Ontario Election

May 3, 2014 permalink

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has moved to dissolve the parliament and call an election for June 12. She did so to avoid the inevitable defeat in the provincial legislature after NDP leader Andrea Horwath announced her intention to join the PCs in voting against the provincial budget.

Pending bill 42, introduced in March 2013, provided for ombudsman oversight of children's aid societies. It passed second reading in April 2013 but is now gone with the proroguing of the legislature.

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Ontario election called for June 12 as Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals lose support of NDP

Josh Visser | May 2, 2014 | Last Updated: May 2 3:56 PM ET

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne announces a provincial election at Toronto's Queen's Park, Friday May 1, 2014.

Kathleen Wynne met with the Ontario Lieutenant Governor Friday and was granted a June 12 election after NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said she can no longer support the Liberals’ minority government.

“Andrea Horwath and Tim Hudak made the decision to go into an election,” Wynne said in a Friday afternoon news conference. “The people of Ontario…have a choice between safe hands and risky tactics.”

Wynne hinted at the Liberals campaign message and she said her party had guided Ontario through the tough times of the recession, although Ontario is not expected to balance the budget until 2018.

“Our recovery is taking hold and it is taking hold persistently,” she said. “Companies are hiring again. We are on our way back. We cannot put that at risk.”

Earlier Friday, Horwath came out strongly against supporting the Liberals any longer.

“This budget is not a solid plan for the future, it’s a mad dash to escape the scandals by promising the moon and the stars,” Horwath said at a news conference Friday morning. “I have lost confidence in Kathleen Wynne and her ability to deliver.

“Let me be clear, we will be voting against this budget. It is time to go to the people and have them make a decision.”

Horwath cited the gas plant scandal as evidence that she can’t support a government that the public doesn’t trust.

Hudak’s Progressive Conservatives had long said they would vote against the budget to force an election.

Hudak touted his “million jobs plan” Friday and said he was “laser focused” on getting more Ontarians work.

“If you are looking for someone who is running a popularity contest by promising funding on all kinds of projects but they don’t the cheques to cash in, then vote for the NDP or Liberal leader,” Hudak said Friday. “But if you want someone with a turnaround plan to get Ontario working again, look at me, look at my team.”

Premier Wynne delivered a budget Thursday that included $130.4-billion in spending for a deficit of $12.5 billion. The budget promised $29 billion over 10 years for public transit and infrastructure and a new Ontario Retirement Pension Plan for people without a workplace pension.

The budget included higher taxes on cigarettes and on those making more than $150,000 a year.

Wynne told CP24 Friday she was “proud to take this budget to the people.”

“I’m disappointed that [Horwath] wouldn’t have a meeting with me. I think there’s a lot in this budget that needs to be implemented in this province,” she told Belleville radio station CJBQ.

“But I’ve said all along … if we didn’t have a partner in the legislature, then we would take this budget to the people of the province, and we will do that.”

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn

Horwath said she was tired of Wynne’s broken promises.

“How can Kathleen Wynne promise to build a ship when she hasn’t even built a raft?” Horwath said. “We don’t have any confidence whatsoever in their ability to come through on those promises.”

Wynne does not need to wait for her budget to be defeated, as she can ask Ontario Lieutenant Governor David Onley to dissolve the legislature and call an election.

The NDP have propped up the minority Liberals over the last two budgets.

Source: National Post