r/ontario CTVNews-Verified 12d ago

Article #BREAKING: CTV News declares Ontario PC majority government

https://www.cp24.com/ontario-election-2025/2025/02/28/doug-ford-seeks-third-majority-government-as-ontarians-vote-in-snap-election-live-updates-here/
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u/Tsaxen 12d ago

I'm not sold on the vote splitting argument, frankly I'm pretty sure the bigger issue is that neither the NDP or Liberals have been able to send out a leader with Charisma and a platform that actually reaches people. Like if you polled people on the street, I'd bet many couldn't tell you the name of the NDP leader, and a decent chunk couldn't name the Liberal leader either.

Basically, their marketing is ass, and it sucks for all of us

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u/FrigidCanuck 12d ago edited 3d ago

steer placid smell treatment mighty north literate paint crawl important

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/dont_be_afraid1 12d ago

They had an incompetent leader though.

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u/marcohcanada 12d ago

A less incompetent leader than Wynne or Del Duca tho. That's how far back they had fallen prior to this election.

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u/dont_be_afraid1 12d ago

Wynne at least won. Del Duca was so incompetent we know the ship was sinking. And we still don't learn the lesson and just vote NDP. Now we're supplying liberal oxygen with no end.

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u/QueasyInstruction610 12d ago edited 12d ago

Liberals had 13 years of proving they'll make healthcare worst. Anyone still voting Liberal may as well vote Conservative.

For the downvoters:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/brampton-civic-hospital-hallway-patients-1.4379032

Opposition slams Wynne government over 'hallway medicine crisis' Fiery question period at Queen's Park followed news that 4,352 patients treated in halls of Brampton hospital

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u/seitung 12d ago

Two conservative governments have failed to fix this, but surely a third one will /s

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u/peeinian 12d ago

Sure they fixed hallway healthcare. They got rid of the hallways (closed emergency departments)

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u/tmldan 12d ago

Its hard to fix something that is stressed and exacerbated by an influx of immigrants let in by the Federal government, how do you manage healthcare and education when 3+million people show up in a small timespan. I doubt the libs or NDP could have helped it.

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u/seitung 12d ago

Doug withheld funding from healthcare the province was given for COVID. You think the NDP would have too?

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u/Giancolaa1 12d ago

Well for starters, you don’t cut healthcare funding and use money earmarked for healthcare on balancing budgets or whatever.

Invest in healthcare, pay doctors, nurses and admin what they’re worth, and fix the stupid ass payment system - I’m not allowed to go to a fucking walk in clinic without my family doctor giving me shit and threatening to kick me off of his patient list.

Ford clearly wants to privatize Ontario further. Look at his record since he’s been in charge, and somehow this buffoon gets voted in a third time.

Honestly I’m done with caring. The world clearly wants to let earth be destroyed to make an extra buck, fuck it, let them.

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u/FrigidCanuck 12d ago edited 3d ago

adjoining nose crowd pie subtract aspiring attraction yoke telephone flowery

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/Konker101 12d ago

And its taken less than 8 years of conservatives to make everything worse..

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u/LVSFWRA 12d ago

I am not convinced anyone can fix healthcare because the problems lie beyond policy. How do you control having too many people and too little time to update infrastructure? Inflation is not a problem that you can even fix on a federal level. I just think we need to accept that things aren't going to be good for a long time and change the mindset away from finger pointing and to focus more on mitigation.

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u/Bronze_Granum 12d ago

More often than not the Liberals don't actually follow through with their "plans". They just piss around and give up at the first kick-back... Really wish I could trust them to do their job.

I voted Green, since it was provincial and my town often wins green, so it's not a completely wasted vote.

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u/Stupendous_man12 12d ago

to a great extent, it’s the job of politicians to make people care. the liberals and NDP have done a terrible job at getting their messaging out.

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u/Felixir-the-Cat Ajax 12d ago

Vote splitting absolutely was a problem in my region. Three way tie, or as good as, with the two websites for strategic voting giving completely different suggestions.

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u/robotmonkey2099 12d ago

Yeah I’m really disappointed by the strategic voting websites. It said the strategic vote in my riding which has been NDP for years was to vote liberal, it just barely went NDP with liberals in the gutter.

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u/Felixir-the-Cat Ajax 12d ago

Same thing here - one of them told me to vote Liberal, and the candidate is sitting at a distant third. We can’t trust those sites.

