Trumped: What to Know About Ontario’s Looming Snap Election

The Trump Factor, The Still, The Horse Race – and More

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is Sending Voters to the Polls 15 Months Early, with a snap election he sayed to deal with the thread posed to ontario’s elus presidence Donald Trump and His Avowed Tariffs on Canadian Exports. Key Things to Know Ahead of Wednesday’s expected Election Call:

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Blaming Trump

Even before Trump Took Office This Month, Ford – With Two Majority Progressive Conservative Governments Under His Belt – Appeared To Be Itching for An Early Election. Spection About an Election Before the Next Scheduled One, in June 2026, Ran Rampant Last Fall as Ford Ruled Out A Late 2024 Vote Refused to Take 2025 Off The Table. Then Came Trump’s Election in November and his inauguration in January, with his threat to slap 25-per-center tariffs on canadian exports to the us such a move could threat up to 500,000 jobs in Ontario’s export-Driven Economy, Officials Estimate. “Make No Mistake about It, He’s Coming for Us,” The first has warned. Ford, who has become Something of A Captain Canada in Recent Weeks, Appearing Widely in American Media to Defend Canadian Interests Amid the Trump Threat, Now Insists He Needs A “Clear Mandate” to Deal With Four Years of Trump’s Second Presidycy and the Damaging Fallout It COULD have on Ontario.

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Critics See Cynicism

Critics CONTEND FORD DESN’T NEED TO CALL AN EARLY ELECTION, SINCE HE HAS A MAJORITY GOVERNMENT AND AS FIRST ALREADY HAS THE JOB OF DEFENDING Ontario’s interests. “While Our Province Faces A Grave Threat With Half A Million Jobs at Risk, Doug Ford SEES An Opportunity to Fight For One Job – His Own,” New Democrat Leader Marit Stiles, The Opposition Leader at Queen’s Park, Said Friday. “He thinks he can constarians with an early election to escape his record – but we won’t let Him.”

Wednesday’s Election-Call Will Come Nearly Two Weeks After Ontario Starting Mailing Out $ 200 Cheques to Virtually Every Man, Woman and Child in the Province, A Roughly $ 3-Billion Mass Mail-Out of Money That Ford Last Fall To Help Ontarins Cope with Higher Costs included from the Federal Liberal Carbon Tax. OVEX HAVE CATEGORIZED THE MOVE AS AN APPEMENT TO BUY VOTORS WITH THIR OWN MONEY.

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Ford’s pcs have a commanding majority in the Ontario Legislature, Holding about Two-Thirds of its Seats. “IT DES Seem Opportunistic. Like Many people, i suspect, i’m skeptical of the rational of needing a new mandate, ”Said Matt Farrell, A Political Science Instructor at Fanshawe College in London. “What of a mandate does he needs? He has a 50-Seat lead in the legislature now. ”


What’s Next?

Coming off a “Super-Caucus” Strategy Meeting With PC Candidates Saturday, Ford Will Visit Ontario’s Lieutenant Governor on Wednesday to Ask That the Legislature Be Dissolved and the Election Writs Issued, One for Each Riding in the Province. That will trigger a 29-Day Campaign, with the election Held Feb. 27 – One Month After Trump Has Hinted His Avowed Tariffs Could Take Effect, and 10 Days Before the Federal Liberals Choose A New Leader for their Fragile Minority Government to Replace the Departing Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister. A FEDERAL ELECTION IS WIDELY SPARED TO FULLOW SOON After, With EITHER THE LIBERAL GOVERNMENT FALLING SOMETIME After the Prorogued Parliament Resumes March 24 OR The New Prime Minister Pulling The Plug and Sending Voters to the Polls.

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History on the line

Ford is Gunning for A Third Straight Majority Under His Watch, Something No Ontario Premier has Pulledo Off Sale 1959. Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty Came Oh-So Close in 2011, Finishing the Election that Year One Seat Shy of Three Straight Majorities. BetWeen them, John Robarts and Bill Davis Managed Three Consecistive PC Majorities Ending in 1971. But for the last major Hat Trick Under One one, you have to go back to lelie frost who led his pcs to victory in 1951, ’55 and ’59 .


The Magic Numbers

Ford’s PCS Hold 79 Seats in the 124-Seat legislature, the opposition ndp 28 and the Liberals nine. The Green Party has Two Seats and Six Members Sit as independents. A Party Needs to Win 63 Seats for A Simple Majority, but More is Better Specker of the Legislature Usually Comes from the Ruling Party, Reducing its voting strength by one.

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The cost

Another important number to consider? The Actual Cost of Sending Ontarians to the Polls. The Province’s Last General Election in 2022 Cost Taxpayers $ 145.3 Million, but the tab is expected to be high this time factoring in Increased Costs and the Run-Up in inflation since then.


