January 28, 2025
Toronto – Cooperate for Canada (C4C) is warning Ontario’s centre/left parties not to give Doug Ford another false majority in the next election.
Ford won the 2022 election after fewer than 18% of Ontarians voted for him. This was partly because 56% didn’t vote.
It was also because the province’s first-past-the-post system distorts riding results. Even when most voters prefer the centre/left Liberals, NDP, or Greens, this split vote often leads to a Conservative win.
“In representative democracies, a mandate to govern is given legitimacy through popular support,” said Barbara Schumacher, Cooperate for Canada. “Wielding almost total power, as Ford has done, with the support of less than 1/5th of the electorate is not legitimate. It’s time Ontarians were truly democratically represented.”
Even without a real mandate, Ford has inflicted much damage on the province: he has promoted CO2-emitting fossil fuels, cut our education and healthcare systems, threatened farmland, weakened the Conservation Authorities and citizens’ rights, privatized Ontario Place, destroyed the Ontario Science Centre, and more.
C4C has been lobbying the centre/left parties to work together, choosing unity candidates in some cases, so that the real majority of non-Conservative voters can be heard.
“Ford has called a shamefully early, unnecessary, and expensive election to capitalize on his ‘Captain Canada’ response to Trump’s tariff threats, in order to extend his mandate to 2029,” said Marilyn Hay, C4C. “In doing so, he has given us an opportunity to deny him yet another false majority. The Liberals, NDP, and Greens must put the needs of Ontario voters before their partisan interests to stop the devastation of our province.”
For more information, please contact:
Barbara Schumacher – bschumac@uwaterloo.ca
Marilyn Hay – haymarilyn7@gmail.com (French)