By Pepper Parr
January 21st, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Pollara, a public opinion polling firm, surveyed 1,506 people across Canada from Dec. 4 until Dec. 13 — after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited Trump at the president-elect’s Mara-a-Lago resort in Florida.
They found that 65 per cent believe a trade war could affect their day-to-day lives in a negative way while five per cent held a positive view and 12 per cent didn’t know.
Again? Sooner than you think.
While online panel samples cannot be assigned a margin of error, for comparison purposes, a random sample of this size would have one of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
A staggering 84 per cent of those surveyed have a “negative” view of what the incoming U.S. president’s measures could do to Canada with only three per cent being “positive” about them and eight per cent unsure.
Dan Arnold, chief strategy officer at Pollara, said that’s significant. “Generally, when we ask questions about a policy — either good or bad — people don’t usually think it’s going to impact them at the end of the day,” said Arnold.
“They say, ‘Well, this will hurt some people, but maybe it won’t hurt me,’ but you’ve got two-thirds of Canadians who actually feel like this could have a negative impact on their lives day-to-day,” he said.
“They have a sense that it’s going to be bad — whether or not that impacts their job or whether or not it means things just get more expensive at the grocery store because we’re into a trade war.”
And this is what Doug Ford is depending on as he thinks through whether he should ask the Lieut. Gov. Edith Dumont to issue a writ that calls for a provincial election to take place
Another politically fashionable piece of clothing.
Doug Ford’s governing Progressive Conservatives are eyeing a snap provincial election call as early as next Wednesday, sources told the Star.
The premier, who signalled he needs a “clear mandate” to spend the tens of billions of dollars in stimulus funds to keep the province’s economy afloat after President Donald Trump’s tariffs hit next month, is said to be looking at sending voters to the polls on Feb. 27 or March 6.
That would entail him visiting Lieut. Gov. Edith Dumont on either Jan. 29 or Feb. 5 to dissolve the legislature and issue the writs for an election that will cost between $150 million and $175 million to run.
An Ontario vote is not scheduled until June 2026, and Ford already has a stable majority government, the premier is reported to be huddled with his top aides to determine next moves.
Add to list – $3B for the $200 cheques that are being sent; he has almost doubled the size of cabinet to 37 from 20 in 2018; a $4.6 B deficit projected from the 2025 budget instead of the $4.4 B surplus once projected etc etc etc
Let’s not forget the debt.
Net Debt (millions$)
2013–14 276,169
2025–26 447,349
2026–27 461,876
2014–15 294,557
2015–16 306,357
2016–17 314,077
2017–18 323,068
2018–19 337,623
2019–20 352,382
2020–21 372,501
2021–22 382,842
2022–23 399,806
2023–24 407,969
2024–25 429,012 Current Outlook
2025–26 447,349 Medium Term Outlook
2026–27 461,876 Medium Term Outlook
Source:
Visit ontario.ca Ontario Financing Authority
Th advantage of such an election is 2026 Municipal elections could get the attention they deserve from the electorate.
While Doug Ford is acting appropriately to Trump”s threats, there is more to being Premier of this province than Trump…just as there is more to being Prime Minister than handling this narcissist south of the border
This is Dougie trying to avoid the RCMP investigation results of his probable complicity on the Green Belt scandal. He has well over a year with a plurality to do what he thinks is needed. We don’t need to squander $160 million on yet another idiotic Doug Ford idea. He started with a $30M legal challenge to the Supreme Court, throws away over a Billion on license plate renewals, perhaps another Billion to break a contract about to expire with the Beer Stores
The Science Centre, Ontario Place, etc etc.
And whatever happened with No More Hallway Medicine….he got rid of it and now it’s line up in the parking lot to maybe get a place in the hallway.
His only success was COVID….he listened to experts and professionals and did what they recommended.