition leaders had argued that this election was an unnecessary expense to the people of Ontario. They say Ford already had a majority mandate a year and a half before he had to call an election.
Bonnie Crombie is the leader of Ontario’s Liberal Party. She believes that Ford has no place in calling the snap election.
“There’s not another premier across this country that would choose this moment to call a self-serving election,” Crombie said.
She says Ford wants this election to be about tariffs. But she’s fighting him on his record, especially on health care.
“Looking at the state of Doug Ford’s Ontario today, people lined up in a snowstorm to register for a family doctor. So, the reality is there are two and a half million people who don’t have a family doctor. 11 thousand died while waiting for care, treatment, or surgery. 2 thousand were being treated in a doorway, hallway auditorium, or on a chair. That’s Doug Ford’s Ontario,” Crombie said.
Crombie's message appears to be siphoning off votes from the left-leaning New Democratic Party, led by Marit Stiles, however, Stiles is fighting back.
“I am running to be the next premier of Ontario and to deliver a government that’s going to be on the side of Ontarians, of the people of this province after seven very difficult years under Doug Ford. We hold ridings in every corner of this province,” Stiles said.
Stiles too has focused much of her campaign on what she says is the poor state of health care in Ontario. She’s also targeted affordability issues, such as housing.
Mike Schreiner of the Green Party has also focused on Ontario’s housing crisis.
The latest polls show Ford’s conservatives ahead with about 44 percent of decided voters, followed by the Liberals at about 29 percent, the New Democrats at just under 20 percent, and the Greens at just under 5 percent. Voters go to the polls on Thursday.