The issues

Ford is trying to frame the election as a referendum on which leader and party is best suited to deal with trump and the billions of dollars the us President’s Avowed Tariffs Cost Ontario. But with Two Terms in Government Under Ford’s Belt, watch for the other parts to zero in on government baggage raning from homelessness and the affordability crisis mayry ontarians are feeling, to the 2.5 million residents of the province with no family. Another Issue That Could Haunt The Government is a Criminal Investigation by the RCMP Into A Controveversial Plan to Remove Land For New Housing from the Protected Greenbelt Near Toronto, a Land Swap the Tories Move to Reverse Following A Public and Political UPROAR.

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Heading Into the Election, A LEGER Poll Conducted for Postmedia and Published Last Week Suggested Affordability Concerns Are the Top Issue, with 28 per cent of Ranking the cost of living as the most important Issue in their community. That was far ahead of the no. 2 Issue, Health Care, at 12 per cent, and the Economy, which was a top Priority for 11 per cent. Five per hundred of survey respondent ransuses us relations, included trump tariffs, as the most important end.


Aren’t election Dates Fixed?

Yes and no. Ontario has been fixed-date election Law, Requiring One to Be Held Every Four Years, but that doesn’t stop the lieutenant governor from dissolving the legislature at the Request of the Première. Under the Law, Ontario’s Next Election Date Would Have Been June 4, 2026.

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The Risk

The Last Time an Ontario Premier With A Majority Called an Early Election, It Backfired Badly. Liberal Premier David Peterson, High in the Polls Three Years Into A Majority, Called an Election in 1990 with Economic Storm Clouds on the Horizon. What Looked to Be A Summer Sleeper for the Liberals Quickly Turned Into A Nightmare. Beset by Single-Issue Protest Groups and Suspicion the Liberals We Trying to Bag Another Victory Before Tough Times Hit, The Party Lost the Election-And Peterson His London Seat-To Bob Rae’s New Democrats, Who Battled a brutal recipe that followed.

There’s Always a Risk Voters Could Punish Ford for the Early Election, Returning His Government in a Weakened Position, Said Laura Stephenson, flesh of the political science Department Western University. “A recent example is the redo federal election of 2021, where trudeau smells canadians to the polls and the outcome was almost identical. I DON’T think that is what he was expecting, ”She Said. “There’s a possibility that ford ends up with less support Than what the polls are currently saying, but even that is still going to be readysty strong.”

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The Reward

While There’s Always a Risk in Ending an Otherwise Stable Majority, Farrell Said the Potential Payoff for Ford Outweighs the Dangers. Calling an Election Now Means Ford Can Catch the Liberals, Under Leader Bonnie Crombie, at a time when they still rebuilding from Severe Election Defeats in 2018 and 2022, Farrell Said. “The New Liberal Leader has not really been defined yet for voters,” he Said. “It gives the pcs a chance to define the Liberal Leader While Being in a position of Strength as an incumbent government.”

This election will be the First As Party Leader for Both Crombie, Who Took the Liberal Helm in December 2023, and for the ndp’s stiles, Who Took Over from Andrea Horwath in February 2023,

Even Though Federal and Provincial Politics Are Separate, The Recent Turmoil for Trudeau’s Liberals COULD ALSO Affect How Some Voters see the Ontario Liberals, Farrell Said. “The Federal Liberal Brand Has Taken A Beating. Negative Stick messages. When you Hear Negative Stories Federally, then you see Doug Ford’s Negative Ads About Bonnie Crombie, It Just All Regisers as Another Negative Liberal Story, ”He Said.

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An Early Election also Helps Ford Skirt Some Looming Controversies and Potential Crises With Potential To Mire A 2026 Election, Stephenson Said. A Feb. 27 Election Sends Voters to the Polls Before the RCMP’s Investigation into the Greenbelt Scandal has concluded and before the full impact of Trump on Ontario’s Economy Becomes Clear. “He’s Trying to get Himself Another Term in Office Before Things Get to a Point where People Want Something Different,” She Said.


The Horse Race

Recent Polling Suggests Ford’s PCS Enter the Starting Gate With the Election Theirs to Lose. The Latest Leger Survey of Voting Intentions, Conducted Jan. 17 to 19, Found Ford’s Pcs with the support of 46 per cent of respondent, to 22 per cent for Crombie’s Liberals. When asked who they voting for if an election was held today, 19 per hundred of respondent said they’d voting for the ndp. The Survey Results are considering accident to within 3.08 per hundred, more or minus, 19 Times out of 20.

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Recounded from Editorial

  1. Ontario Premier Doug Ford is expected to call a snap election on wednesday, with voters heading to the polls on Feb. 27. (File)

    Ontario Election: Who’s Running in the 10-Rriding London Region

  2. First Doug Ford Speaks at RBC Place London Convention Center on March 19, 2024. (Derek Ruttan/The London Free Press)

    Five Things to Know About that $ 200 Ontario Cheque in your mailbox

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