Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford, left to right, New Democratic Leader Andrea Horwath, Liberal Party Leader Steven Del Duca and Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner debate during the Ontario party leaders' debate in Toronto.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
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It’s day fourteen of the Ontario election and the leaders of the main political parties are back on the road after sparring in last night’s televised election debate. The 90-minute debate at TVOntario’s midtown Toronto studios took place with just over two weeks left before election day on June 2. Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca and Green Leader Mike Schreiner debated for the second and final time of the campaign.
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Ontario’s opposition leaders took aim at Doug Ford’s handling of the pandemic and his $10-billion proposed Highway 413 at the televised debate on Monday night, with some of the tensest clashes over COVID-19 and climate change.
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Here’s where the leaders of Ontario’s main political parties are today:
Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford
Doug Ford is set to make an announcement at 10 a.m. ET in Toronto.
Doug Ford nets another union endorsement
The International Union of Painters and Allied Trade is backing Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford today, a day after IBEW, the union representing electrical workers, offered the Tories its support.
The party has also netted an endorsement from the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers.
It’s a tonal shift for Ford, who is seeking re-election.
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says Ford has been at loggerheads with unions representing public employees over legislation passed in 2019 that caps pay raises in the public sector at one per cent or less.
Ford has also feuded with teachers’ unions, first during lengthy contract negotiations and later over his policies for keeping schools open during the pandemic.
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath
Andrea Horwath is in Toronto this morning to make an announcement about fixing schools, then she will head to Peterborough to make an announcement about mental health supports in schools. She will make a campaign stop in Kingston at 5:30 p.m. ET to end the day.
Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca
Steven Del Duca will hold a post-debate rally in Toronto, starting at 8:15 a.m. ET, and is then set to make an announcement on improving work-life balance for Ontario workers at 11:30 a.m. ET.
Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner
Mike Schreiner is in Toronto this morning to make an announcement on youth and climate, then he heads to Huntsville to make an announcement on housing at 4:30 p.m. ET, and canvass the downtown area.
Ontario Greens seek to build on debate performance, eye two ridings
Ontario Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner is trying to build on momentum today from the leaders’ debate, visiting the two ridings in which he sees the most potential for growth of his party.
Schreiner starts his day in the downtown Toronto riding of University-Rosedale making a youth and climate announcement with star candidate Dianne Saxe, the former environmental commissioner, then he’ll travel to Parry Sound-Muskoka to campaign and make an announcement on housing.
Schreiner mentioned both of those ridings in his final plea to viewers of the election debate Monday night. Schreiner is the incumbent in Guelph, where he won his party its first seat ever in the Ontario legislature in 2018, but the party sees potential in those other two ridings.
“We finally have a green MPP at Queen’s Park who has punched well above his weight over the last four years and I need more green MPPs from places like University-Rosedale, Dianne Saxe – by the way, Mr. Ford, you fired the wrong environment commissioner,” Schreiner said at the end of the debate.