ONTARIO ELECTION 2022
Adrian Humphreys
POSTMEDIA
© Provided by National PostOntario New Democratic Party leader Andrea Horwath at a campaign stop in Kingston, Ont. on Tuesday, May 31, 2022.
HAMILTON — Ontario New Democratic Party leader Andrea Horwath announced she was stepping down as party leader after she failed to form a government despite four elections of rebuilding.
“We didn’t get there this time,” she told an election night crowd of supporters in her home riding in downtown Hamilton.
“Tonight, it is time to pass the torch, to pass the baton, to hand off leadership of the NDP,” she said. “It makes me so happy,” she said despite her obvious tears, “because our team is so strong right now.”
Horwath praised her candidates, her campaign team and Ontario voters, to cheers and sign waving supporters.
She said the NDP showed the province “a new way forward,” and warned that Doug Ford, despite his majority, did not muster a majority of the electorate’s votes.
“We will never stop fighting,” she said. “People are counting on us to be on their side.”
She said Ontario as a whole did not vote for Ford’s stance on health care, climate change, senior care, wages, and other issues.
“They did not vote for big highways to big houses that no one can afford,” she said.
The announcement was widely expected. Within an hour of the early results, proverbial sharks were circling.
NDP MPP Joel Harden, re-elected in Ottawa Centre, told supporters: “I think it is time for change, not only at the head of our party, but in our policies as well.”
Before Horwath’s announcement, Janelle Brady, president of the Ontario NDP brushed aside the call for change, saying she admits she is “a bit disappointed” with the Progressive Conservative’s Doug Ford forming another majority government, but remained proud the NDP remained as official opposition and with Horwath’s performance.
“I couldn’t be more proud of Andrea Horwath,” Brady said.
She said the results should be troubling to the Liberal party not for the NDP. A lot of Liberal supporters switched to the NDP while a lot of right-wing Liberals switch to the PCs, leaving the NDP with room to grow.
“We are a viable option,” she said, and the NDP will “hold Doug Ford and the PCs to account… The NDP is absolutely here to stay.”
The event was billed as the “NDP Election Night Victory Party” but as supporters trickled in, there was little excitement as Ford showed an early strong lead. A restrained applause came when a TV network predicted the NDP would again form the official opposition at Queen’s Park.
But excitement and noise picked up when Horwath arrived at the large auditorium in the Hamilton Convention Centre Thursday night, a facility they shared with a high school prom. Supporters clearly love her.
Horwath, 59, was leader of the Official Opposition when the election was called. She was expected to easily win her riding of Hamilton Centre. Early poll results showed her running away with it.
© Provided by National PostOntario New Democratic Party leader Andrea Horwath at a campaign stop in Kingston, Ont. on Tuesday, May 31, 2022.
HAMILTON — Ontario New Democratic Party leader Andrea Horwath announced she was stepping down as party leader after she failed to form a government despite four elections of rebuilding.
“We didn’t get there this time,” she told an election night crowd of supporters in her home riding in downtown Hamilton.
“Tonight, it is time to pass the torch, to pass the baton, to hand off leadership of the NDP,” she said. “It makes me so happy,” she said despite her obvious tears, “because our team is so strong right now.”
Horwath praised her candidates, her campaign team and Ontario voters, to cheers and sign waving supporters.
She said the NDP showed the province “a new way forward,” and warned that Doug Ford, despite his majority, did not muster a majority of the electorate’s votes.
“We will never stop fighting,” she said. “People are counting on us to be on their side.”
She said Ontario as a whole did not vote for Ford’s stance on health care, climate change, senior care, wages, and other issues.
“They did not vote for big highways to big houses that no one can afford,” she said.
The announcement was widely expected. Within an hour of the early results, proverbial sharks were circling.
NDP MPP Joel Harden, re-elected in Ottawa Centre, told supporters: “I think it is time for change, not only at the head of our party, but in our policies as well.”
Before Horwath’s announcement, Janelle Brady, president of the Ontario NDP brushed aside the call for change, saying she admits she is “a bit disappointed” with the Progressive Conservative’s Doug Ford forming another majority government, but remained proud the NDP remained as official opposition and with Horwath’s performance.
“I couldn’t be more proud of Andrea Horwath,” Brady said.
She said the results should be troubling to the Liberal party not for the NDP. A lot of Liberal supporters switched to the NDP while a lot of right-wing Liberals switch to the PCs, leaving the NDP with room to grow.
“We are a viable option,” she said, and the NDP will “hold Doug Ford and the PCs to account… The NDP is absolutely here to stay.”
