On Day 1 of the campaign, both PC Leader Doug Ford and Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca staked out their positions on Highway 413. At his campaign kickoff in Brampton, Ford took the opportunity to double down on his position in support of building Highway 413 alongside representatives from LiUNA, a construction union in the province. He roundly criticized the opposition for not tackling gridlock, using their own tweets as campaign fodder.
Del Duca hit back again at Ford and the PC’s Highway 413 plans, announcing the Liberals would use the project’s $10 billion price tag of the project to build and repair thousands of schools as well as deliver on their buck-a-ride election promise. Horwath has also committed to cancelling the project.
While Navigator’s polling showed 57 per cent of Ontarians living in the 905 support Highway 413, Del Duca’s counterattack and his commitment to lower transit fares strikes at the heart of the issue Ontarians care about most in this election: our survey results show 7 in 10 Ontarians identified affordability as their top issue in this election. Education, however, ranked only seventh.
Who’s push back will win the day? Stay tuned—we’ll be watching this fight closely and report back in a future edition.
For more of Navigator’s analysis of the 2022 Ontario election, please visit The Push Back.
