By Pepper Parr
March 1st, 2025
BURLINGTON, On
Choosing to be Captain Canada was enough of a distraction – the electorate didn’t seem to care that as a Premier he really didn’t do a very good job – and he faces some serious issues if the RCMP report finds him culpable.
Doug Ford wanted a strong mandate – he didn’t get it.
She thought she was so close to winning that she could taste it.
Bonnie Crombie wanted a seat in the Legislature, she didn’t get it.
Marit Stile wanted more seats coming out of the election than what she had going in – she didn’t get it.
Mike Shreiner wanted a third candidate to win a seat in the Legislature – didn’t happen.
It was a snap election, called by Ford more than a year before before a provincial election was due.
Ford named himself Captain Canada and elected on a platform that he could take on Donald Trump. Doug didn’t appear to understand that the Prime Minister handles jobs like that.
Ford had a mess of failures behind him – low retail sales number, failure to adequately find the schools and the hospitals.
He will see the $200.00 cheques he sent out as returning money to the tax-payers – if that was really what he was doing – it would have been cheaper to email the funds to people – the province has email addresses – could have saved millions on the postage alone.
But that isn’t what he did – he mailed the cheques to people – requiring them to open the envelop and actually see the cheque and know viscerally that it came from the Premier.
The winter weather kept close to half of the registered voters away from the polling stations.
Ford’s snap election decision was a cynical move to distract an electorate that had very good reason to worry about job security. What Ford also had in minone cynically by Premier Doug Ford who was favoured by poor weather which kept the voters indoors.
Despite asking Ontarians for a “stronger mandate,” Doug Ford and his party are headed back to Queen’s Park with 80 seats, barring a successful recount — close to the same number of MPPs that they went into the election with. PC incumbents Patrice Barns in Ajax and Christine Hogarth in Etobicoke—Lakeshore lost their seats.
The legislature was to return March 3rd, word is that it might be as late as March 15 – elections have yet to be certified. Recounts are possible and could make a difference in the Progressive Conservative seat count.
The PCs did not deliver a budget before the election; they will have to produce something in the Spring.
The Trump tariff threat will dog everything for some time; latest word is that the hammer will hit on the 4th of March – don’t bet the farm on that.
Bonnie Crombie hasn’t admitted it yet but her career as a Liberal has come to an end.
Explaining that you failed to win a seat in the Legislature is hard. Bonnie Crombie now has to decide if she can find a seat she can win and convince the 12 party members that she should be given the opportunity to do that.
Crombie did manage to win 12 seats which gives the Liberals party status which comes with a considerable amount of public funding. Some of that money would be used to pay Crombie a salary were she to hang on to her Leadership position She lost the race for a seat in Mississauga East—Cooksville.
The party is said to be divided on what should be done with a Leader who can’t sit in the Legislature. Crombie will have to face a Leadership review – the sooner the better to resolve the leadership issue. There is a lot of work to be done if the Liberals are to be effective.
Is Doug Ford ready for four more years of Marit Stiles nipping at his heels.
The New Democrats see the election as a success – they will be the official Opposition party and that matters. Theit seat count was just under what they had going into the election. The 2018 seat count coming out of that election was 38.
The troubling statistic is the vote share; NDP ran up 900,000; the Liberals 1.5 million.
Those votes were not so much for the Liberals as they were against Doug Ford.
The only people better off are the Liberals – they now have party status, we might – just might see a chastened Doug Ford who is said to be very disappointed in the results.
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I think it’s shameful that Burlington did not vote for the MPP, ours has no interest in the job!
It’s time that talk about the election was put to bed. Comments & articles in the Burlington Gazette by the editor & others started bashing the Premier & Ontario Provincial Government within minutes of the election being called & the purpose for it, (with the very infrequent, interjection by anyone else), it keeps going on & on non-stop & appears to have no end. We live in a democracy, the people province wide made their decision clear but it appears that is not acceptable to the political supporters of the candidates who did not come out on top. STOP – wait until the next election is called.
Sadly, governments rarely attract the “best and brightest”, but are nonetheless imposing their will increasingly more on their citizens’ lives. Ignorance + arrogance. Ugh!
Has the brain rot that infected our US neighbours come north to infect Ontarians? Under Ford Healthcare, Education, Housing, homelessness, to name but a few has significantly become much worse, regardless of his 7 years in office, and his promises to rectify them. Guess he’s been too busy shoveling cash into his cronies and corporate donor’s pockets.
The only thing that Ford has excelled at is squandering our tax dollars on legal challenges, payola to Ontario citizens in free car license plate renewals and a couple hundred bucks as nothing less than out-right bribe. Meanwhile our Provincial debt skyrockets.
Personally, I wouldn’t blame the weather for low voter turnout. Even in good weather there has been low voter turnout.
it seems that Bonnie Crombie will remain as leader of the Provincial Liberals.
As for the $200.00 cheques mailed out. For some families this money will be very welcomed and help with expenses.
For those where this money will not make a difference to their lifestyle I suggest that you donate this to a charity of your choice.
Our family decided to donate this money to the Joseph Brant Hospital to purchase new equipment to improve their imaging department ( CT Scans, etc.).