Advance voting opens Thursday in Ontario election with only 1 of 4 full platforms out

Ontario Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner, left to right, Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie, Ontario PC Leader Doug Ford, and Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles pose for a photo before the Ontario Leaders' debate at CBC's Broadcast Centre, in Toronto, Monday, Feb. 17, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

TORONTO — Advance polls open Thursday in Ontario's election — one week before general voting day — and only the Green Party has released a full platform, while Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford has been notably absent from the campaign trail.

Ford has not taken questions on the campaign trail or made public appearances besides the two debates in nine days. He did respond to questions while in Washington, D.C., last week, but he made that trip as premier, alongside the country's other provincial and territorial leaders.

Amid the snap, $189-million election he called, Ford's last public announcement in Ontario was on Feb. 10, when he said he would ban Chinese equity from Ontario government-funded energy projects. There has been no Chinese equity in government-funded energy projects during the Progressive Conservatives' seven years in government.

Ford has made about half a dozen other policy announcements during the campaign, including an additional $22 billion on infrastructure, $1 billion in the Skills Development Fund, uploading the Ottawa LRT, purchasing two police helicopters, taking tolls off Highway 407 East, and re-announcing his uncosted intention to build a tunnel under Highway 401.

A few Progressive Conservative candidates who have served in Ford's cabinet have also made announcements on behalf of the party, including on Ford's plan to help Ontario residents and businesses if tariffs are implemented by the United States.

A spokesperson for Ford said his full platform will be released "in the coming days."

Ford is in hiding, said NDP Leader Marit Stiles and Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie.

"He called an early, unnecessary election at the cost of $189 million (and) he's been absent for 50 per cent of it," Crombie said Wednesday in Clarence-Rockland, just east of Ottawa.

"OK, a couple of days he went to Washington. Where has he been? Where is he today? He's been absent. And that's taking voters for granted. That is disrespectful. Show your face and be accountable for your record."

Crombie said much of her policy has been released, and her team is working on the costing.

"Of course, this was a snap election, and we have released much of our policy ahead of time anyways," she said.

Crombie's central campaign promise has been to get everyone in Ontario a family doctor within four years, but she has also announced policies such as cutting the middle-income tax rate, eliminating HST on home heating and hydro, eliminating the provincial land transfer tax for some homebuyers, scrapping development charges, introducing phased-in rent control, doubling disability support payments, cutting the small business tax rate and raising post-secondary funding by an unspecified amount.

Crombie was also forced to defend her connection to longtime Mississauga mayor Hazel McCallion, who endorsed Crombie as her successor. McCallion's son, Peter McCallion, released an open letter Wednesday saying his mother regretted that endorsement and thought Crombie was prioritizing personal ambitions over the needs of the people she was elected to serve.

"Despite what Bonnie wants Mississauga to believe, I am confident that my mother would have undoubtedly cast her vote for Doug Ford, as she proudly and publicly did in the last two elections," Peter McCallion wrote.

Crombie noted that Peter McCallion's daughter is running Crombie's campaign in most of Mississauga, and said Hazel McCallion was her mentor.

"Everything I learned was from Hazel," she said. "I adored her, and until she passed, sadly two years ago, she would still call me once a week, and we would talk about what was going on at council, and she encouraged me, and she said, 'You're doing a great job. Keep it up.'"

Stiles compared Ford's two trips to Washington — he has another one coming up this week — with his relative absence on the campaign trail.

"He is more focused on vying for Donald Trump's attention than talking to the people of Ontario," she wrote in a statement.

"Ford is trying to distract from seven years of failing to make life more affordable in Ontario. He'll do anything to avoid talking about health care, housing, cost of living or any of the other issues he's failed on."

Stiles did not have any public events Wednesday, but she said after Monday night's debate that she will have a fully costed platform and that "it's coming," but she didn't indicate when.

She has released specific platforms for Toronto, the north and southwestern Ontario. Along with a few local promises, they all contain pledges to introduce a monthly grocery rebate, create a universal school food program, double disability support payments, give free heat pumps to lower-income households, ensure every Ontarian has a family doctor, establish a centralized health-care referral system, build 300,000 affordable homes, and increase per student post-secondary funding by 20 per cent.

Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner introduced his party's full platform on Feb. 12. It includes building two million homes, cutting taxes for low- and middle-income earners, creating a “foodbelt” to protect farmland, eliminating the provincial land transfer tax for first-time homebuyers, doubling the rates of disability support payments as well as Ontario Works, implementing an anti-home flipping tax and a multiple property speculation tax, implementing a wealth tax, and providing free heat pumps for lower- and middle-income households.

The election will be held on Feb. 27.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 19, 2025.

Allison Jones, The Canadian Press