Ontario Progressive Conservative Chief Doug Ford touted his occasion’s border safety measures amid the specter of U.S. tariffs, because the NDP centered on pocketbook points Saturday with the promise of a month-to-month grocery rebate for hundreds of thousands of individuals.
Ford continued to hammer dwelling his marketing campaign message about defending Ontario’s financial system, saying that despite the fact that U.S. President Donald Trump has delay his tariff threats till early March, “an unprecedented financial danger” nonetheless looms.
“The straightforward fact is, so long as Donald Trump is president, the danger of tariffs won’t ever go away,” Ford mentioned 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 mentioned his authorities’s Operation Deterrence, introduced final month as a part of Ontario’s response to the tariff threats, has thus far 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 broaden 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 a good bigger electoral mandate to take care of 4 years of Trump, and have mentioned the election marketing campaign should concentrate on provincial health-care and affordability points.
NDP Chief Marit Stiles mentioned the rising value of residing is prime of thoughts for Ontarians and that is why an NDP authorities would introduce a month-to-month grocery rebate for decrease and middle-income households.
Stiles mentioned as much as 4 million households would profit from this system and a household of 4 may rise up to $122 per 30 days to assist offset the price of groceries.
“That is over $1,400 per 12 months,” Stiles mentioned at a marketing campaign cease in Toronto on Saturday.
“What I hear from folks as I am criss-crossing Ontario is that everyone is fed up with paying an excessive amount of for fundamentals like bread, rice and greens,” she mentioned.
The tax-free rebate quantity can be primarily based on how a lot the price of grocery staples has elevated over the past a number of years and tied to the recipients’ annual earnings and family dimension.
The NDP mentioned households and people with a web earnings 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 occasion mentioned this system would value 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 count on to spend greater than $16,800 on meals in 2025 – and improve of about $800 from final 12 months.
If her occasion kinds authorities, Stiles mentioned it will additionally introduce measures to forestall co-ordinated worth hikes amongst Ontario grocers and set up a shopper safety watchdog.
In the meantime, the Liberal occasion made a pledge Saturday to nominate a particular investigator to look into numerous 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 identical promise final June, lengthy earlier than Ford referred to 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 is nonetheless ongoing.
Ford has denied any wrongdoing and mentioned 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.
This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Feb. 8, 2025.
Sonja Puzic, The Canadian Press
