By Staff
February 17th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
The next Premier of Ontario will be chosen ten days from now
The four candidates seeking to become the next Premier of Ontario took part in a debate on Friday in North Bay. There will be another debate in Toronto this evening. It will be streamed on the CBC YouTube channel
The following are the the closing arguments made in the North Bay debate
Mike Schreiner of the Green Party.
Mike Schreiner of the Green Party.
I want to say thank you to my colleagues for being here tonight. This is democracy in action, and we need to strengthen our democracy, something I believe deeply in. You know, I understand times are tough out there right now. So many families are struggling to get by, to find an affordable home, pay the grocery bills, maybe have a nice March Break with their kids, and that’s exactly why the Ontario greens are fighting for fairness, fighting to make your life a little bit better after seven top long years, fighting for generational fairness so that people in the north and the south can actually have an affordable home, we put forward a plan to legalize housing within existing urban boundaries, so we can quickly start building homes people can afford in the communities they know and love where we have infrastructure, we would renew fees and charges on starter homes to make them affordable for young people.
Again, we would actually start protecting renters, because there is no city in Ontario where a full time minimum wage worker can afford average monthly rent, we would actually have government get back into the building affordable and deeply affordable, nonprofit Co Op and supportive housing with wraparound mental health and addiction supports, because nobody, nobody in Ontario, when housing should be a human right, should be homeless tonight, over 81,000 people in encampments right now. That is so wrong.
We would lower taxes for people earning under $65,000 in households under 100,000 saving you up to $1,700 a month, paying for it by asking the wealthiest tax bracket to pay a little bit more so we have fairness in our tax code. We would reverse the $1,500 cut per student in education so our students don’t have to learn in overcrowded classrooms. We would actually make the investments we need for people to have access to primary health care and to end hallway medicine and ensure that mental health is health and work towards covering it under OHIP, and we would protect the places we love in this province, you know, I love to go fishing. I love to go canoeing. I grew up hunting. You can’t do those things if you have a government that doesn’t protect the nature that protects us as we see the increasing frequency and severity of unsafe weather events fueled by the climate crisis.
We have to protect our farmland and our nature that protects us. We can help people be able to afford things like giving a free heat pump program like PEI in New Brunswick. Have to lower your energy prices and address climate at the same time, we have solutions, but we need local champions, green MPP to come to Queen’s Park and deliver those solutions, because that’s the kind of fair Ontario each and every one of you deserve.
Doug Ford from the Conservative Party,
You know, folks, this election is about leadership. Who do you trust to protect your family, your jobs, businesses and communities? This election is about who’s going to protect the people of Ontario.
Over the last five weeks, we’ve seen what the next four years will look like under President Trump’s White House. He’ll shift the goal post every single day on a whim, creating economic chaos every sign every single time he does it, whether he imposes tariffs tomorrow, next month or next year, President Trump will continue to use tariffs to get what he wants.
We have to be eyes wide open. Tariffs will devastate northern industries like mining, steel and forestry. They’ll put 1000s of Northern workers jobs at risk. President Trump doesn’t know what all we know that Canada is not for sale. Canada is resilient. We’re strong, and we’ll stand up to President Trump and the tariffs to protect Ontario. I’m asking the people for a strong, stable, four year mandate so we can outlast and outlive the Trump administration. The stronger the mandate, the better we’ll be able to protect communities and families and businesses around Ontario as we face down the threat of Donald Trump’s tariffs. Ontario and Northern Ontario has never been more important.
Northern Ontario was blessed to have an abundant supply of critical minerals. The US needs it, the world needs it, but our critical minerals don’t do us any good if they’re sitting in the ground or being shipped off to China, the future prosperity of our province, of our country. Unlocking economic potential of the ring and the ring of fire is absolutely critical. We need to do more. We need to do it faster. The need to speed up permitting and approvals of critical minerals in the ground process shipped right here in Ontario.
We need to ship those out around the world, and we need the federal government to get out of the way. They keep delaying and delaying. We need no more excuses, no more reasons why we can’t or we shouldn’t, friends. We’re in the Battle of our lives here in the province in our country. The front line of that battle starts right here in northern Ontario with the critical minerals. We’ll do whatever it takes to turn Ontario into a critical mineral and energy powerhouse around the world, please join us, and together, we’ll do whatever it takes to protect the people of Ontario. I want to thank you and God bless the people of Ontario. Thank you
Marit Stiles, NDP Leader of the Opposition:
The opportunity to be here with everyone has been fun, I would say, before we leave, though, I want you to ask yourself this question, in tough times, who do you trust to be on your side?
Marit Stiles, NDP Leader of the Opposition:
Seven Years of Doug Ford have cost you his bad deals, his scandals have wasted billions of dollars, and they have made life a lot harder for Ontarians. He delivers for the wealthiest, the insiders, but never for the rest of us.
And he’s been singing the same song, folks for seven years. You know, most Ontarians, if they quit their job or they didn’t show up for work. They wouldn’t expect to get rehired, but Doug Ford does, and he thinks he can pull one over on Ontarians, well, we can’t afford another four years of this. We can’t afford more hospitals closing. We can’t afford to lose more family doctors or nurses so burned out because they’ve been so disrespected and taken to court by this government?
We can’t afford wait times in our emergency rooms of 10 to 22, hours if you’re lucky enough to find an emergency room even open. You know, along Highway 11 right now, since we’re in northern Ontario, there are 800 kilometers between Timmins and Thunder Bay, there is one delivery unit on that highway, along that highway, for all of the women who need to give birth. Think about that, right?
