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Ontario election: Tariff reprieve makes room for health, education, transit in campaign

Click to play video: 'Tariff threat paused, still centre in Ontario election'
Tariff threat paused, still centre in Ontario election
WATCH: The sixth day of Ontario's early election was dominated by tariff talk with parties bracing to see them levied on the province within hours. But at the last minute, the threat was pushed back. Global News' Queen's Park Bureau Chief Colin D'Mello explains. – Feb 3, 2025

As the end of the first week of Ontario’s snap election campaign approached Tuesday, the issue that had looked set to dominate the entire cycle began to wane.

In the build-up to calling the early election, Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford repeatedly said he needed a new mandate to deal with U.S. President Donald Trump and to battle the looming threat of tariffs.

An agreement between Ottawa and Washington on Monday, however, put the threat of tariffs on Canadian goods on hold until after the election, offering opposition parties the chance to try and shift the conversation onto topics like health care and education.

“Doug Ford wants everybody to think this election is about the tariff threat and we know that it’s not about that, it’s only ever been about him keeping his job — that’s what this election is about,” Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said Tuesday.

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“And I don’t think Ontarians are buying what he’s selling.”

She was in Ottawa using the renewed focus of the campaign, and the tariff threat reprieve, to unveil her party’s promises on education.

Stiles announced that, if elected, the NDP would spend an extra $830 million per year on school repairs. She also said the party would review the per-pupil and school bus funding formulas.

“I think this is exactly the moment we need to be talking about things like education and health care and housing and cost of living and being strong and united and fighting for every job,” Stiles added.

Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie, making a campaign stop in Brampton, also seized on the agreement between Trump and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to try and shift the election conversation onto firmer ground for her party.

“This is an opportunity for us to say, ‘The excuse you gave for calling this election, was a fake,’” Crombie said. “Now, let’s talk about the real issues the people of Ontario are concerned about: access to health care, affordability, cutting taxes and homes.”

Crombie and the Liberals have been trying to put health care, particularly access to a family doctor, at the centre of the election campaign.

Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie stands with local candidates as she visits Golden Grain Bakery during a campaign stop in Brampton, Ont., Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

Polling conducted exclusively for Global News by Ipsos Public Affairs last week found Ontario voters were not especially motivated by the threat of tariffs or U.S. relations when it came to voting.

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The survey asked Ontarians to select up to three top issues for them in Ontario’s election. Health care came top with 40 per cent, followed by help with day-to-day costs at 33 per cent, followed by lower taxes at 28 per cent.

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Managing relations with the U.S. came eighth overall with just 14 per cent, while the issue of potential tariffs themselves with six per cent.

Calling Tuesday a “reset” in the election campaign, Crombie said she wanted to focus on Ford’s seven-year record as premier and how her party would govern differently.

“Failure — an abject failure to build housing,” she said. “Doug Ford said he would end hallway medicine, he didn’t get it done. He said he would lower our taxes, he didn’t get it done. He said he would build housing, he didn’t get it done, but we will.”

The Progressive Conservatives, who have run a tariff-focused campaign under the tagline “protect Ontario,” pivoted slightly on Tuesday as well, with a major transit commitment for the City of Ottawa.

Ford announced that if elected his party would take control of the troubled Ottawa LRT and give control of it to the provincial transit agency Metrolinx. That would mean the Ontario government would handle repairs as well as plans to expand the route.

Shortly after, the Ontario Liberals unveiled a similar LRT promise and a handful of other commitments to the Ottawa area, where they held four seats before dissolution.

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Over the first week of the campaign, the PCs promised tens of billions of dollars in tariff-specific pledges. They included $10 billion to help businesses defer taxes and $3 billion to aid payroll at small businesses along with an extra $1 billion on skills training.

The party isn’t saying exactly what will happen to those promises if tariffs don’t hit.

“We’ve averted an absolute disaster, at least for now,” Ford said in Ottawa on Tuesday, announcing a provincial promise but referring regularly to the United States.

“But make no mistake, Canada and Ontario continue to stare down the threat of tariffs. Whether it’s tomorrow, in a month, or a year from now, President Trump will continue to use the threat of tariffs to get what he wants.”

A spokesperson told Global News that because they believe tariffs could come anytime they need a mandate to spend the funding announced but the spokesperson couldn’t say what the party would do with the multi-billion dollar plan if there were no tariffs.

Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford holds a sign cut with a laser cutting machine during a visit to a company in Ottawa, Tuesday, Feb.4, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

On Monday, at another campaign event, Ford, who has been trying to secure a meeting with Trump since his election, appeared to Ottawa’s role in leading the tariff negotiations rather than Ontario’s premier.

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“I don’t dictate where or who mister Trump meets,” Ford said. “Let him deal with the prime minister — prime minister to president — and hopefully theft can work things out.”

Crombie made the same suggestion Tuesday, saying the issue was in the hands of the prime minister.

“There will be negotiating in the background by the federal government who are active on the negotiations but this is also a reckoning for the Ford government,” she said.

“Let’s be very clear, this election — unnecessary as it is and costly as it is — was never really about tariffs, it was a manipulation, it was opportunistic.”

— with a file from The Canadian Press

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