Ontario Progressive Conservative Chief Doug Ford touted his get together’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 tens of millions of individuals.
Ontario Progressive Conservative Chief Doug Ford touted his get together’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 tens of millions of individuals.
Ford continued to hammer dwelling his marketing campaign message about defending Ontario’s economic system, saying that despite the fact that U.S. President Donald Trump has delay his tariff threats till early March, “an unprecedented financial threat” nonetheless looms.
“The straightforward reality 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 except 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 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 broaden the Ontario Provincial Police’s Joint-Air Help Unit with two new H-135 helicopters to help 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 mentioned the election marketing campaign should concentrate on provincial health-care and affordability points.
NDP Chief Marit Stiles mentioned the rising value of dwelling is high 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 stand 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 individuals 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 could 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 revenue and family dimension.
The NDP mentioned households and people with a internet revenue of as much as $65,000 would get the total credit score, and the rebate would lower for households incomes between $65,000 and $100,000.
The get together 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 anticipate to spend greater than $16,800 on meals in 2025 – and improve of about $800 from final 12 months.
If her get together varieties authorities, Stiles mentioned it will additionally introduce measures to stop co-ordinated worth hikes amongst Ontario grocers and set up a shopper 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 the same 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 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.
The Liberal get together additionally confirmed it will likely be operating two 30-second commercials throughout Sunday’s Tremendous Bowl recreation between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas Metropolis Chiefs. One of many adverts contains a clip of Ford saying he needed Trump to win the presidential election and accuses him of utilizing the specter of tariffs on Canada for his personal political achieve, whereas the second addresses Ontario’s health-care challenges.
A spokesperson for the Liberal get together did not present a precise determine when requested about the price of the commercials, however mentioned the ads converse to the energy of the get together’s fundraising efforts.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Feb. 8, 2025.
— with information from Cassidy McMackon in Halifax.
Sonja Puzic, The Canadian Press
