Affordability talk starting to dominate campaign with inflation again in the headlines

On a day when the inflation rate in Canada hit 6.8 per cent and the price of gas edged close to $2.10 a litre the affordability issue was a hot topic on the campaign trail.

The Progressive Conservative Party sent its leader, Doug Ford, to Hamilton for an appearance in front of one of the big steel factories. It also just happens to be in the riding of NDP Leader Andrea Horwath. In his remarks Ford didn’t directly address the cost of living concerns facing Ontario. Instead, Ford continued to sell his vision of building infrastructure in Ontario.

The PC’s rewrote an announcement made back in February. It promised that a PC government will support a transition to “clean steel” manufacturing. The February release from the Tories put the total cost of the project at $1.8 billion with $500 million coming from the provincial government. Today there was no timetable from Ford but the Tories say the “goal is to have the projected completed by 2028.”

Ford then fielded reporter questions and took every opportunity to veer off the question and drill home that voters only “care about more jobs, lower taxes, paying their mortgage and putting food on the table.”

“That’s what this election is about,” Ford said.

It was Ford’s only announced campaign event of the day.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath campaigned in eastern Ontario Wednesday, starting the morning in Kingston. The NDP easily won the riding of Kingston and the Islands from the Liberals in 2018. But this riding voted Liberal in all provincial elections from 1995 to 2018. Any resurgence by the Liberals could make it a close race on June 2. The NDP are also fielding a new candidate, Mary Rita Holland, and that might add to the uncertainty of holding the seat.

The NDP started the campaign gunning for PC seats but much of today is being spent in NDP ridings. Tomorrow the NDP will be in Sault Ste. Marie, a PC seat where the NDP came a very close second in 2018.

The NDP photo op had Horwath in front of a pharmacy and she repeated the NDP pharma-care promise to “begin working immediately on universal pharmacare for Ontarians.” There was no timetable from Horwath today; just that vague promise repeated again and again.

The NDP did respond to my request for the timing on pharmacare initiatives, saying that in their first year an NDP government is committed to making preventative medicine free for people at risk of HIV, as well as providing free access to home cancer drugs and birth control. Horwath told reporters the NDP promise is to address affordability concerns and make life less expensive.

The Liberals had Steven Del Duca stay in the Greater Toronto Area for most of the day. He started in Toronto and he too latched onto making life more affordable. For Del Duca the way in was to rework page 11 of the party’s platform into a “new” release. The Liberal platform promises to “ensure that every new parent can take a full 18-month leave.” In addition the Liberals will make “child care discounts retroactive to January 1, 2022 – giving families back an average of $2,750 per child.” Under the child-care agreement reached by the Ford government in March, families will only receive rebates retroactive to April 1.

Del Duca then went on to Burlington to repeat his buck-a-ride promise to reduce transit fares. The Liberals need to win Burlington back from the Tories on June 2. It is an open riding and some have it down as a toss-up, giving the Liberals a chance to win it back. The Liberals are ending the day in London where the Liberals also need to take back seats lost to the NDP and Conservatives in 2018.

The Green Party is laser focused on a handful of seats. Mike Schreiner spent part of the day in Gravenhurst. The riding of Parry Sound-Muskoka just might, maybe, be in play for the Greens. The party has a strong local candidate, Matt Richter, who ran in the riding in 2018. It is one of the ridings where the Liberals do not have a candidate. It should be a safe Progressive Conservative seat but Schreiner and Richter spent another day campaigning to win. Schreiner talked about the party’s plans to help small businesses and enforce rent controls for commercial tenants.

As the campaign enters the last two weeks the parties will turn from policy to strategy. Watching where the leaders are will be a good indication of where the campaign teams think they have a chance to win a riding or where they need to spend time to save one they hold.