Ontario

Natpo – Deja blue: Doug Ford PCs roar to a second majority win in Ontario

Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives scored a commanding victory in Thursday’s Ontario election, capturing another majority government as the leaders of the opposition NDP and Liberals announced they were resigning after bitterly disappointing results.

Globe – Ontario election: Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives win second majority

Premier Doug Ford has easily won a second majority government after a roller-coaster term dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic, with both NDP and Liberal leaders resigning in the face of failures by their parties to mount serious challenges to the Progressive Conservative juggernaut.

His party was leading or elected in 83 seats, a gain of seven seats from its results in 2018, with 41 per cent of the popular vote.

Star – Doug Ford trounces the competition as Steven Del Duca and Andrea Horwath resign as party leaders

Ford more years.

Ontario voters gave Premier Doug Ford another four-year term Thursday in a resounding election victory for the Progressive Conservatives that reduced the size of the NDP opposition and left the Liberals banished to the political wilderness.

Both NDP Leader Andrea Horwath and Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca resigned their posts.

CBC – How Doug Ford’s PCs won their 2nd straight Ontario election

Doug Ford’s journey to winning the Ontario election and securing a second straight majority really began on St. Patrick’s Day in 2020, the day he declared a state of emergency over the COVID-19 pandemic.

Until that moment, Ford’s Progressive Conservative government bore the aroma of a one-term wonder, mired in nepotism scandals and so unpopular that the premier got booed at the otherwise joyful Toronto Raptors victory parade.

Global – Ontario Progressive Conservatives win another majority government

The Ontario Progressive Conservatives have won a second consecutive majority government, with PC candidates having been elected in 83 ridings.

That’s seven more than in the previous election and well above the minimum 63 required for a majority.

CTV – Doug Ford re-elected as Ontario premier with majority government

Doug Ford has been re-elected as premier of Ontario with a majority government, CTV News declares.

Polls closed across the province at 9 p.m. on Thursday and shortly after CTV News declared the Progressive Conservative leader the winner of the 2022 election.

At Toronto Congress Centre in Etobicoke, Ford celebrated his second mandate to wild applause and shouts of “four more years.”

I heard voter turnout was estimated at 45% down significantly from the 57% turnout in 2018.

With Ontarians hitting the polls today, the election will not only determine the province’s next premier, but also the political fates of all the party leaders.

Steven Del Duca, for example, has said that regardless of tonight’s election results, he will stay on as Liberal leader. But despite his intentions, it will likely be his party’s showing — and his own battle within his riding — that may very well determine whether he remains at the helm.

The election no one cared about.

The Ford PCs have 38.8 per cent support among decided voters, according to a new poll conducted between Sunday and Tuesday for CP24 and CTV News by Nanos Research.

Meanwhile, the Liberals have 26.3 per cent support and the NDP have 24.7 per cent support.

OTTAWA — With just a day to go in the Ontario election campaign, the most unlikeliest of cities is locked in a near-statistical three-way tie over who should form the province’s next government.

Toronto is fecked.

… Remember when you go into the polling booth that Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca was with former premier Kathleen Wynne every step of the way as she inflicted misery on Ontarians.

The election no one cares about.

With just two days of campaigning left until Thursday’s election in Ontario, the Liberal and New Democrat campaigns are coming to grips with the reality that only two scenarios could realistically play out on Thursday night: either Doug Ford wins another majority or he and his PC Party fall just a few seats short.

All reputable Ontario polling aggregator sites — including the CBC Ontario Poll Tracker, the Signal by Vox Pop Labs for the Toronto Star, and the iPolitics/Mainstreet Research election dashboard — are forecasting a Progressive Conservative majority as the most likely outcome. 

Elections Ontario has released preliminary figures on how many Ontarians cast their ballot during advance polls for the 2022 Ontario election.

It indicated that in the 10-day period for advance polls, there were 1,066,545 votes representing about 9.92 per cent of eligible voters.

For comparison, in the 2018 provincial election, when there were five days of advance polling, 698,609 cast a ballot representing 6.8 per cent of the eligible population.

That’s an interesting increase in early voter turnout.

With less than a week to go before election day, a new poll has found four in 10 Ontarians think Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford would make the best premier for the province.

The poll, conducted by Ipsos exclusively for Global News found that 40 per cent of respondents said Doug Ford is the best person for the job, marking a one point drop from earlier this month.

Ford surges as Ontario Liberals continue to lose confidence in Del Duca: poll

… Wednesday’s latest Postmedia/Leger poll suggests the lead enjoyed by the Tories throughout the campaign remains strong, with 38 per cent of respondents intending to vote PC.

Steven Del Duca’s Liberals dropped from 28 to 26 per cent from last week, with the NDP increasing by one to 24 per cent.

Michael Taube: The incredible political metamorphosis of Doug Ford

… In a 12-year span, Ford has transformed himself from a behind-the-scenes businessman to reluctant politician to controversial municipal city councillor/mayoral candidate to unexpected Ontario premier to one of Canada’s most successful Conservative politicians.

Just nine days remain in the Ontario election campaign, not a lot of time for the race to shift dramatically, but Liberal and NDP strategists claim it’s enough time.

Both those parties hoped that they would have definitively left the other in the dust by this point in the campaign, and sitting within clear striking distance of Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives.

It hasn’t worked out that way. The story of the race so far is how little has changed since the campaign period officially began nearly three weeks ago.

It’s easy to forget there is an election.

If the election were to be held tomorrow, 38 per cent of decided voters would vote for Doug Ford and the PCs. A total of 28 per cent of decided voters would choose Steven Del Duca’s Liberal Party and 23 per cent said they would vote for the Ontario NDP and Andrea Horwath, the poll indicated.

Sleepwalk.

With 11 days to go before the June 2 Ontario election, Premier Doug Ford’s formula for winning a second majority government is that Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath are attacking each other, while Ford isn’t attacking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

ITEM: A wealthy member of the Toronto Maple Leafs is the victim of a shocking carjacking.

ITEM: A smaller Ontario town is being ravaged by a drug-fueled homicide epidemic.

ITEM: A young girl’s body is found in a dumpster in one of Canada’s wealthiest neighborhoods; another child’s body is discovered floating in the Grand River.

This is truly the quietest election in some time.