Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford is starting the provincial election campaign by focusing on international tariffs, pitching himself as the best steward of Ontario's economy.
He says he needs the strongest majority in Ontario history in order to effectively deal with the threatened 25 per cent tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump.
NDP Leader Marit Stiles says Ford is not the expert deal-maker he makes himself out to be, pointing to a 95-year lease for a spa on Toronto's waterfront.
Neither Ford nor Stiles made any policy announcements today, instead focusing on their overall pitch to voters in this snap election set for Feb. 27.
Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie highlighted a promise to ensure everyone in Ontario has a family doctor within four years.
Crombie was in Barrie alongside Liberal candidate in Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte, Rose Zacharias, an emergency and family doctor as well as past president of the Ontario Medical Association. The party is touting her as one of its star candidates and named her as campaign co-chair.
She is running in a riding where the Liberal candidate in the 2022 election, former Barrie mayor Jeff Lehman, came within a few hundred votes of besting Doug Downey, who has served as the Progressive Conservative government's attorney general.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 29, 2025.
Allison Jones, The Canadian Press