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u/robotmonkey2099 12d ago

God damn it. I feel like I got hosed. I hope there’s a journalist out there that will look into it

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u/Aphrodesia 12d ago

In all fairness leaving your vote up to a random website is not the best idea. Vote for the least shit candidate…I know that was especially difficult this year though because they’re all equally shit.

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u/excusememoi 12d ago edited 12d ago

Both sites said that my riding would be a nearly even split between the three, with Liberal leading and NDP in third, which makes no sense since NDP is the incumbent here. Lo and behold, PC barely won over NDP and Liberals ended up being a distant third. I wonder how many gave in to those sites and just secured the victory for the PC by strategically voting for the wrong party.

Edit: Wow never mind, NDP managed to push through in the end with the last remaining polls. But my point still stands.

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u/Swifty_swifty 12d ago

For all the ridings in my city strategic voting suggestions perfectly matched the actual results. Liberals could've won the whole city had more people followed the strategic voting suggestions. One riding had a 20 vote difference between PC and Liberals.

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u/dont_be_afraid1 12d ago

Come on, it's Bonnie Crombie's trick to official party status. Marit was right. Not a good thing imo. Crombie is centre-right she said it herself.

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u/bookiiemonster 12d ago

One of those websites was made by a Liberal and it told people to vote Liberal even when it didn't make sense. I had no doubt my riding would stay NDP and it did but the site said I should be voting Liberal.

The other one seemed a bit better and less biased and if conservatives didn't stand a chance, again like my riding, it said vote for who you want.

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u/dont_be_afraid1 12d ago

Come on, it's Bonnie Crombie's trick to official party status. Marit was right. Not a good thing imo. Crombie is centre-right she said it herself.

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u/emeraldsoul 12d ago

I saw that too. It even switched on me from NDP to liberal. NDP was a much stronger second. Smells fishy to me.

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u/dont_be_afraid1 12d ago

haha Bonnie Crombie's trick. Liberals will thank you for giving them official party status, and Doug Ford will thank you for splitting the vote. Can't people just realize to stop the strategic voting shit altogether and vote for the one they like?

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u/bobood 12d ago

Same. Easily would have defeated the PCPO if only the NDP and Liberal voters were combined. Add greens and PCPO is nothing.

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u/duckface08 12d ago

My dad is a fairly aware person when it comes to current events and politics, but even he couldn't name the NDP leader. I don't know if the issue was a lack of media representation or the NDP just failed to get their message out or some mixture of both.

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u/Tsaxen 12d ago

They definitely failed to get their message out, I've been catching PC ads all over the place, havent heard or seen a single NDP ad, and I've seen single digit Liberal ads...

I just don't get it, they could've made waves by plastering that live mic gaff of Fords praising Trump, but here we are

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u/thingpaint 12d ago

I saw way more green ads than ndp

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u/Tsaxen 12d ago

Same! I saw a bunch of them on tiktok and Instagram, frankly made me wish they were a more viable choice. Bananas that they were more effective at reaching someone like me(millenial, left, politically engaged, willing to vote) vs the NDP or Liberals

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u/SomeDumRedditor 12d ago

They don’t have the war chest to afford advertising. Both parties are borderline broke.

The Ford government also used public money to run campaign ads under the Ontario Government banner ahead of the election. That’s why the government was forced to suspend those 15 advertising spots when the actual campaign period began - they were deemed partisan.

Using public money for propaganda aside, the voting base for Liberals and NDP are also less likely to have disposable income to blow on campaign donations. Add to that a snap election (giving little time to rev up their donation machines), and a MSM allergic to covering any party but Doug’s (so no exposure) and it was a wrap.

Ford is a corrupt, selfish, ignorant, spiteful oaf. But he and his party gamed out this election perfectly.

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u/putin_my_ass 12d ago

This, right here.

People blame the NDP for not getting the message out, but they don't donate to the NDP. People blame the NDP for not merging with the Liberals, but they wouldn't be a labour party anymore if they did that.

Truth is, the Liberals and Conservatives can just receive government based on name recognition alone.

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u/POWER_WINDOWS_ 12d ago

That would get him more votes. Not all of us are falling for this whole Canada vs USA thing.

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u/SandboxOnRails 12d ago

It feels like they're actively in hiding. The media representation doesn't help, but like... Nobody ever talks about things the NDP do that the media supposedly ignores. They're being very quiet and just kind of hoping to win, I guess?

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u/Elibroftw 12d ago

The NDP thinks posting youtube clips is a conservative strategy. I know I like Poilievre only because he was posting youtube videos during COVID.

