Ontario Progressive Conservative Chief Doug Ford touted his get together’s border safety measures amid the specter of U.S. tariffs, because the NDP targeted on pocketbook points Saturday with the promise of a month-to-month grocery rebate for hundreds of thousands of individuals.
Ford continued to hammer house his marketing campaign message about defending Ontario’s economic system, saying that although U.S. President Donald Trump has postpone his tariff threats till early March, “an unprecedented economic risk” nonetheless looms.
“The simple truth is, as long as Donald Trump is president, the risk of tariffs will never go away,” Ford stated throughout a marketing campaign cease at a regional airport in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.
Trump has been threatening to impose 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian items until Canada improves safety on the border. Ford stated his authorities’s Operation Deterrence, introduced final month as a part of Ontario’s response to the tariff threats, has up to now intercepted eight unlawful border crossings and led to the seizure of 21 unlawful firearms and 624 kilograms of cocaine.
If re-elected, Ford promised to spend $50 million to develop the Ontario Provincial Police’s Joint-Air Assist Unit with two new H-135 helicopters to assist the Niagara Regional Police and the Windsor Police Service with elevated border patrols, safety and enforcement.
Opposition events have slammed Ford’s declare that he wants an excellent bigger electoral mandate to cope with 4 years of Trump, and have stated the election marketing campaign should give attention to provincial health-care and affordability points.
NDP Chief Marit Stiles stated the rising price of residing is high of thoughts for Ontarians and that’s why an NDP authorities would introduce a month-to-month grocery rebate for decrease and middle-income households.
Stiles stated as much as 4 million households would profit from this system and a household of 4 might stand up to $122 per 30 days to assist offset the price of groceries.
“That’s over $1,400 per year,” Stiles stated at a marketing campaign cease in Toronto on Saturday.
“What I hear from people as I’m criss-crossing Ontario is that everybody is fed up with paying too much for basics like bread, rice and vegetables,” she stated.
The tax-free rebate quantity could be based mostly on how a lot the price of grocery staples has elevated during the last a number of years and tied to the recipient’s annual revenue and family measurement.
The NDP stated households and people with a web revenue of as much as $65,000 would get the complete credit score, and the rebate would lower for households incomes between $65,000 and $100,000.
The get together stated this system would price about $409 million per 30 days.
A report by researchers at a number of Canadian universities launched in December concluded {that a} Canadian household of 4 can anticipate to spend greater than $16,800 on meals in 2025 – and enhance of about $800 from final 12 months.
If her get together kinds authorities, Stiles stated it might additionally introduce measures to forestall co-ordinated worth hikes amongst Ontario grocers and set up a client safety watchdog.
In the meantime, the Liberal get together made a pledge Saturday to nominate a particular investigator to look into varied strikes by the Ford authorities, together with the closure of the Ontario Science Centre and the now-reversed plan to develop land within the protected Greenbelt.
Liberal Chief Bonnie Crombie had made an analogous promise final June, lengthy earlier than Ford known as the Feb. 27 snap election.
Opening up the Greenbelt sparked a public outcry that hit a fever pitch in the summertime of 2023 and led to an RCMP investigation that’s nonetheless ongoing.
Ford has denied any wrongdoing and stated final week that he has not been interviewed by the RCMP in its Greenbelt probe, however he doesn’t know if any of his staffers have been questioned.
