Another important reminder too. Only 58% of Ontarian’s voted in the 2018 Ontario election. Thats why Ford won. Don’t be complacent this time. Get out a vote for change no matter what the polls say. Polls don’t count. Its seats that matter. Vote strategically in your riding.
— Vicki Campbell🇨🇦 (@merry123459) May 22, 2022
There is a correlation often with a low turnout and which party wins when fewer people come out to vote. The consensus is that Doug Ford will easily win a second term as premier of Ontario. That 58%, a number Americans would crave in most elections, is a low number in Ontario. The predictions is that the turnout percentage will be lower in 2022.
Plenty on the line. Climate change. Long-term care homes. Pandemic policies and how quickly they were implemented. Transportation infrastructure (this should count intercity buses but hasn't).
Ontario, along with California and Quebec, had a cap-and-trade system to deal with climate change. The Liberals in Ontario made that happen. Doug Ford came in and destroyed that. The carbon tax had to be implemented. The Progressive Conservatives rail against the carbon tax.
Understand that the Ontario system was so good, the carbon tax didn't need to be implemented in Ontario before the PCs took over.
The Ford Government cut back on inspections in long-term care homes before the pandemic. Ontario had a significant percentage of long-term care homes that are privately run. The quality of care, especially during the pandemic, suffered worse in privately run homes than government run homes.
The pattern was consistent. People begging Doug Ford to do something in the pandemic. Lots of waiting. Waiting. Then something would get done. This is the government that wanted police to go after people for using playgrounds. Playgrounds.
Yes, the PCs want to build some public transportation. The emphasis has been on Highway 413, something about building it into the ring of fire. Don't know what that means.
Don't know if Queen's Park has any input for the horrible nature of train travel in Ottawa, which is a part of Ontario. If not, they should step up.
Greyhound bailed out of Canada while Ford was premier (not his fault). Has intercity bus travel even come up? A lot of people in northern Ontario, who pay taxes into Queen's Park, rely on bus transportation for doctor visits and maternity care.
All 4 major parties have promised to bring back the Northlander train, discontinued a decade ago. As you will note in the CBC News segment (above), local residents have doubt those promises will be kept.
"That means Ford's record of pandemic mismanagement, long-term care crisis, canceling a minimum-wage increase, delaying the implementation of pay transparency legislation, leaving disability benefit rates at rock-bottom levels, botching a redesign of the province's license plates, and failing to procure provincially-mandated anti-carbon tax gas pump stickers that actually stick to things (incidentally, they were also illegal) might not be enough to usher in a change in government."
This was from The Washington Post op-ed from David Moscrop very early in the campaign.
There is a polarization is referring to an op-ed published outside the jurisdiction. The op-ed is one of the few pieces I've seen in the campaign that comes close to illustrating what has happened in the last 4 years.
Contrast that with the Martin Regg Cohn puff piece The Evolution of Doug Ford on the front page of the Toronto Star, a newspaper considered somewhat liberal under previous management.
The way Doug Ford has treated the press (little to no access) has emboldened the press to not be as harsh as they could be, given his actual track record.
As we've noted in numerous political stories, voting against someone isn't good enough. You have to have a reason to vote for someone. We haven't mentioned NDP leader Andrea Horvath, Liberal leader Steven Del Duca, and Green Party leader Mike Schreiner.
Horvath has several elections under her belt and 4 years as opposition leader. This is Del Duca's first election and he doesn't even have a seat in Queen's Park. There is even concern Del Duca may not win his riding. Schreiner has run on ideas even before the writ was dropped.
Del Duca seems to be concentrating more on getting back seats from the NDP while Horvath has talked about winning 10 more ridings to get a minority government.
The most intriguing idea has been Del Duca's $1 transit rides for a limited time. The proposal sounds great to a public transportation nerd, such as your humble narrator. The GO train is so expensive that a $1 ride sounds wonderful. The problem with the plan is that outside Toronto, there aren't many Ontario cities with an expressive train service. Ottawa's light-rail is new with all sort of issues. Windsor and London, among others, have bus services. Money saved and getting cars off the road are wonderful goals.
The drawback is that in most of the ridings where Ford is dominant, they want more highways built, regardless if they are paving over wetlands.
The other parties have struggled to gain momentum based on Ford's pandemic track record. No one knew in 2018 that the winner might have to deal with a pandemic. We do know in 2022 that any government might have a similar crisis.
None of this is about who to vote for. Ontario voters could vote for enough of MPPs in the other parties to have a minority government.
Why is an Ontario election ad playing during a Calgary-Edmonton game?
— Kyle Moore (@K98Moore) May 19, 2022
The Ford Government changed the rules on outside spending on political ads. They even used the highly controversial notwithstanding clause of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to overrule a court ruling on the matter.
The PCs have definitely had the advantage among parties in terms of running ads. So even Albertans watching hockey got to see PC ads.
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A friend in Ontario told me about the "decline to vote" option. You can show up at the polling place, get handed a ballot, and turn it right back to the poll worker.
This is sort of a protest vote built into the system. Reportedly, 22,684 voters did so in 2018. My friend likes the idea but isn't sure he will do so in 2022.
Your humble narrator might get that if you live in a predominant riding where a party you don't like will win. Still, if you are frustrated with the system, try a 70% turnout. That could shake things up in Queen's Park.
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Early voting is up compared with 2018. The province has 10 days of early voting vs. 5 in 2018. Elections Ontario said Monday that 1,066,545 voted in advance polls, about 9.92% of the eligible electorate.
In 2018, 698,609 people did advance voting, about 6.8% of eligible voters.
Advance voting continues today and tomorrow in Ontario. As for Election Day on June 2, Elections Ontario will help you figure out where to vote.
This is crucial since there will be 751 fewer voting setups. For those who remember the nightmare of the lines for the federal election in 2019 in Spadina and Fort York, there is a great potential for similar problems on Thursday night.
Polls are open 9 am to 9 pm Eastern. There is a section of Ontario, west of 90° longitude that is in the Central time zone; the polls are open 8 am to 8 pm (Central). Thunder Bay is in the Eastern time zone.
CBC stations in Ontario (Toronto, Ottawa, Windsor) will carry Ontario election coverage instead of Game 2 of the Edmonton Oilers Stanley Cup playoffs series. You can stream the game on cbcsports.ca or watch a CBC station outside Ontario.
We will have extensive coverage on Friday morning.
Twitter captures: @merry123459; @K98Moore
photo and video credit: CBC News
