After a month-long campaign, it’s election day in Ontario. Polls opened across the province this morning and close at 9 p.m. ET.
According to Elections Ontario, 678,789 voters cast their ballot over three days of advance voting this year. That’s 6.14 per cent of eligible voters. In 2022, 1,066,545 (9.92 per cent) voted in advance, while in 2018, 698,609 voters (6.8 per cent) did.
Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford is looking to secure a third consecutive majority government and said Wednesday that he wants to be premier “forever.”
“I just want to win,” he said at a campaign stop just outside of Windsor, Ont., the city where he launched his re-election campaign last month. “I want to win a majority, a large majority.”
That would “send a message down to Donald Trump that we’re a force to be reckoned with,” he said, wearing a Canada hockey jersey with the number 51 on the back and a nameplate that read “NEVER” — a reference to Trump’s expressed desire to turn Canada into the “51st state.”
Ford said only the Progressive Conservatives can stand up to U.S. President Donald Trump and his tariff threats.
The other leaders are urging voters to choose change.
Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie said she was looking forward “to a great win.”
“We play to win and that’s what I’m quite sure we’re going to do,” Crombie said, though a Postmedia-Leger poll had Ford well ahead (47 per cent) of a second-place Crombie (28 per cent) and third place NDP (17 per cent) just days before the election.
“If you want change and you want a family doctor, we have to change the government,” she said at a campaign stop in Oakville, Ont., on Wednesday, adding that Ford has failed on health care.
She urged NDP voters and others to support the Liberals.
“You may have supported another party in another time in another election, but tomorrow we’re asking for your support so that we can bring change and we can change this government,” she said.
Crombie is also hoping to win the riding of Mississauga East-Cooksville to secure a seat in the legislature.
At a stop in Toronto-St. Paul’s riding, Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said her party was the only one that would provide real change for Ontarians.
“You have the power through your vote to fight rising costs with a grocery rebate program, with real rent control and to put food on the table of so many Ontarians.”
She said the Liberals are no different than the Progressive Conservatives and it’s the NDP that will bring in measures to make life more affordable.
Stiles also clapped back at Crombie’s pitch to NDP voters.
“The Liberals are telling you that they are entitled to your vote,” Stiles said. “Well, you know what, the Liberals aren’t entitled to anything.”
Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner was in his home riding of Guelph before heading to Kitchener to canvass with Aislinn Clancy, who won the Greens’ second ever seat in the legislature in a byelection in 2023.
Polls close at 9 p.m. eastern time on Thursday. After polls close, results will start rolling in immediately.
Starting at 6 p.m., follow National Post’s live coverage, below, with contributions from columnists Terry Newman, Jesse Kline and Chris Selley, as well as contributions from editors and reporters from Postmedia’s newsrooms around Ontario. Can’t see the live blog? View it on National Post.
National Post, with files from The Canadian Press
What’s happening in the 2025 Ontario election
- Polls open at 9 a.m. and close at 9 p.m. eastern time on Thursday. They are open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. central time in the western part of the province. After polls close, results will start rolling in immediately.
- Find out how to vote here.