The event was billed as the “NDP Election Night Victory Party” but as supporters trickled in, there was little excitement as Ford showed an early strong lead. A restrained applause came when a TV network predicted the NDP would again form the official opposition at Queen’s Park.
But excitement and noise picked up when Horwath arrived at the large auditorium in the Hamilton Convention Centre Thursday night, a facility they shared with a high school prom. Supporters clearly love her.
Horwath, 59, was leader of the Official Opposition when the election was called. She was expected to easily win her riding of Hamilton Centre. Early poll results showed her running away with it.
Doug Ford's PC's roar to a majority win in Ontario
Riding-by-riding Ontario election results
NDP officials pointed to her time spent campaigning in Progressive Conservative ridings as a sign of her ambition and eye to party growth.
During her time, the party came back from not having party status to again be a political competitor. But pressure was on her to perform far better.
Peter Graefe, a professor political science at Hamilton’s McMaster University, said the status quo was not enough to keep her in her job.
“There was a faction in the party who wanted to bring in a new face after becoming the official opposition to refresh the party. I think the general view probably within the NDP was let her have that last shot — can she now go one step further and become premier,” Graefe said.
“If that doesn’t come off then I think all parties, including Andrea Horwath, are aware that the expectation is that she go, and the question is whether it is sooner or later.
“The political realist’s view is: time’s up and it’s probably better to go on your own accord rather than being forced out at a convention.”
When the word “ready” is the first word in the slogan on Horwath’s campaign bus after 13 years as leader, it may have signalled something the campaign hadn’t imagined.
Horwath began the day in Hamilton with a photo opportunity, casting her vote in the city where she was born and raised, wearing a blue denim jean jacket, T-shirt and running shoes, highlighting her blue-collar roots.
She has led the Ontario NDP since 2009, when she became the first woman to lead an Ontario party and led the party through four elections. After she won, a colleague apparently quipped to her that she just accepted “the worst job in Ontario.”
But she started in provincial politics as an invigorating winner.
She trounced a Liberal in a Liberal riding in a by-election in 2004, pushing the NDP past the threshold for official party status. She was re-elected in 2007 general election and handily won the leadership of her party two years later.
In the 2014 election the party’s seat count remained the same but in 2018 they had a breakthrough. The NDP nearly doubled its seat count, to 40 seats, when support for the Liberals collapsed, and Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives seized a majority.
There was one hurdle left for her as leader: to form a government.
Facing a still-wounded Liberal party with a little-known leader, a controversial premier despised in some quarters, and amid a pandemic that rest the civic agenda with a renewed focus on work and healthcare, this election was seen as her best chance. And perhaps her last chance.
Polls, however, soon suggested voters weren’t embracing that plan.
Both the NDP and Liberals were campaigning for second place for much of the campaign.
Graefe said Horwath’s legacy as a leader is uncertain.
“I suspect the general consensus will be that she served a long period of time in what is probably a pretty thankless job. She was a leader who was kind of reactive. It is kind of hard to see what the underlying philosophy was that she brought to her role other than to try to win.”
Horwath said nothing about her future other than it wasn’t as NDP leader.
With her political career having begun with a three-term stint on Hamilton city council, there is already calls for her to run to be the city’s mayor.
• Email: ahumphreys@postmedia.com | Twitter: AD_Humphreys
Leader Del Duca steps down as Ontario Liberals have disappointing election night
Earlier this week, Del Duca pledged to stay on as leader regardless of the election outcome
Author of the article: Ryan Tumilty
Publishing date:Jun 02, 2022 •
Earlier this week, Del Duca pledged to stay on as leader regardless of the election outcome
Author of the article: Ryan Tumilty
Publishing date:Jun 02, 2022 •
Ontario Liberal Party Leader Steven Del Duca arrives for his election night event in Vaughan, June 2, 2022.
PHOTO BY CHRIS YOUNG/THE CANADIAN PRESS
Article content
OTTAWA – Ontario Liberals Steven Del Duca stepped down Thursday, after failing to win his own seat, official party status or a significantly bigger place for his party in the provincial legislature.
As of 10:45 p.m., the Liberals were leading or elected in eight seats, up from the seven they had in the legislature at dissolution, but Del Duca’s riding of Vaughan-Woodbridge was not among them.
Del Duca said he was proud of the effort the party made, but it was not enough.
“I have no doubt that the women and men that Ontario Liberals have elected to the legislature will do their part, in fact will do more than their part to help grow a new, and energetic progressive movement in Ontario,” he said to a room full of supporters. “It will, however, be a movement that will be led by a new leader.
