Provincial Party Leaders Debate Policies
On Monday, the leaders of the four major political parties in Ontario came together for a debate in Toronto. The debate was moderated by TVO journalist Steve Paikin and Toronto Star reporter Althia Raj. The debate was 90 minutes long and focused on four main subject areas: the economy, health care, education, and leadership. The debate featured Progressive Conservative leader and incumbent Premier Doug Ford, NDP leader and current leader of the opposition Andrea Horwath, Liberal leader Steven Del Duca, and Green Party leader Mike Schreiner.
For the second time in as many weeks, here’s what Moe Knows:
I’m not going to fault Doug Ford for bringing notes to a debate that explicitly asked for candidates not to do so because I understand he’s not the most gifted public speaker and he doesn’t want to get caught in a question he can’t answer on his feet. I will, however, fault him for having notes that clearly said nothing of substance other than “attack the 2018 Liberal government” and “Highway 413”. Ford’s appeal has never been his speaking ability or his charisma; it’s always been his persona as a “working” man, a humble, blue collar, hard worker that turns his nose at the Liberal elites. The problem now though is that this campaign has either exposed that that was never his true persona, or it’s made it clear that over the last four years as Premier, he’s changed. His biggest talking points during the debate were that the NDP and Liberals will hike taxes, Highway 413 will benefit everyday Ontarians, and that his government has undone all the mistakes of the 2018 Liberal government. The problems with these talking points are that the people best positioned to benefit from Highway 413 are the land developers, some of which have ties to the Ford government, the Liberals’ fully costed platform has no mention of tax raises except for the wealthiest Ontarians and businesses, and the Ford government has been in power for the last four year, not the 2018 Liberals. Ford seems like a Premier who’s either out of touch, or desperately trying to preserve his working-man image and when he’s bumbling through talking points during the debate, he seems more like the former.
If you’re looking for accountability, you might want to look somewhere else. The leaders were asked a question about what political decision they made that they regret the most. This was a brutal segment. Schreiner said he regrets not running earlier and Del Duca said losing his seat in 2018 was his biggest regret. Horwath’s answer was just as lame as she said that her mother taught her to view missteps as opportunities to learn and not regrets. A great principle, but not even close to a good answer to the question. Of course, though, the current Premier’s answer would take the cake. After a pandemic that wrecked havoc in LTC homes, and an earlier admission in the same debate that not everything worked, Ford revealed that his biggest regret was also not running earlier. I won’t lie, I was stunned to hear that come out of his mouth. After mentioning that the provincial PPE stockpile was left barren by the previous Liberal government, and after leading Ontario’s provincial government for two whole years by the time the pandemic struck and still not acting to restock it, an answer even remotely along the lines of “I wish we were better prepared” or “I regret not acting sooner” would’ve been endlessly better than the brazen abdication of responsibility that came out of Ford’s mouth. It’s astounding to see a leader ignore all the missteps the province took in handling the pandemic, even with the benefit of saying they did the best they could with what the had available. A little accountability would’ve gone a long way.
Horwath needs to rethink her strategy. The NDP platform is ambitious and has a lot of really good ideas. Instead of focusing on that, Horwath decided to try and play both sides by attacking Del Duca and Ford throughout the debate. Now this isn’t to say that either is above reproach, but if Horwath’s goal is to ensure Ford doesn’t win another majority, attacking his leading contender probably isn’t the best way to do it. If she still thinks that the NDP have a chance of forming the ruling side of parliament, she needs a reality check. The NDP are a close third in polling numbers but are losing support as the Liberals gain it. By all means, critique Del Duca’s positions and his ideas, but don’t do Ford’s work for him. Along with the needless barbs towards the Liberal leader, Horwath also seemed reliant on anecdotal stories to drive her point. Every question she was asked was answered with some sort of story about someone she met or someone she knew. I think she’s doing this to make her seem more relatable and in touch, but it takes attention away from her party’s platform and it makes her seem like someone who’s more concerned with being seen as good than actually being good. She has the opportunity to play kingmaker and it seems like she’ll do anything but help Del Duca and the Liberals.
Del Duca was good but he’s not perfect. He stuck to his guns: his platform, the fact it’s fully costed, the fact that Ford thinks this election is another referendum on the previous Liberal government, the fact that Ford has let down healthcare and education, pledged to repeal Bill 124, and the fact that it seems like he’s lost his political motor. He hit Ford hard on these fronts and most of his shots stuck. He was good, but he wasn’t perfect. He beat the dead horse to the tune of “following the science” and tried to hit Ford on the fact that housing has become less affordable. The former will be sure to elicit several groans from people in his own party and elicit some stronger reactions from the voters he’s trying to win over. The latter partly landed, but only because Ford had pledged to lower the cost of housing in his first election. In the grand scheme of things though, it missed, largely because the provincial government, and any government for that matter, can only do so much to try and make/keep housing affordable. It’s pointless to try and hammer Ford on affordability when it’s entirely plausible to think his government has done the most it can. If the Liberals do win the election and form government, Del Duca will have had to convince voters who voted him out of politics in 2018 that he is the best choice and he’ll have to make some hard decisions and swallow some bitter pills. One of which would be that he can’t really do much to make housing affordable either.
Mike Schreiner appreciation paragraph! Admittedly, I haven’t been following the Green Party very closely this election cycle, for the sole reason that they’re a consistent, distant fourth in polling. I have a tremendous amount of respect for the Green Party, and I was very happy to see Mike Schreiner on the debate stage. He didn’t really wow anybody, and I don’t think his performance was enough to boost his popularity, but he stuck to his strengths and made a concerted effort to, unsurprisingly, push for action on the climate crisis. He continued to push all the party leaders hard on their climate plans and delivered a memorable line to Ford when he scoffed at what seemed to be Ford’s defense of “big oil” during a climate emergency. He pushed them all, especially, Ford hard. He also mentioned his ability to work across party lines and his leadership in the creating the Our London Family Act. While he may not ever lead government, I’m glad the Green Party has a competent leader who isn’t afraid to fight for what they believe in. Ontario’s government is stronger when the Green Party has the kind of voice, and fight, like they do under Schreiner.
And that’s it! Those are Moe’s five biggest takeaways. It wasn’t always pretty but it wasn’t the game show the CPC leadership debate was. It was informative and it was great to hear the leaders go at each other and counter their opponents’ blows. It was interesting, it was well moderated, and it was a good all-around debate on the issues that seem to be the most important to Ontarians.
You can watch the debate in full here. As Ontario’s election looms just around the corner, find out how to register to vote here and if you’re already registered, find out how and where to vote here! Cheers!