Ontario General Election

Thursday, February 27

It’s Time for You to Help!

YES, THE DOUG FORD CONSERVATIVES CAN BE DEFEATED, BUT NOT WITHOUT YOU!

In this alert you will find useful information about the upcoming provincial election, the Ford government’s poor record, and, most importantly, what you can do --- beginning today --- to help elect a new government:

1. Identify a riding with a Doug Ford PC incumbent elected by a small margin in the 2022 election --- or a riding where the NDP/Liberal/Green incumbent is in a tight race (check the websites below) --- then:  

1. Volunteer your time with a particular candidate: distributing flyers, knocking on doors, making phone calls, staffing an office, and getting out the vote on Feb 27; 

2. Donate your $200 Ford bribe (and get $150 back as a tax credit later) --- or more --- to that candidate or riding association (see below for how political donation tax credits work). You can also donate directly to any opposition party; and/or

3. Spread the word to your friends and family – especially those outside of Toronto – and encourage people to volunteer, donate, and vote in this election to defeat Doug Ford’s Conservatives.

2. Become more informed and/or sign up to volunteer with Common Ground Ontario, or visit Not One Seat and Cooperate for Canada, Ontario Chapter for additional info and resources. You can also check out VoteWell for guidance on strategic voting in each provincial riding.

Note: you do not have to live in the riding where you want to donate or help. 

Email us if you have a question:
Community.Bikeways.Toronto@gmail.com

We are working together with other progressive groups

Community Bikeways, along with like-minded organizations, has been planning how best to use our energy and resources to defeat the Ford government on Feb. 27. A new initiative called Common Ground Ontario was formed to organize progressive Ontarians ahead of this election.  We are collaborating with other groups such as: 

• Not One Seat, which has been organizing in Toronto ridings, and

• Cooperate for Canada, Ontario Chapter, which is doing the same for ridings outside of Toronto. 

What makes us optimistic about defeating the Conservatives is this list of ridings showing the results of the last provincial election and how narrowly many Conservative MPP’s won their seats. The Conservatives won five seats by fewer than 1,000 votes. Three of those ridings are in Toronto: Etobicoke-Lakeshore, York South-Weston, and Eglinton-Lawrence. There are 124 seats in the Legislative. The Conservatives have 83 seats. We need to reduce that number to 62, in other words to take at least 21 seats from Ford, and elect someone from the NDP, Liberals, or Greens. 

In the 2022 election, Ford’s Conservatives won less than 41% of the ballots cast, while the opposition Liberal, New Democratic, and Green parties combined received almost 54%. We want people to vote strategically to avoid splitting the opposition vote.

The 2022 election also saw a record low voter turnout:just 44% of registered voters showed up, the lowest voter turnout in Ontario history. If we are to defeat the Ford government – or at least reduce it to a minority – we cannot afford another low turnout which benefits the Conservatives. The PC majority at Queen’s Park is built on only 18% of eligible voters in the 2022 election. That needs to change. Forget the polls, which can be notoriously unreliable. Each one of us can make a difference!

Political donation credits

We appreciate that many Ontarians are struggling financially, but for those who can make a political donation, there are generous income tax credits:

Examples:

This is a guide only. See the official government website for more details.

Background info on the unnecessary 2025 election

The Ford government’s snap provincial election for Thursday, February 27 is over 15 months ahead of schedule. The election would normally not be held until June 2026. It will cost taxpayers up to an estimated $175 million to run this early election.

The election result is not only central to our efforts to build safe roads that include safe cycling infrastructure in Toronto, but safe roads across the province. And more importantly,  if the current Conservative government is re-elected, we can expect more regressive actions similar to those outlined in Bill 212. This new law gives the government the power to forbid the installation of new bike lanes anywhere in the province, and to order the removal of existing bike lanes, as it promises to do on Bloor, University, and Yonge Streets in Toronto.

Why the Ford Government Must be Defeated – fiscal mismanagement

The Ford government has demonstrated stunning fiscal mismanagement as it wastes your tax dollars on ill-thought out or suspiciously corrupt policies. Consider:

• $3.2 billion to give voters $200 cheques as a bribe ahead of the election

• $612 million in extra costs to put liquor in corner stores

• $250 million needlessly spent to get out a year early from its Beer Store contract

• $2 billion Ontario Place giveaways to a foreign spa conglomerate

• $350 million for an unwanted and unnecessary Ontario Science Centre relocation

• $231 million to cancel renewable energy projects, then reversing that decision 5 years later

• $10 billion for Highway 413 that will worsen urban sprawl and benefit developer friends of the Conservatives

• $3 billion (estimated) to tunnel the Eglinton West LRT (west of Weston Road)

• $2.2 billion for license renewal refunds for 7.5 million vehicle owners, and the ongoing loss of billions in revenues that make it cheaper to drive, increasing congestion

• $8.3 billion for Greenbelt carve-outs that would have benefited Ford’s wealthy developer friends

This list alone represents billions of dollars of wasted taxpayer money that could have been spent on providing adequate health care for all Ontarians, repairing dilapidated schools and hiring more teachers and support staff, taking concrete action to help the homeless, and building new homes in the province.

Why the Ford Government Must be Defeated – healthcare, the homeless, affordability, the environment, and dishonesty

• Scapegoating cyclists as the cause of congestion (even ignoring advice from its own Ministry of Transportation), to cover up the government’s lack of serious ideas about reducing traffic congestion;  

• Failing to address the critical shortage of doctors, while 2.5 million Ontarians don’t have a family doctor;

• Allowing record wait times in Emergency Rooms and emergency room closures in many hospitals because of a critical shortage of doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals;

• Sacrificing parts of the Greenbelt for the unnecessary Hwy 413;

• Distracting voters with hare-brained schemes like tunnelling under Hwy 401 at a colossal cost; 

• Attempting to develop portions of the Greenbelt lands, with handsome benefits to Conservative corporate donors, leading to the ongoing RCMP investigation;

• Needlessly closing the iconic Ontario Science Centre;

• Cancelling the provincial greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program, setting Ontario back years on the fight against climate change;

• Attacking workers’ rights by attempting to use the notwithstanding clause to impose a contract on low-paid education support workers;

• Lowering the educational experience in Ontario by vilifying teachers and not providing adequate funding to maintain appropriate teacher and support staffing levels; and 

• Falling embarrassingly short on new housing starts.

What You Can Do

These are only some of the Ford government’s failures, but enough to make it imperative to do everything we can to help defeat it. Please support Community Bikeways in this effort.

Thank you for being part of our community. Comments or questions for us can be sent via this web page: https://www.communitybikewaysto.ca/contact

Webmaster: Ian Mills