RANT – Doug Ford’s Third PC Majority Win

As was widely expected, Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative party secured its third straight majority last night. This is despite him being the least liked premier in the country and all the trouble he caused including the RCMP Greenbelt investigation, the destruction of Ontario Place for a mega spa nobody wants, the crumbling of our health and education systems, and the ripping out of Toronto’s bike lanes. And of course, those $200 pre-election bribe cheques. However, there is a lot more to rant about aside from the outcome itself.

Editorial cartoon via Theo Moudakis

For starters, this election was called fifteen months earlier than it needed to at a cost of $189 million. It happened during winter when heavy snowfall, strong winds, and other bad weather risked dampening voter turnout. There was a fiasco with voter information cards which many people never received – something never reported in past provincial or federal elections – while the mainstream media did a poor job communicating how to vote without one. Heck, overall coverage of the provincial election was drowned out from the tariff and 51st state threats south of the border. All told, the 45.4% voter turnout was only marginally better than the record low 44% set back in 2022.

Of course, you have the opposition parties attacking each other and splitting votes which ultimately benefited Doug Ford again. While several groups such as Not One Seat, Co-operate for Canada, and Common Ground Ontario – which my Community Bikeways (TCBC) group helped start – organized to encourage strategic voting, there is only so much they can accomplish with their limited resources. A few candidates such as the NDP’s Natasha Doyle-Merrick dropped out in Eglinton-Lawrence, but even that didn’t stop the PC’s from leading that riding by 167 votes which is still too close to call. Perhaps the most successful of the strategic voting efforts was in Etobicoke-Lakeshore – thanks in part to TCBC – where Liberal Lee Fairclough defeated PC Christine Hogarth who was one of the main opponents of the Bloor bike lanes in Etobicoke. To make things even more chaotic, the Liberals had a much higher popular vote share than the NDP (30% vs 19%), yet the NDP won almost double the seats at 27 compared to 14 for the Liberals per this CBC infographic.

Given all of this, there is a serious need for the NDP, Liberals, and even the Greens to rethink their approach as continuing the status quo of fighting each other is unsustainable. As the right had done federally in 2003 and Alberta in 2017, maybe it’s time to merge the progressive parties in Ontario? There are some partisan die-hards out there who claim it will never happen, yet the Liberals have tended to share a lot more in common with the NDP than with the PC’s. If not an outright merger, maybe there is a need for formal co-operation agreements so that progressive parties host primaries to field only one candidate in Conservative held ridings? Maybe there is a need for a new party to replace the Ontario NDP which can have a better chance at drawing in Liberals given they still haven’t been able to shake off Bob Rae’s defeat 30 years ago? After all, the only ways I see Doug Ford leaving before 2029 are for health reasons or to seek the federal Conservative leadership should Pierre Poilievre be humiliated by the Liberals which could see Mark Carney become the new leader on March 9.

Finally, Doug Ford’s win inevitably means the threat of bike lanes being ripped out is back on the table. Given they already retained Stantec Consulting to do the design work to remove the bike lanes which could happen as early as March 20, Cycle Toronto has an injunction hearing scheduled for March 11. If successful, any removals would be stalled until their court challenge gets heard on April 16 and decided upon. To make the legal front even messier, about 40 businesses filed a lawsuit against the City of Toronto – including Councillor Amber Morley – over the Bloor West Complete Street Extension. This was something John Nunziata publicly called for during the June 5, 2023 IEC meeting which debated the project, but it’s still one that needs to be thrown out ASAP. Sadly, Toronto is not the only one facing jurisdiction overreach with US President Donald Trump vowing to cancel New York City’s congestion charge (and even rip out their bike lanes).

While the recent election may not have been what we wanted, the resistance continues. For those who need to lose some steam, please join Cycle Toronto's "Coldest Day of the Year" Ride tomorrow (10:30 AM) at Perth Avenue Parkette.

I’ll close off this post with this Streetfilms video resisting Trump’s plans to cancel congestion pricing.