The date for Ontario’s 2018 premier election is June 7th, 2018. Re-election is the focus for Kathleen Wynne as the liberals have held the premier position for fifteen years. Wynne will be up against Doug Ford from the Progressive Conservative Party (PC), Andrea Horwath from the New Democratic Party (NDP) and Mike Schreiner from the Green Party of Ontario (GPO).
Over the past couple of months the current Premier, Kathleen Wynne, has been declining in popularity. This decline has given the other parties a better chance at the Premiership. Doug Ford the new leader for the PC’s focuses on further clouding the image of Kathleen Wynne. Andrea Horwath, unlike Wynne, has been increasing in popularity as she stated this election will be the NDP’s “best one yet”. The GPO is currently still in last place in the ranking but, Schreiner focuses on obtaining as many seats as possible for his party.
According to Ontario’s Poll Tracker, the parties in the lead are respectively PC, NDP, LIB, and GPO. There is a likelihood that the PC with Doug Ford leading will win, but there is still a month left and with the province ready for change, anything could happen.
On the right, councilor Doug Ford said he is ready to take on the Liberals, he wants to retract and revise the controversial sex education curriculum proposed by Wynne. When Wynne’s curriculum was proposed, many Ontarians were outraged and stood against it. Though a similar curriculum has been implemented in Quebec, Ford is adamant that he will not allow it in Ontario.
Ford’s platform seems to be driven by making cuts. It focuses primarily on decreasing spending, cutting hydro rates and taxes for low-income families. Ford promised to decrease the provincial spending by 4% in order to get Ontario out of a deficit. His plan for decreasing the provincial spending is currently not available. If elected, Ford plans to keep minimum wage at $14.00.
Contrastingly, Kathleen Wynne’s main focus is on increasing minimum wage and improving health care and child care accessibility across the province.
Many of Wynne’s promises focus on health care. In January 2018, Wynne introduced OHIP+ which provides individuals under 25 years of age with free access to Pharmacare. She plans to expand this program to provide the same services to senior Ontarians over 65 as well.
Wynne also promises to invest more in hospital healthcare in order to decrease wait times, in order to accomplish this she plans on investing more money into hospital care. This investment will go into funding more hospital beds and more staff in order for patients to be cared for faster.
Wynne raised the minimum wage to $14.00/hr on January from the original $11.60/hr wage. If elected she promises another increase to $15.00/hr by 2019. Wynne has emphasized her plan for a universally funded child care system to help Ontarians save the thousands they currently pay.
Andrea Horwath platform focuses on health and education. Andrea’s focus on health care includes hospital care, dental care, and mitigating the cost of prescription drugs. She promises to provide 2000 new hospital beds in order to stop hospital hallway medicine. Horwath wants an overall better hospital system, so she intends to devote $19 billion over 10 years to making hospitals more efficient.
Horwath wants big changes for Pharmacare “Ontario will be the first province with universal Pharmacare.” This means that every Ontarian will have access to free prescription medications. Horwath will decrease childcare rates with her “$12-a-day Childcare” system and which would also provide free childcare for Ontarians with income below $40,000.
Andrea Horwath also wants to put an end to standardized tests such as EQAO in order to focus on more “valuable education”. Horwath wants to end kindergarten/grade one split classes and put a 26-student cap on kindergarten classes. For post-secondary educatio,n Horwath’s focus is on OSAP and wants to change loans into grants. Everyone eligible for OSAP would be given grants and graduate debt free.
Mike Schreiner leader of the GPO focuses on creating more jobs, improving healthcare, and maintaining a cleaner planet. Schreiner wants to switch from jobs focused on oil sands to jobs focused on renewable energy. This way people would have clean jobs that benefit the environment as well. Jobs in renewable energy have a higher salary.
Schreiner also has plans to improve the healthcare system. His focus is on a universally funded dental care system. Schreiner states that “dental hygiene is very important to individuals and is necessary for all.” Pharmacare, Schreiner stated, should be a federal responsibility and be federally funded.
“There is no planet B” is a saying often used by Schreiner. His focus is the implementation of better environmental policies in Ontario. The main focus for Schreiner is to reduce Ontario’s GHG emissions by setting a carbon fee.
With less than a month left until the election, all the candidates have something to offer Ontario. Each have different plans that they believe will improve the province. All that’s left is for Ontarians to find a party that speaks to them and get out and vote on June 7th, 2018.
By Sura Kamil