The Ontario election campaign isn’t expected to begin until May 4 but it felt like the race was underway today, as Andrea Horwath and the NDP unveiled a 92-page platform promising new investments in healthcare and a freeze on the income tax for low and middle-income residents.
The other parties didn’t have anything that glossy to push but they did have events on Monday morning looking to get your attention ahead of the vote on June 2.
The NDP platform covers everything from building more affordable housing – they want to build 100,000 new social housing units each year and 60,000 new supportive housing units - to better healthcare. There are also a myriad of promises aimed at addressing the rising cost of livings expenses for Ontarians, including a plan to raise the minimum wage to $20 an hour by 2026 and freeze income taxes for low and middle-income earners. The party says that the salary cutoff for the income tax freeze would likely be set at around $200,000 a year for individuals or $250,000 for households.
This will actually be the first of two platform announcements from the NDP. I say the first because Horwath stood in front of cheering supporters in Toronto and made her party’s 2022 promises all without providing any costs. She told reporters the numbers will come later.
That’s because the big political event of the week will be the tabling of Ontario’s budget on Thursday afternoon. The NDP say the financial details of its plan has to wait for that. So sometime during the campaign there will be another “platform release” when today’s promises are reconciled with the cash on hand in the Ontario Treasury.
It is worth contrasting today’s priorities with some of those made during the last campaign in 2018. Four years ago the NDP promised “Change for the Better.” Back then the number one commitment was “drug and dental coverage for all Ontarians” and housing affordability didn’t register in the top five NDP commitments.
Today the NDP slogan is “Strong. Ready. Working for You.” Housing is now the NDP’s top issue with the early pages of the platform promising to make “life affordable.” There are also many promises recycled from 2018, including dental and drug coverage.
“Folks aren’t asking for the moon and the stars, they just want somebody who really gets what they are going through and they haven’t had that in a while,” Horwath said during the platform launch in Toronto.
Ford hosts ‘Fireside Chat’ in Burlington
The Progressive Conservative campaign Monday featured Premier Doug Ford doing a “fireside chat” in Burlington at the Halton Region Chamber of Commerce. The Progressive Conservative leader focussed on his government’s accomplishments over the past four years, including spending commitments on healthcare, housing and job creation.
Ford laughed about the cost of a “shack by the lake” in cottage country costing $1.5 million dollars. But then committed to cutting red tape to get more housing built faster. Ford conceded that there is a housing crisis in the province and said he now wants 200,000 new units built. However, Ford made no mention about how many “affordable” units would be built under his plan.
At the same time as Ford’s event in Burlington, on the other side of the Greater Toronto Area in Whitby two PC cabinet ministers were making a $1 billion-dollar announcement on home care. Health Minister Christine Elliott and Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalmy said the three year plan will mean seniors in Ontario “can receive the care they need in the comfort of their own homes and alleviate unnecessary pressure on our hospitals helping to keep our province open.”
Steven Del Duca, the Liberal Party leader, also had a home care announcement of his own on Monday. He promised a Liberal government will increase the amount of money that low-income seniors get from the province as a top up to their federal Old Age Security payments. Del Duca said the money will help seniors “stay safe in their homes.” The Liberals put the cost of its plan at $250 million a year.
The NDP strategy to “go early and go first” forced the Liberal Party to acknowledge the NDP platform. Del Duca conceded the yet to be released Liberal platform will have some of the same policies.
“There is a lot here that we could work with, I am confident fair-minded people will find our platform more compelling, more detailed, and more balanced,” he said.
Not to be outdone in the promises made department the Green Party leader, Mike Schreiner was in Ottawa on Monday with a plan to reduce the cost of pubic transit fares. Schreiner repeated his call for the Ontario government to cut public transportation fares in Ontario by 50 per cent for three months.
Ontario’s political parties will keep making big promises but there will be a keen eye on that budget Thursday afternoon.
