Marit Stiles spoke to Global News to highlight key issues she wishes to address as the new leader of Ontario’s Opposition and the Ontario NDP.
Trevor Popoff, Global News: From a school trustee, to president of the federal NDP, to a member of provincial parliament, to now the leadership role, did you ever envision leading the NDP in Ontario?
Marit Stiles: No, absolutely not. I never really envisioned myself as a candidate until I ran for school board trustee in 2014. For me, that was a very personal thing because there were issues in my community around some local schools that I was concerned about. That’s the first time that I thought maybe I should step up. Maybe I do have the skills to make a difference here. So that was a big change for me, but ever since then, I’ve started to see myself more as somebody who had something to offer on the elected side.
Elizabeth Sargeant, Global News: No one else ran for your position. What does that say about the state of politics, especially in Ontario right now?
Marit: Well there were a number of MPPs who considered running, and I would have welcomed them. I certainly was expecting there to be a race, but I do think it’s because we are a very unified party in terms of our vision for the next three and a half years. Our caucus is strongly united behind me and we are definitely hearing from Ontarians that the focus for them is not a divisive campaign for leadership of the opposition. The focus for them is us holding the Ford government to account, fighting back against their worst decisions and defeating them in the next election.
Trevor: As new leader, you’re going to have the responsibility of challenging Doug Ford. Do you anticipate a learning curve?
Marit: Yeah, absolutely. I mean it’s a huge learning curve for anybody taking on this role. I ran to be the leader of the NDP official Opposition because I want to not just push back against some of the more devastating actions of the Ford government, but I also want us to be in a position to offer Ontarians a clear progressive alternative to the Ford agenda in 2026. My intention here is 100 per cent for us to form a government. I obviously have lots to learn and lots to do but I think that the best politicians are the ones who are listening to what Ontarians want to see. That’s a big part of what I see my role as being in the next couple of years.
Addressing education
Trevor: You’ve been very vocal on the education sector, having been the former education critic for the opposition. Education has been top of mind since the CUPE labour dispute. What do you want to see change in this sector?
Marit: I think we’ve seen, unfortunately, many years of governments chipping away or failing to adequately invest in public education, and we’re seeing the results of that now. I think we’re heading towards a crisis along the lines of what we’ve seen in health care, in education. Some of that is a staffing crisis because people, especially in jobs like educational assistance and (early childhood educators). They’re still not compensated at a level that’s adequate for folks to be able to get by in this day and age with increases in the cost of living.
Trevor: We recently saw a union’s collective bargaining rights challenged with the Ford government’s use of the notwithstanding clause. I believe 18 members of the NDP were booted out of the legislature in protest. Why did you feel so strongly about the use of that legislation?
Marit: First of all, I believe in the collective bargaining process. I think it exists for a reason because you get the best negotiation if you actually sit down to listen to each other. This government essentially started with their threats before anybody had actually sat down at the table, and using the notwithstanding clause was an extraordinary overreach. Denying the Charter rights of working people to bargain collectively, having a contract imposed, it was an affront to democracy, frankly, and to our rights as Canadians. So I think it had much bigger implications than just simply the impact on those education workers. I think what was really the most significant thing that happened around all of that was the coming together of the labour movement. That moment of solidarity was really, really important, not just for overturning that piece of legislation, but I hope it sent a strong message to Doug Ford and his government that they cannot just simply trample on people’s rights.
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‘Renewing democracy’
Trevor: Ontario’s Conservatives have shown over the last few months that they’re not necessarily above using every tool in the toolbox to push their platform. If you were in power, could you ever envision an instance where you could potentially use the notwithstanding clause if you felt that strongly about something?
Marit: I think that the notwithstanding clause was put in place for the most extreme examples and I cannot envision an example of a time when we would want to use that. It shouldn’t be so difficult, frankly. This government, and the previous Liberal government too, have been chipping away at many of the tools that the opposition has to challenge the government. We rarely have real discussions. We rarely have hearings on bills. We rarely see the government accept any kind of amendments or changes. It’s just not good government, and the problem is that by running governments like that for so many years, I think they’ve convinced a lot of voters that this is as good as it gets. I think we can do so much better, I think we have to. I’m sure there is a temptation when you’re in government to change the rules to suit you, but we have to be bigger than that.
