OTTAWA — Just minutes before Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie’s 10 a.m. launch of her party’s election campaign in Barrie, that city’s mayor expressed support Wednesday for Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives.
In the Ontario election’s first play of political brinkmanship, the Ontario PC Party sent an email to the Queen’s Park Press Gallery at 9:57 a.m., announcing Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall’s endorsement of the incumbent premier.
“Along with MPPs Khanjin and Downey, he has delivered funding for rehabilitative services to combat addictions, housing dollars that have helped Barrie move forward with hundreds of affordable housing units, infrastructure that will bring hundreds of acres of land online for job creation, and consistent support for frontline policing in Barrie,” Nuttall said of Ford in the email.
“Now is not the time for change, it’s time to implement the bold agenda that has begun and protect the jobs of Ontarians.”
The move, clearly meant to throw a curveball at Team Bonnie, was the first in what’s proving to be a contentious election, which saw all four party leaders launch their campaigns on Wednesday.
“We’re here today because Doug Ford doesn’t care about you,” Crombie said outside of a medical clinic in Barrie, joined by Dr. Rose Zacharias., the Liberal candidate for the riding of Barrie–Springwater–Oro-Medonte.
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“He’s decided to spend $175 million on an early election that we don’t need.”
Crombie and Zaharias were both decked out in MAGA-esque ballcaps with “Real Leaders Fix Healthcare” embroidered on them — clearly a callback to Ontario PC Leader Doug Ford’s “Canada is not for sale” ballcap worn during the First Minister’s meeting in Ottawa earlier this month.
Ontario voters go to the polls on Feb. 27.
Ford launched his campaign in the shadow of the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor — a city on the front lines of President Donald Trump’s impending trade war with Canada.
“In these uncertain times, I’m asking the people of Ontario for their trust,” he said during the press conference.
“I’m asking people for a strong, stable, four-year mandate to do whatever it takes to protect Ontario.”
Ford also garnered an endorsement from Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens, who was kept from Wednesday’s event due to a family emergency.
Speaking to reporters from a community centre in Regent Park, NDP Leader Marit Styles likewise levelled her guns at the early election call.
“Doug Ford called a snap election nearly two years early. He says it’s because he wants us to hire him to be our negotiator with Trump,” she said, joined on the hustings by a large group of community members and NDP MPPs.
“Time and time again, Doug Ford has shown he can’t negotiate his way out of a paper bag.”
Separating himself from his fellow leaders, Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner launched his campaign in the Queen’s Park press studio.
“Clearly Doug Ford cares more about protecting his own job than he does about your job, or making your life more affordable or better,” he said, while promising to fight to build affordable homes, fix health care and the province’s education system, and to “create a fair Ontario by putting people before profits.”
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