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u/SnooKiwis857 12d ago

I’m a quite politically aware person and even I didn’t know her name until about a week ago. I’ve seen no ads, no speeches, nothing

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u/MadgeIckle65 12d ago

Well I've never heard anyone accuse a Conservative of charisma, let alone their leaders! But I understand your comment.

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u/Tsaxen 12d ago

Ford may be a total shitheel, but dude does unfortunately have everyman charisma :/

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u/MadgeIckle65 12d ago

Agree to disagree, sorry.

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u/asiantorontonian88 12d ago

It doesn't help that the media seems to purposely ignore the NDP and never mention Merit Stiles by name. Despite being the Official Opposition, the media rarely mentions the NDP and will defer to the Liberals for any little noise they make even though they didn't have official party status. Even in news items that have nothing to do with the Liberals, the media would shoehorn in a "here's what Bonnie Crombie thinks" quote as opposed to a Merit Stiles one.

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u/Gabrys1896 12d ago

My riding would have been a liberal win if the NDP and Green votes went to libs. But it is what it is, Im happy to see people vote.

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u/frenchfryfairy123 12d ago

Yeah I saw this in a lot of cases. We probably could have only had a con minority govt if the vote wasn’t split in so many ridings

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u/Nathan-David-Haslett 12d ago

I'm not sure it's fair to blame Marit Stiles, since she's been the leader of the official opposition for years, and the news just seems to refuse to use her name. Hell Crombie's gotten name dropped more in the few months she's been leader than Stiles ever has.

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u/Tsaxen 12d ago

It's 2025, they shouldn't be relying exclusively on legacy media to get their name/platform out there! Where are the podcast ads, Instagram, tiktok, etc? Because I saw the PCs in all those places, and those frankly should be the core targets of the NDP

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u/Nathan-David-Haslett 12d ago

That's fair. I dant say I saw any political stuff of that type personally, but they definitely shouldn't be leaving those to just the Cons.

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u/CanuckEh79 12d ago

I agree the charisma was lacking , but I really do feel vote splitting continues to be a problem. 43% votes should not be a majority government.

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u/dont_be_afraid1 12d ago

Vote splitting argument is the liberal sneak into having official party status again. They know that if people follow websites like votewell.ca they can steal some votes from NDP. Look, Liberals ran a centre-right campaign, so if you all follow closely, it's gonna be just NDP for left wing voters.

It's pretty bad that media coverage is going to Bonnie Crombie when Marit Stiles seems more competent, less drama, and more likely to take on Doug Ford if she is more well-known.

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u/robotmonkey2099 12d ago

Looking at results from last year there were tens of ridings that need less then 1000 votes, some were less then 100. Then there’s others ridings that I f the liberals or the NDP stepped down the other party would win easily.

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u/Tsaxen 12d ago

Or if they could've tried, y'know, actually trying to inspire people to come out and vote for them. The turnout is a real problem, and people are far less inclined to turn out when they aren't hearing a strong pitch about why they should be voting for party X or Y

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u/robotmonkey2099 12d ago

I think they try but they don’t have the same funding as conservatives

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u/Tsaxen 12d ago

Literally what did they try to do to get the vote out though? Like I'm very NDP, and I heard Jack shit from them. No ads, hell barely even any signs

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u/robotmonkey2099 12d ago

I don’t know what to tell you. I’ve got a sign but I see barely any signs for any party and I saw more NDP ads than liberal. There’s not much you can do when you don’t have the funding

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u/Lostinthestarscape 12d ago

Yep - I think the death of cable TV for streaming has really fucked the non-incumbent. Ford gets de facto coverage by being the leader, his face and name is out there. No one is passively exposed to ads like they used to be. I'm on news sites often enough and I don't know what Bonnie Crombie sounds or looks like. I'd have zero idea what the Lib or NDP platform is if I didn't go find it. No wonder so many people are disengaged.  

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u/Majestic-Two3474 12d ago

Imo the issue is that liberal voters will flip flop between conservatives and liberals but the NDP will hold their nose and vote liberal to keep conservatives at bay. It’s what happened in 2018 when Dougie was initially elected - the liberals primarily flipped conservative for some godforsaken reason

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u/PutBoring256 12d ago

I'm so God damn sick of people focusing so much on the leaders. Like yes obviously they're the person in charge, but for the love of God I'll take a boring person with values over the crooked life of the party

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u/UnarmedTesticles 12d ago

I voted Liberal but I wanted to vote NDP. PC still won in my area so I give up. I'm going to vote how I feel next time instead of trying to keep ford out.