That’s Ontario today under Doug Ford, and that’s the North homelessness in every community, and addiction and mental health crisis, the cost of everything just completely out of control.
Ontario needs new leadership, and we need new ideas. In this election, you can trust me to be on your side as Premier, I am going to fight against the rising costs. I am going to defend every job in every sector. I’m going to hire doctors and build homes, and I am also going to fix our schools.
Listen, you’re going to hear a lot over the next few weeks about the legacy of Doug Ford. I want you to think about what we can do that’s better here in the province of Ontario, how we can change things. And so with that, I hope you, I will entrust you to consider supporting me as your premier and to vote for a government, an NDP government that’s on your side. Thank you.
Bonnie Crombie, Leader of the Liberal Party in Ontario:
Thank you for having me here. As you know, this is my first time on this stage. Previously, I was Mayor of the city of Mississauga, so I’ve run a government, a pretty successful government, for almost a decade.
Bonnie Crombie, Leader of the Liberal Party in Ontario:
It was very fiscally responsible, but I really feel on social issues, as I hope I’ve demonstrated to you here today. What I want to say is that looking around at this tariff threat and Donald Trump to the south of us, I can’t imagine that there’s another premier in this country that would choose this moment, choose now to call an election. Honestly, we all want our premier to be hard at work, at their desk, working, protecting jobs, our jobs, not just his own job.
By calling an election, it is irresponsible, but I think you’ve heard a lot tonight about the choices that you’re facing. One thing is pretty clear. I don’t think that Doug Ford deserves four more years. Our Northern and our remote communities are really struggling under seven years of Doug Ford and he raised the issue of trust. You can’t trust him because he doesn’t deliver. He doesn’t do what he says he’s going to do. Sure, it sounds folksy and kind of nice, but it’s not real. It’s not true. Back in 2018 he said he’d end hallway medicine, the wait times have doubled.
Back in 2018 he said he’d cut your taxes. He hasn’t cut your taxes. He didn’t get it done. But I will as part of my platform. I’m determined to do it.
In 2022 he said he’d build 1.5 million homes. I was a mayor. I thought, well, this might be good. We’ll get some incentives to build. It didn’t happen. It didn’t happen. He didn’t get it done.
Our record today is worse than it was in 1955 worse housing on record. Jobs are leaving the province to other provinces that have figured it out. BC is building 70% more homes than we are. Think about that for a moment. So is Alberta, 36% more even Quebec, they figured out how to get it done under the same fiscal framework, under the same constraints, like interest rates.
You need a real partner here with the municipalities, and I’m someone who’s walked in your shoes, and I understand what’s happening. Lots of downloading; that downloading has to stop. Our mental health and addictions issues; they need a plan. They need proper funding behind them, not 350 beds, which doesn’t go anywhere, not even in the city of Toronto, let alone over 10 years, spread over how many municipalities this is a this is a crisis right now. What is happening to people who are homeless, over 200,000 of them people facing opioid issues.
I have a plan. My plan is to ensure that you get the basics right. I’m going to ensure that you have a family doctor. I’m going to invest in industries as well, but my most critical goal for you is to ensure that all two and a half million people in Ontario have a family doc. I’m recruiting 3100 of them for less than the price of his fantasy tunnel under the 401 he’d rather put money into a foreign spa than put it into our health care system. He’s putting more money into our spa than into the health care system. we’re going to cut your taxes and build affordable housing.
Doug Ford, incumbent Premier of the Progressive Conservative Party
You know, folks, this election is about leadership. Who do you trust to protect your family, your jobs, businesses and communities? This election is about who’s going to protect the people of Ontario. Over the last five weeks, we’ve seen what the next four years will look like under President Trump’s White House. He’ll shift the goal post every single day on a whim, creating economic chaos every sign every single time he does it, whether he imposes tariffs tomorrow, next month or next year, President Trump will continue to use tariffs to get what he wants.
Doug Ford, incumbent Premier of the Progressive Conservative Party
We have to be eyes wide open. Tariffs will devastate northern industries like mining, steel and forestry. They’ll put 1000s of Northern workers jobs at risk. President Trump doesn’t know what all we know that Canada is not for sale. Canada is resilient. We’re strong, and we’ll stand up to President Trump and the tariffs to protect Ontario. I’m asking the people for a strong, stable, four year mandate so we can outlast and outlive the Trump administration. The stronger the mandate, the better we’ll be able to protect communities and families and businesses around Ontario as we face down the threat of Donald Trump’s tariffs. Ontario and Northern Ontario has never been more important.
Northern Ontario was blessed to have an abundant supply of critical minerals. The US needs it, the world needs it, but our critical minerals don’t do us any good if they’re sitting in the ground or being shipped off to China, the future prosperity of our province, of our country. Unlocking economic potential of the ring and the ring of fire is absolutely critical. We need to do more. We need to do it faster. The need to speed up permitting and approvals of critical minerals in the ground process shipped right here in Ontario.
We need to ship those out around the world, and we need the federal government to get out of the way. They keep delaying and delaying. We need no more excuses, no more reasons why we can’t or we shouldn’t, friends. We’re in the Battle of our lives here in the province in our country. The front line of that battle starts right here in northern Ontario with the critical minerals. We’ll do whatever it takes to turn Ontario into a critical mineral and energy powerhouse around the world, please join us, and together, we’ll do whatever it takes to protect the people of Ontario. I want to thank you and God bless the people of Ontario.