He said the party would be out of debt later this year, and he was confident it would be in a better position to fight a future campaign, but said it would do so with a new leader at the helm.
“I know that we as a political family and we as a political movement will be starting the next campaign from a much better place,” Del Duca.
Earlier this week, he pledged to stay on as leader regardless of the outcome, but the party’s result was well below even the worst estimates of most pollsters, who forecast the Liberals would have at least enough seats to regain party status.
The Liberals lost the eastern Ontario riding of Glengarry – Prescott – Russell, which had been held by floor crosser Amanda Simard and Thunder Bay – Superior North. They were offsetting those losses with possible wins in Kingston, Toronto and Barrie.
The lack of official party status will be a major setback for the Liberals, parties need at least 12 seats to garner that status, and it comes with more funding, more questions during Question Period and more staff to help make a party’s presence felt.
Del Duca was a minister in former premier Kathleen Wynne’s government and won the party’s 2020 leadership contest with a comfortable margin over several of his former cabinet colleagues.
The 2018 election was a disaster for Wynne as the party plummeted in support, losing 48 seats and falling from government to the third party in the legislature. With just seven seats, the party didn’t even hold official party status in the legislature.
Ashley Csanady, a senior consultant with McMillan Vantage Policy Group and former staffer for Wynne, said after 2018 the party was left in a big hole and tonight was the beginning of a climb.
“They did a good job, seizing momentum, running a professional campaign that behooves the brand of the Liberal Party, really on a shoestring compared to resources we’ve had in the past,” she said.
Under Doug Ford, the Progressive Conservatives attracted more working class votes than they have previously, even getting the endorsement of major private sector unions. Csanady said if the Liberals want to return to power, they will have to figure out if that’s a temporary move or a permanent shift.
“Is this a Doug Ford phenomenon or have we forever seen the kind of blue collar vote, especially those unions, private sector unions falling into the Tory camp,” she said.
The PC’s had a 42-year hold on power between 1943 and 1985, including 14 years under former premier Bill Davis. Csanady said that version of the party was moderate and welcoming and Ford’s government share’s some similarities.
“If you go back to the Bill Davis years, the PC party was a moderate party with a big tent. And, and the one thing love him or hate him you can say about Doug Ford is he’s not a rabid partisan.”
Article content
OTTAWA – Ontario Liberals Steven Del Duca stepped down Thursday, after failing to win his own seat, official party status or a significantly bigger place for his party in the provincial legislature.
As of 10:45 p.m., the Liberals were leading or elected in eight seats, up from the seven they had in the legislature at dissolution, but Del Duca’s riding of Vaughan-Woodbridge was not among them.
Del Duca said he was proud of the effort the party made, but it was not enough.
“I have no doubt that the women and men that Ontario Liberals have elected to the legislature will do their part, in fact will do more than their part to help grow a new, and energetic progressive movement in Ontario,” he said to a room full of supporters. “It will, however, be a movement that will be led by a new leader.
He said the party would be out of debt later this year, and he was confident it would be in a better position to fight a future campaign, but said it would do so with a new leader at the helm.
“I know that we as a political family and we as a political movement will be starting the next campaign from a much better place,” Del Duca.
Earlier this week, he pledged to stay on as leader regardless of the outcome, but the party’s result was well below even the worst estimates of most pollsters, who forecast the Liberals would have at least enough seats to regain party status.
The Liberals lost the eastern Ontario riding of Glengarry – Prescott – Russell, which had been held by floor crosser Amanda Simard and Thunder Bay – Superior North. They were offsetting those losses with possible wins in Kingston, Toronto and Barrie.
The lack of official party status will be a major setback for the Liberals, parties need at least 12 seats to garner that status, and it comes with more funding, more questions during Question Period and more staff to help make a party’s presence felt.
Del Duca was a minister in former premier Kathleen Wynne’s government and won the party’s 2020 leadership contest with a comfortable margin over several of his former cabinet colleagues.
The 2018 election was a disaster for Wynne as the party plummeted in support, losing 48 seats and falling from government to the third party in the legislature. With just seven seats, the party didn’t even hold official party status in the legislature.
Ashley Csanady, a senior consultant with McMillan Vantage Policy Group and former staffer for Wynne, said after 2018 the party was left in a big hole and tonight was the beginning of a climb.
“They did a good job, seizing momentum, running a professional campaign that behooves the brand of the Liberal Party, really on a shoestring compared to resources we’ve had in the past,” she said.
Under Doug Ford, the Progressive Conservatives attracted more working class votes than they have previously, even getting the endorsement of major private sector unions. Csanady said if the Liberals want to return to power, they will have to figure out if that’s a temporary move or a permanent shift.
