Ontario Votes Roundup: Getting what done, exactly?
Global News
Doug Ford’s PCs begin the campaign with a comfortable lead. Liberal Steven Del Duca and NDP Andrea Horwath fishing in the same pond. Del Duca’s mystery machine.
Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives begin the campaign with a comfortable lead. Liberal Steven Del Duca and NDP Andrea Horwath fishing in the same pond. Del Duca’s mystery machine.
Alex Boutilier: Welcome to Global News’ Ontario Votes roundup, your weekly recap of all the developments – major, minor, just kind of funny – on the campaign trail as the Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives seek a second mandate at Queen’s Park.
Each week, Global’s Queen’s Park Bureau Chief Colin D’Mello and I will try to make sense out of the week that was, parties’ strategies and how the race is developing ahead of the June 2 vote.
Since this is the first official week of the campaign, let’s set the scene. Ford’s PC’s enter the race as pretty clear frontrunners after an at-times tumultuous four-year majority mandate, ranging from the chaotic early days to the even more chaotic COVID-19 pandemic period.
But the sun is now shining, schools remain open and the patios are popping up across Ontario – and according to Ipsos polling conducted for Global News, the Tories enjoy a comfortable lead with 39 per cent of decided voters.
Steven Del Duca’s Liberals (26 per cent) and the NDP under Andrea Horwath (25 per cent) appear to be locked in a deadly struggle over who can form the official opposition. And from my relative outsider’s perspective, Colin, the first few official days of the campaign felt that way to me – that the two opposition parties are focused more on making sure the other doesn’t siphon their support, rather than making the case that Ford has to go.
You are not a relative outsider, but a consummate insider. What stood out to you about the early days of the campaign?
And this might be a rookie question but … the Ford re-election slogan is “Getting It Done.” Can you tell me what, precisely, is getting done?