It’s day 28 of the Ontario election and all of the party leaders are making last-ditch appeals to voters as Thursday’s provincial election draws nearer.
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Elections Ontario says it has sent significantly more mail-in ballots to voters this time around. Voting kits have been mailed out to 126,135 eligible residents who sent in requests before last week’s deadline. That’s a sharp increase from 2018, when only 15,202 ballots were doled out that way. Voting kits must be received by 6 p.m. on Thursday and can be mailed or dropped off at a returning office.
More than one million people voted in advance polls ahead of the June 2 vote, Elections Ontario also said.
Meanwhile, polls suggest that the Progressive Conservative are poised to win a second majority government. Neither the NDP nor the Liberals have pulled away enough to become the clear second-place challenger and polls show the same numbers as the beginning of the campaign.
Here’s where the leaders of Ontario’s main political parties are today:
Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford
Doug Ford is set to make campaign stops in St. Catharines and Niagara today.
Yesterday, Ford was Ottawa, where he defended his decision not to visit until more than a week after a massive storm hit the city and left thousands without power. But he spent most of his morning campaign stop there alongside the capital’s Highway 417, trumpeting his commitment to widen it.
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath
Andrea Horwath is starting the day in Ottawa to talk about her plan to “stop the cuts and fix health care,” then she will make campaign stops in Kingston, Whitby and Toronto.
Horwath wouldn’t guarantee that she will remain as NDP leader after June 2, even if her party forms Official Opposition again but with a reduced number of seats.
“On Thursday, people will make their decision and what I will commit to you at this point is that I will always be fighting for people and I will always work to make life better for folks,” she said during a campaign event.
“After (the vote) happens, it will determine what happens next, but I will never stop fighting for folks, ever.”
Many observers expect Horwath to step down if the NDP doesn’t form government this time.
Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca
Steven Del Duca will start the day in Oakville to makes an announcement “on stopping Doug Ford,” and then heads to Mississauga for various campaign stops.
Del Duca said Doug Ford’s team has him insulated from the public so that he can “sleepwalk” toward another victory, but he’s hearing voters tell a different story on the campaign trail.
“We know that Doug Ford has been stuck in a bubble since well, frankly, before this campaign began,” he said at a campaign event.
“The conversations I’m having with people right now, everywhere across Ontario, the crowds that I’m seeing it every one of my stops, that tells me that Ontarians are going to burst Doug Ford’s bubble Thursday night.”
Ford spent several days during the campaign either holding no events or holding only “photo ops,” at which there are no opportunities for reporters to ask questions.
Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner
Mike Schreiner will make an announcement in Port Sydney, then he is set to make campaign stops in Burk’s Falls and Novar.
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