“Is this a Doug Ford phenomenon or have we forever seen the kind of blue collar vote, especially those unions, private sector unions falling into the Tory camp,” she said.
The PC’s had a 42-year hold on power between 1943 and 1985, including 14 years under former premier Bill Davis. Csanady said that version of the party was moderate and welcoming and Ford’s government share’s some similarities.
“If you go back to the Bill Davis years, the PC party was a moderate party with a big tent. And, and the one thing love him or hate him you can say about Doug Ford is he’s not a rabid partisan.”
EVER OPTIMISTIC RIGHT WING
Ben Woodfinden: Doug Ford's blue collar election victory could reshape conservatism
With second majority, PCs should focus on resisting woke dogmas, as well as on economic issues
Author of the article :Ben Woodfinden, Special to National Post
Publishing date: Jun 02, 2022 •
Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative Party has cruised to re-election in Ontario with a majority. Most observers agree that it has been a lacklustre campaign with little drama or serious competition for government. But that doesn’t mean the election was entirely devoid of interesting narratives. Throughout the election, the most intriguing development was the wave of union endorsements the PCs managed to gain from an array of private sector unions. These endorsements signal a real shift and political realignment in the province that has implications for conservatives beyond Ontario.
Ford was re-elected on a pledge to “get it done” that is heavy on building and infrastructure promises. This is a crucial part of what Ford’s PCs must do. But they should also be more ambitious with this second majority, and develop a blue collar conservative agenda that makes these voters a permanent part of the Conservative coalition, and can do so without falling pray to the darker and more destructive forms of populism that has accompanied these political shifts elsewhere in recent years.
Beyond Ford, the real MVP and architect of this electoral breakthrough is Labour Minister Monte McNaughton, who personally attracted the endorsement of Patrick Dillon, a major figure in the Working Families Coalition that was a thorn in the side of the PCs for much of the past two decades. Part of McNaughton’s efforts to build relationships with trade unions is driven by practical necessity. If the PCs are going to build the highways, houses, and infrastructure they say they are, demand for skilled trades workers is going to be high and as the skilled trade labour force ages, shortages will grow. If Ontario is going to “get it done,” it’s going to need more people entering the trades.
However, this is about more than just labour market demands. Explaining his intentions recently, McNaughton said that “We worked closely to find common ground and we’re getting endorsed by these blue collar unions because we’re ensuring that people have good jobs with pensions and benefits.” McNaughton has shown that policies that benefit workers need not come from the left. In government, he brought in initiatives like a right to “switch off” and expanded skilled trades education and support.
The PCs should interpret this election result as an endorsement to go further down this road and think bigger about what a blue collar conservatism could be. A focus on work is nothing new for conservatives. The opportunities here are in tying work towards a bigger agenda and vision. Good jobs aren’t just ones that help people pay the bills, they are ones that help people build lives and support families. Objectives and targeted public policy outcomes in areas like education and childcare policies, or broader economic growth objectives, should not just be growth for the sake of growth or labour force participation. They should be explicitly done with the goal of creating good jobs that can support and enable Ontarians to start families.
Riding-by-riding Ontario election results
Ben Woodfinden: Doug Ford's blue collar election victory could reshape conservatism
With second majority, PCs should focus on resisting woke dogmas, as well as on economic issues
Author of the article :Ben Woodfinden, Special to National Post
Publishing date: Jun 02, 2022 •
Supporters of Ontario PC Party Leader Doug Ford cheer as early results trickle in for the Ontario provincial election, in Toronto, Thursday, June 2, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative Party has cruised to re-election in Ontario with a majority. Most observers agree that it has been a lacklustre campaign with little drama or serious competition for government. But that doesn’t mean the election was entirely devoid of interesting narratives. Throughout the election, the most intriguing development was the wave of union endorsements the PCs managed to gain from an array of private sector unions. These endorsements signal a real shift and political realignment in the province that has implications for conservatives beyond Ontario.
Ford was re-elected on a pledge to “get it done” that is heavy on building and infrastructure promises. This is a crucial part of what Ford’s PCs must do. But they should also be more ambitious with this second majority, and develop a blue collar conservative agenda that makes these voters a permanent part of the Conservative coalition, and can do so without falling pray to the darker and more destructive forms of populism that has accompanied these political shifts elsewhere in recent years.
