NDP leader Andrea Horwath is committed to making her proposal to implement a universal pharmacare program a priority.
Horwath says it will be one of the first things she does if her party forms the next provincial government.
“This plan is something that we will implement immediately upon forming government in a couple of weeks time and provide not only that relief, but that security that you can get the prescriptions that you need,” says Horwath.
Howarth says her plan will save families an average of $350 each year.
Election polls put the NDP in third place, behind the PCs and Liberals.
Leader Andrea Horwath brushes off the notion that achieves her goal of forming the government, a coalition with the other parties is needed.
“I’m running for premier, and I’m running to have a majority government because people need to have hope that the things that matter most to them can actually be fixed, and that’s what this campaign is all about.”
Horwath continues to campaign on that the fact that her party is in the best position to unseat Doug Ford.”
Liberal leader Steven Del Duca is proposing a top-up of employment insurance benefits for workers taking parental leave.
The federal government allows for an eighteen-month leave, but benefits received are lower when spread over that period.
Del Duca says his plan would add to those benefits.
“This kind of plan, topping up and fully funding an 18-month parental leave program, could put up to $255 back in the pockets of Ontario families each and every single week,” says Del Duca.
Del Duca says he would also work with the feds to help the self-employed, contract and gig workers receive benefits they currently don’t qualify.
Del Duca was also dogged by reporters’ questions about the qualification and qualities of certain candidates the NDP has raised.
The Liberal leader says he’s not playing the political games being played by other party leaders, calling them desperation tactics.
“I’m disappointed to hear that Ms. Horvath and her team want to continue to focus on attacking me and Ontario Liberals instead of trying to take the fight to Doug Ford. Ontario Liberals will remain exclusively focused on making sure that Doug Ford’s first term in office is his last.”
Del Duca’s also sidestepped questions about his political future if he doesn’t form government.
PC leader Doug Ford campaigned in Hamilton to recognize two more trade union endorsements.
“I’m so grateful for the support of these unions and workers across Ontario, and I want our workers to know that I’ll always have your back,” says Ford
He’s received endorsements from five unions in the past week.
Ford says trade unions have given up on the NDP and leader Andrea Horwath, he continues to call anti-building everything.
“She’s anti-building anything, anti-building housing, anti-building highways, anti-building roads. Horvath would rather sit there on a picket line with their signs protesting a build than actually getting it done.”
Horwarth says she’s not concerned with the trade union endorsement of the PC leader Doug Ford.
She doesn’t see Ford being a friend of working people.
“We know whose side Doug Ford is on. We know his cuts hurt people, and we know he is not a friend of working people, hasn’t been, won’t be, pretending to be now, maybe, but that’s not who Doug Ford is,” says Horwath.
Horwarth points to endorsements from the Ontario Federation of Labour and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union that show labour still supports the NDP.
The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation is throwing its support being Mike Schreiner and the Green Party in the provincial election.
It’s the first time the union has endorsed the Greens.
President Karen Littlewood says Schreiner’s education platform reflects much of what they want to be addressed.
“Mike consulted with us over the education platform, and he’s really encapsulated well. It is about improving the lives of Ontarians. This is not just education, this is communities. This is public services,” says Littlewood.
Littlewood says with 60-thousand plus members, the weight of the endorsement can have a difference at the polls on June 2.
“I’ve worked hard prior to being elected and since being elected to earn your trust, to build a working relationship with you so that we can stand up and fight for better public education,” says Schreiner in recognizing the endorsement.
