Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s gamble that voters wouldn’t punish him for holding an unnecessary election paid off on Thursday as they returned him to Queen’s Park with a third consecutive majority government following previous victories in 2018 and 2022.
Ford and his Progressive Conservative party escaped the fate of the last Ontario premier who called an early election — Liberal premier David Peterson in 1990.
Peterson was punished by voters for political opportunism, lost his majority government and his own seat, resigned on election night and was replaced by a majority government led by then-NDP leader Bob Rae.
Ford’s political success doesn’t change the fact his purported reason he needed to go to the polls early to take on U.S. President Donald Trump on tariffs — Ford in fact had a mandate to govern without an election until June 2026 — was nonsense.
His Progressive Conservative braintrust was floating rumours last May that Ford might call an early election, long before Trump won the U.S. presidential race on Nov. 5, 2024.
Trump was Ford’s excuse for an election, and he did it for reasons of political opportunism given that his polling last year showed he was well ahead of NDP leader Marit Stiles and Liberal leader Bonnie Crombie, which continued through the campaign.
However, the one embarrassing note for Ford Thursday evening was that he failed to win more seats than the 83 the PCs took in the 2022 election, which he said at the start of the campaign he needed to have a strong mandate to protect the Ontario economy from Trump’s 25% tariff threat, which Trump now says he will implement March 4.
As for Stiles and the NDP, while they lost seats in this election compared to the 2022 election, they will consider holding on to official Opposition status a victory.
While the Liberals under Crombie may have barely achieved official party status, it was not a good night for Crombie, who was losing in her own riding at press time.
That said, Ford’s third consecutive election majority government confirms his political legacy as one of Ontario’s most successful premiers of the modern era.
The last time that happened was under PC premier Leslie Frost in the 1951, 1955 and 1959 Ontario elections.