Ontario Leaders Debate May 16, 2022 (CPAC)
Less than 20 days until election day as the four major party leaders sparred for a second time.
Doug Ford of the PC’s, Steven Del Duca of the Liberals, Mike Schreiner of the Green Party and Andrea Horwath of the NDP all faced the same four topics in Toronto, with one question asking if they have any political regrets.
Schreiner said Monday night that his mistake was not running in the riding of Guelph in the 2014 Ontario election.
Ford regretted not running before June of 2018 when he was first elected as the member of provincial parliament for the riding of Etobicoke North.
Del Duca pointed to the Liberal Party result in the election four years ago when they won just seven seats.
Horwath did not give a specific example of a regret, noting they are opportunities to learn and to do better next time.
During the debate, Ford told the audience the PC Party is the only one that will cut through excuses. He added a vote for any of the other three parties will mean the return of licence plate fees as well as an increase to the gas tax and other taxes.
Horwath spent her opening statement talking about bringing back care to long term care, and keeping the profits out of it.
Del Duca delivered the message that the Ford PC’s have walked away from their responsibility to lead Ontario and left voters to fend for themselves.
Schreiner stressed it is now or never to address the climate crisis, urging Ontarians to help stop Doug Ford from paving over the future of the province.
During discussions about healthcare, Ford stressed that if a bad decision was made by his government during the COVID-19 pandemic, he apologized and tried to make things better.
Del Duca pointed to a decision by the government in April of 2021 that led to area playgrounds closing and allowing police to make random stops for not following the stay-at-home order.
“For two and a half years, literally 24/7, I was working on this pandemic,” Ford fired back. “It’s easy to sit back from the sidelines when you didn’t have to make the tough decisions that I had to make and criticize. You have the easiest job in the world.”
During the education portion of the debate, Horwath agreed with Ford that shop class should be back in the public school system, adding that it should not be privatized “so your buddies can make some money off of it.”
Ford responded with, “I’m glad that we agree on the skilled trades, even though the trade unions don’t support Ms. Horwath because they don’t believe in her. They also don’t support the Liberals.”
Doug Ford’s attendance record at Question Period was also highlighted by Steven Del Duca.
“More than 82 per cent of the time set aside for him to respond to the opposition parties, he has been absent,” noted Del Duca. “If you don’t show up to work 82 per cent of the time, I suspect that you don’t promoted and chances are you wouldn’t keep your job.”
Ford responded by pointing to the previous Liberal government who sold Hydro One in 2018.
This 90 minute debate was held a week after the gathering in North Bay.
Election Day is Thursday, June 2nd.
Advance polls will open on Thursday, May 19th.
