February 25, 2025
Toronto – Electoral cooperation groups Cooperate for Canada (C4C) and Toronto-based Not One Seat (NOS) strongly criticized the Liberals, NDP, and Greens for dividing the progressive votes in ridings across Ontario – handing Ford another majority.
“We are extremely disappointed with the leaders of the progressive parties,” said Barbara Schumacher, Cooperate for Canada. “They could have prevented this very negative election outcome, but they insisted on playing partisan politics.”
For months, C4C and NOS have been asking the centre/left parties to cooperate and run Unity candidates in several swing ridings where the Conservatives usually win with a minority of votes – because the opposition is divided.
“The sudden, unnecessary winter election and low voter turn-out played into Ford’s hands, but so did the short-sightedness and partisanship-at-all-costs of the progressive parties,” said Marilyn Hay, Cooperate for Canada. “We certainly hope that their federal counterparts have learned a lesson from this and cooperate to prevent a Poilievre win.”
Hay pointed out that, if Ford had lost just 22 seats to the progressive parties, they could have formed a coalition. Ontario would not be facing more destructive policies.
Both C4C and NOS thanked NDP candidate Natasha Doyle-Merrick (Eglinton-Lawrence) and Greens Shefaza Esmail (Waterloo) and Brayden Wagenaar (Kitchener-Conestoga) for stepping back rather than splitting the progressive vote.
“Three courageous candidates did the right thing to prevent a third far-right victory in Ontario, but their leaders didn’t,” said Sonal Champsee, Not One Seat. “We hope that Crombie, Stiles, and Schreiner analyze the election results, realize their mistakes, and commit to a collaborative path in future.”
For more information visit: https://cooperateforcanada.ca/ and https://www.notoneseat.ca/
To request an interview contact:
Barbara Schumacher – 226-753-9861, bschumac@uwaterloo.ca
Marilyn Hay – 226 972 3699, haymarilyn7@gmail.com (Français)
Sonal Champsee – 416-803-9414 media@notoneseat.ca