Elizabeth: You’ve listed one of your priorities as ‘renewing our democracy.’ We’ve seen some major challenges to that recently, with perhaps none bigger than the ‘strong mayor’ powers bill. What are your thoughts on that?
Marit: First of all, I do not understand Doug Ford’s obsession with Toronto and with how city council works here. It is bizarre to me. We’ve seen nothing else like it. What they’re doing is imposing a minority rule. They’re allowing a third of city council to make decisions for the three million people of Toronto. There’s no other level of government or system that works that way. We don’t see that on school boards. We don’t see that anywhere else. So it’s quite astonishing and anti-democratic and I would 100 per cent reverse that. I’m really astonished that the mayor here in Toronto requested that power. To me, that just shows a lack of willingness to do the hard work that’s required of every level of government, of every politician.
Elizabeth: What are your thoughts on the fact that the mayor of Ottawa, Mark Sutcliffe, rejected the ‘strong mayor’ powers bill while John Tory chose to adopt those powers?
Marit: I’ve said before, I think it’s a lazy choice. I think the government is making all these changes to seize parcels of land from the Greenbelt under the guise of building housing. The cities have a lot of hard work to do, and so does the province, to meet our housing needs. But when you look at what the government seems to be coming up with, their solutions involve more sprawl, paving over important wetlands and really just seem to be about making a lot of money for a few very wealthy friends. It’s not about building even one unit of affordable housing. So I’m concerned about the anti-democratic nature of those changes.
Following Andrea Horwath’s footsteps
Trevor: Andrea Horwath stepped down from party leadership after a provincial election that did see the NDP elected official Opposition again, but wasn’t necessarily up to standard. How do you plan on differing from her moving forward?
Marit: Well, first of all, I’d say that everything we do right now builds on her achievements, because we would not be the official Opposition without her leadership. We are a very strong team and I give her enormous credit for that. I think the next step is to re-inspire and connect with Ontarians across the province and in ridings where we don’t hold seats currently, where maybe people haven’t voted NDP before. I feel there’s an enormous appetite for change out there right now. I think people are looking for a bold, progressive alternative and I really, truly believe that it is now my job to build that movement on the ground.
Trevor: Why are people going to vote for you when maybe they didn’t vote for Andrea Horwath in this last election?
Marit: The thing that really concerned me coming out of the last provincial election, obviously, I was unhappy with some of the seats that we lost. But what really struck me was the historic low voter turnout. The reason that I believe people are not voting is because they’ve been told by government after government for so long that this is as good as it gets. I think it’s up to me and the NDP to inspire them to believe that more is possible. I always tell people that when I moved to this province, I stayed because of the jobs and opportunities here. I stayed because you could imagine raising a family on a working-class salary and because your kids would have access to excellent public education and you would have a family doctor. That’s not the Ontario we’re in today. We have people waiting 10 to 20 hours in an emergency room. We have the children’s hospital in Ottawa calling in the Red Cross and a premier congratulating them for thinking outside the box. This is not normal. This is not OK. This is not as good as it gets.
Elizabeth: Before Andrea Horwath was in, the previous female leader of the Ontario NDP was Agnes MacPhail, who was elected in 1932. How does it feel to be the third female Ontario leader of this party? What does it have to say about women in Ontario politics?
Marit: Ontario only had one woman premier. When you walk through the halls of the legislative assembly, there are a lot of old, white-haired men in those portraits. So I absolutely think there are still huge barriers to women in politics. I want to also point out, though, that there are even greater barriers to racialized women, LGBTQ women and to Indigenous people in our province. I really hope that one of my priorities as a leader will be to continue to try to support and remove those obstacles for other women and other people who have been underrepresented in Ontario politics. I certainly hope to be the second female premier of this province, and I would love to see those halls with portraits that better reflect our population generally.
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