Ontario election 2022: Highway 7, mental health, and a Green party platform reveal

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Where the leaders are today:

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Conservative Leader Doug Ford: Ford began his day in Kitchener, announcing his party’s plan if re-elected to construct a latest Highway 7 between that city, Waterloo, and Guelph. He had scheduled campaign stops for the rest of the day in Cambridge, London North Centre, Chatham–Kent–Leamington, and Windsor–Tecumseh.

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Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca: Del Duca selected Scarborough–Guildwood for a morning announcement about his party’s pledge so as to add $3 billion in funding for mental health and addictions services. His day was to proceed on the Unionville GO station in Markham, talking up his party’s buck-a-ride transit pledge, before moving on to a close-by meeting with small business owners after which a night meet-and-greet with supporters in St. Catharines.

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NDP Leader Andrea Horwath: Horwath was in Paris (Ontario) Thursday morning, within the riding of Brantford–Brant to announce details of her party’s proposed universal mental health care plan. She was then off to a community health centre for in Elgin–Middlesex–London to mark International Nurses Day by thanking a few of them. Afterward, she had a date with volunteers working on NDP candidate Ron LeClair’s campaign in Essex.

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Green party Leader Mike Schreiner:  Schreiner unveiled his party’s costed platform Thursday morning in Toronto’s University–Rosedale riding, alongside his party’s deputy leaders and other Green candidates from the realm. His plan for afterwards was to satisfy with the editorial board of the Toronto Star and finish his day with a candidates’ town hall in his home riding of Guelph.

The platform features six key priority areas, with pledges under each: “homes not highways,” including guarantees to construct 1.5 million homes and freeze urban boundaries; “mental health is health”; “latest climate economy,” which might feature an annual carbon budget to succeed in net zero by 2045; “respect for people,” comparable to doubling the rates for ODSP; “reinvest in health and education” by, for one, a $1.6 billion investment in home care; and “protect nature.”

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Liberals down two candidates

Candidate nominations close Thursday afternoon, and the Liberals at the moment are down two bodies after candidate controversies.

Media reports on Wednesday described a book self-published by Parry Sound-Muskoka candidate Barry Stanley containing scientifically baseless views on homosexuality.

A spokeswoman for the party said Stanley didn’t disclose the existence of his book to the party’s vetting team.

Then, the NDP unearthed comments that Chatham-Kent-Leamington Liberal candidate Alec Mazurek made on Facebook using a slur for gay people, leading the party to sever his Liberal affiliation Thursday morning.

It proved a distraction from the message the party wanted the deal with Thursday morning – their plan to coach greater than 3,000 latest mental health and addictions employees, a 3rd of whom could be dedicated to at-risk youth, and staffing emergency rooms and 911 services with mental health responders.

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Ford has Lecce’s back after apology for frat ‘slave auction’

The Progressive Conservative leader says his candidate Stephen Lecce has his full support, a day after Lecce apologized within the wake of a broadcast report a couple of so-called slave auction during his time as a fraternity leader in university.

Ford says Lecce acknowledged it was inappropriate, has said sorry, and has been a powerful advocate of combatting racism in schools during his time as education minister.

PressProgress, an outlet founded and funded by the Broadbent Institute, published a story Tuesday night alleging that while Lecce was a Western University student he participated in a 2006 event dubbed a “slave auction” at Sigma Chi, which has no formal affiliation with Western.

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Lecce said in a press release that he “unreservedly” apologizes and can advance the interests of all Ontarians, no matter faith, heritage, orientation or race.

Read the total Canadian Press story here.

MPP allowances, PCs to provide WSIB  jobs, more GO train service to London

As Thursday progressed, Ford flexed his party’s plan to maneuver the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) head office from Toronto to London, bringing jobs with it, and to place $160 million towards improving GO train service between London and Toronto.

While the NDP spent a number of the morning promoting their pledge to provide all Ontarians public access to psychotherapy, in addition they found time to call on PC MPPs who’ve drawn allowances from their local riding associations to pay them back.

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After it was revealed by the NDP earlier within the week that Nepean MPP Lisa MacLeod received a PC riding association allowance totalling greater than $44,000 over three years, Global News found that seven other PC MPPs received such allowances during the last 4 years.

While Ford said he’s been assured that each one rules were followed, in keeping with Global reporting on Thursday, he also said he “wasn’t too completely happy” when he learned concerning the allowance situation and that the party would tighten up election financing laws if re-elected.

The NDP, meanwhile, has proposed to ban the practice.

With files from The Canadian Press

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