Ontario NDP gearing up for an early election call

By LINCOLN DEPRADINE
Ontario’s New Democratic Party (NDP) says “an early fall election” in the province appears “more and more likely”.
The party, in email messages to supporters and members of its “grassroots team” soliciting financial donations, said it’s working earnestly to “elect New Democrats everywhere in Ontario” and to make “life in Ontario better for everyone, not the few”.
The Progressive Conservative Party, under Doug Ford, was first elected to office in 2018. The Tories received a second consecutive mandate in 2022, with the NDP picking up 31 seats to form the Official Opposition in the Ontario Legislature.
The next provincial general election is tentatively scheduled to be held on June 4, 2026. However, NDP leader Marit Stiles and other party officials believe that Ford will call an early poll.
They point to ongoing million-dollar fundraisers by the Conservatives, and claim that Ford and his party are “refusing to commit to the fixed June 2026 election date”.
“And, starting next year, we can only spend what we fundraise because the Conservatives’ are scrapping the per-vote subsidy, which has historically given us access to crucial campaign resources. They’re getting rid of it to hold onto power, to tip the scales in their favour, and to stop us from gaining momentum,” the NDP said in one of its email messages.
According to the opposition party, “what Ontarians need right now is a government that gives power back to the people,” and an administration “that helps us with our daily struggles instead of adding to them”.
In a scathing attack on Ford, whom Stiles wants to replace as premier, she said that “Doug Ford thinks government works for him, for his friends, for insiders. But government belongs to the people, and we’re going to bring it back to them”.
Stiles pledged that, as leader of an NDP administration, “we’ll make government work for you”.
The opposition said that “with whispers of an early election only getting louder”, it wants to be ready and is seeking help in the form of cash contributions “to run the biggest campaign anyone has seen from the NDP”, and to end conservative rule in Ontario.
“In the last six years, Doug Ford has done nothing to help the people of Ontario. Instead, it’s just one corrupt backroom deal after the other, one scandal after the other,” the NDP alleged.
“The only way we can defeat Doug Ford is if we raise enough money to at least match the spending of his party in the next election. It’s a tough challenge because he’s backed by wealthy Ontarians who exploit the Conservatives’ cash-for-access culture, each contributing thousands to secure power and personal favours,” the party added.
“If an early election is called this fall, we need to be ready to compete with their deep pockets. Otherwise, the consequences will be catastrophic for every day working people who always get the short end of the stick in a Conservative-majority Ontario.”