Beyond Ford, the real MVP and architect of this electoral breakthrough is Labour Minister Monte McNaughton, who personally attracted the endorsement of Patrick Dillon, a major figure in the Working Families Coalition that was a thorn in the side of the PCs for much of the past two decades. Part of McNaughton’s efforts to build relationships with trade unions is driven by practical necessity. If the PCs are going to build the highways, houses, and infrastructure they say they are, demand for skilled trades workers is going to be high and as the skilled trade labour force ages, shortages will grow. If Ontario is going to “get it done,” it’s going to need more people entering the trades.
However, this is about more than just labour market demands. Explaining his intentions recently, McNaughton said that “We worked closely to find common ground and we’re getting endorsed by these blue collar unions because we’re ensuring that people have good jobs with pensions and benefits.” McNaughton has shown that policies that benefit workers need not come from the left. In government, he brought in initiatives like a right to “switch off” and expanded skilled trades education and support.
The PCs should interpret this election result as an endorsement to go further down this road and think bigger about what a blue collar conservatism could be. A focus on work is nothing new for conservatives. The opportunities here are in tying work towards a bigger agenda and vision. Good jobs aren’t just ones that help people pay the bills, they are ones that help people build lives and support families. Objectives and targeted public policy outcomes in areas like education and childcare policies, or broader economic growth objectives, should not just be growth for the sake of growth or labour force participation. They should be explicitly done with the goal of creating good jobs that can support and enable Ontarians to start families.
Riding-by-riding Ontario election results
HERE WE GO WITH THE LEFT WING IS OUTTA TOUCH WITH IT'S BASE EXCEPT AS THESE FOLKS WILL TELL YOU THE BASE IS PUBLIC SECTOR WORKERS AND UNIFOR NOT THE BUILDING TRADES
This shift reflects deeper social and political changes that are going on. In a column for the Hub about the changes happening on the other side of the spectrum, Sean Speer highlighted how “progressive parties have mostly abandoned blue-collar voters in favour of the types of ideological issues and ideas that animate their left-wing bases.” These “woke” issues and ideas have disconnected working class and blue collar Canadians from their traditional home on the left and created this opportunity the PCs have taken advantage of.
When asked during the election about this progressive shift, McNaughton said that “they’re more concerned about statues than they are about good jobs with pensions and benefits.” This is well put, but the PCs shouldn’t learn the wrong lesson here and think the left’s focus on a melange of social and cultural issues means the right should focus solely on economic concerns.
The Conservatives should instead see this second majority as a mandate to stand their ground on culture and values that are still the mainstream of Canadian society. Things like sensible patriotism, public education that doesn’t sneak the latest cultural fashion and orthodoxies emanating from academia, and common sense law and order policies that keep Ontarians safe. Progressive dogmas that are overrepresented in elite discourse should be resisted. A blue collar conservatism would not be culturally radical, it would be culturally moderate, and push back against the wild and out of sync ideas emanating from left-wing institutions.
Doug Ford’s first mandate was dominated by the pandemic, which understandably became the focus and dampened the possibilities of serious conservative ideas or reforms. The PCs should see the next four years as a real opportunity to craft an ambitious new blue collar conservatism that can secure their new labour oriented coalition in the future, a coalition that could also be a model for other conservative parties and governments in North America.
National Post
This shift reflects deeper social and political changes that are going on. In a column for the Hub about the changes happening on the other side of the spectrum, Sean Speer highlighted how “progressive parties have mostly abandoned blue-collar voters in favour of the types of ideological issues and ideas that animate their left-wing bases.” These “woke” issues and ideas have disconnected working class and blue collar Canadians from their traditional home on the left and created this opportunity the PCs have taken advantage of.
When asked during the election about this progressive shift, McNaughton said that “they’re more concerned about statues than they are about good jobs with pensions and benefits.” This is well put, but the PCs shouldn’t learn the wrong lesson here and think the left’s focus on a melange of social and cultural issues means the right should focus solely on economic concerns.
The Conservatives should instead see this second majority as a mandate to stand their ground on culture and values that are still the mainstream of Canadian society. Things like sensible patriotism, public education that doesn’t sneak the latest cultural fashion and orthodoxies emanating from academia, and common sense law and order policies that keep Ontarians safe. Progressive dogmas that are overrepresented in elite discourse should be resisted. A blue collar conservatism would not be culturally radical, it would be culturally moderate, and push back against the wild and out of sync ideas emanating from left-wing institutions.
Doug Ford’s first mandate was dominated by the pandemic, which understandably became the focus and dampened the possibilities of serious conservative ideas or reforms. The PCs should see the next four years as a real opportunity to craft an ambitious new blue collar conservatism that can secure their new labour oriented coalition in the future, a coalition that could also be a model for other conservative parties and governments in North America.
National Post
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