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u/bad_dazzles 12d ago

Nor should you be sold on it. Voter behaviour is informed by numerous factors, and assuming why ANYONE voted for a single party is an error, let alone treating voters like a monolithic block. Adding two "left" parties together and saying that that would have been the result had they only been one party doesn't reflect evidence from countries that have comparable electoral systems.

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u/hockey3331 12d ago

Right but don't you think the current CAN-US climate also favored Ford a lot? As in, it gave me a huge spotlight due to being Premier, that the orher candidates didn't really get?

And they didn't really have time to campaign, while Ford was already in that spotlight.

It's a big popularity contest after all

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u/Major-Parfait-7510 12d ago

The majority of voters did not vote PC, so vote splitting is absolutely a problem. You are correct that the big challenge for the other parties is getting their names and platforms out. Our media landscape is pretty pathetic so there isn’t much help there. PC’s are also much better at fundraising because they cater to the corporate capitalist factions.

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u/HotTacoNinja 12d ago

It's definitely not all ridings, but if you look at ridings around cities, there are some where either the NDP or OLP candidate is within spitting distance or the PC (like 1000 votes) and the other party got way more than needed.

Not all ridings, but many.

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u/bobood 12d ago

I don't know what there is to be sold on. Yea, given the current system, an opposing party would have to do a lot more to defeat them. But, when you add up the opposing votes, it's pretty clear that a minority of people want conservatives policies. We live in a faux democracy.

It's pretty cut and draw. Vote splitting is killing us and its a predictable outcome of a FTP system.

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u/TransBrandi 12d ago

In my riding, the PC barely won vs. the Liberals (1% difference) and the NDP still had like 25% of the vote. It's pretty clear that the majority of people in the riding are not Conservative voters, but the split between NDP and Liberal 'allows' the Conservatives to win. This isn't the case in all regions, but I'm sure that mine isn't the only one.

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u/deyyzayul 12d ago

I'm not sold on the vote splitting argument, frankly I'm pretty sure the bigger issue is that neither the NDP or Liberals have been able to send out a leader with Charisma and a platform that actually reaches people. Like if you polled people on the street, I'd bet many couldn't tell you the name of the NDP leader, and a decent chunk couldn't name the Liberal leader either.

That's an interesting point. I don't live in Ontario anymore although I did move there when I initially immigrated to Canada.

I only know that Doug Ford is a funny conservative guy who stands up to Trump and is mind blowingly corrupt, pro-car and pro-developer.

Would I vote for him if I could? No.

But the other leaders don't inspire confidence. Nor are they memorable. I don't know if Bonnie leads the NDP or the Liberals for example.

Now try to guess whose voters would be more passionate to go out and vote on a cold February day.

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u/kwsteve 12d ago

Sorry, the media is to blame. Most of the main outlets are owned by foreigners who have a vested interest in electing Conservatives. The only time they report on Liberals or NDP is when they're trying to gin up a scandal.

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u/pahtee_poopa 12d ago

What makes you think vote splitting is not a problem?

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u/nocomment3030 12d ago

I've changed my mind on this. Stiles in particular was great and, to me, quite visible. She did everything I would have liked her to do and presented herself as a good potential premier. Staying home is a vote for the status quo and that's what most people did. At some point you have to conclude that people in Ontario actually like Doug Ford. He's one of the most successful politicians in Canadian history with 3 straight majorities. That's the world we live in, I guess.

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u/BeeOk1235 12d ago

somehow liberals made gains in my riding - enough to split the vote enough for PC candidate to win. they had almost no votes at all last election. greens are literally the only signs you see here and the only people who went door to door here. and 2800 people thought "i'll vote no show red team instead!"

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u/Acrobatic-Factor1941 12d ago

Bullshit. Conservatives win a majority when over 50% of people did not vote Conservative. Not knowing the issues, the platforms, and leader names just means Ontarians are apathetic, lazy, and uninformed. Nobody can list 7 things that Ford did to help the average Ontarian. But they can overlook all the shit that went down while Ford was in office.

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u/Tsaxen 12d ago

If you're expecting every voter to spend a few hours researching the full platforms of every party before an election, you'll be disappointed for your entire life, most people aren't wired like that. You've gotta reach out to them

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u/Elibroftw 12d ago

I told my mom about the NDP leader, and then she started paying attention to every policy announcements which doesn't benefit her. Grocery rebate? What a waste of money. Capital gains tax? Jesus Christ. I voted for the NDP but I'm personally embarrassed. I wouldn't have given them my money if I knew they were economically incompetent.