On Monday, union leaders representing nearly every industry across the province of Ontario held a press conference condemning Doug Ford’s intention to call an early election.
It was leaked to the media last week that Ford planned to call an early election on Wednesday, January 29.
“Ford is meeting with the Lieutenant Governor, asking her to dissolve the legislature and drop the writ. Throwing Ontario into an unnecessary snap election 15 months early,” said Ontario Federation of Labour president Laura Walton.
Instead of an election, Walton said that a taskforce to respond to the tariff threat should be formed that included representatives from labour, community leaders, and members of opposition parties.
Walton was joined by representatives from United Steelworkers, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario, the Canadian Labour Congress, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) and leaders from about a half dozen or more other unions.
“The premier says he needs a mandate to spend tens of billions of dollars to shore up Ontario businesses if Trump goes through with his threats. This argument doesn’t hold water, especially as he puts our government in caretaker mode,” said Walton.
US president Donald Trump has threatened a blanket 25 per cent tariff on all Canadian goods, starting on February 1.
READ MORE: Trump wastes no time to target Canada
“Never in seven years has it crossed Doug’s mind to seek permission before wasting our money. Not for the Greenbelt, not for Ontario Place, not for the Science Centre, nothing,” added Walton.
Ford’s legacy of dismantling public spaces and services
Since being elected seven years ago, Ford has consistently attacked and aimed at dismantling specific places and services that have been made available to all Ontarians thanks to public tax dollars.
In 2023, the Ford government was at the centre of controversy when it came to light that it planned to sell part of the protected Greenbelt, an environmental area protected in Ontario from development. When it was learned that this land was being sold to private developers, who were connected with Ford and his government and stood to make millions, the premier reversed his decision under significant public pressure.
A similar story was seen in his handling of the controversial Ontario Place project and the Ontario Science Centre.
Ontario Place is a public space in Toronto, but Ford has elected to sell a part of it to a private company that is seeking to build a spa on the land, complete with a large parking lot covering a large percentage of the area’s greenspace.
A part of this development will be a new location for the Ontario Science Centre. The Ford government announced that it was closing the Science Centre last summer because its existing building was considered “unsafe” despite an Auditor General’s report pointing to the opposite conclusion.
A focus on Ford over Trump
CUPE Ontario president Fred Hahn spoke at the press conference on Monday and said that it was Ford’s record that should be the issue if an election were to be held, not Donald Trump’s threats.
Since Ford was elected, Ontario has seen frequent closures of hospital emergency rooms, especially in rural areas, due to understaffing.
There is also the growing issue of homelessness, with Hahn saying at the press conference that while Ford planned to spend millions on this election, there were 80,000 Ontarians living on the streets.
“This election shouldn’t be about Trump. It should be about Ontario. It should be about Doug Ford’s record of failure over the past seven years,” said Hahn. “Let’s fire the boss. Let’s vote Doug Ford out of office.”
OPSEU president JP Hornick said that Trump’s tariff threat is not just an Ontario issue, but an issue for all of Canada, yet Ford is the only premier calling for an election.
“Instead of working with opposition parties as they’ve offered to do, instead he will spend a month attacking them on the campaign trail.” Hornick said. “His reason for calling an election is patently ridiculous.”
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