Posted on 02/28/2025 3:01:39 AM PST by Hieronymus
Ford becomes first Ontario premier since the 1950s to win 3 successive majorities
'We have made history,' says Doug Ford in victory speech
6 hours ago Duration4:28 Speaking to supporters after winning a historic third majority, Doug Ford underscored his commitment to doing "whatever it takes to protect Ontario" from the threat of U.S. tariffs. Social Sharing X Email Reddit LinkedIn
8 comments Doug Ford and his Progressive Conservatives' victory in Thursday's Ontario election came as the result of a campaign that focused ruthlessly on the one issue capturing the minds of Canadians right now, a leader who worked relentlessly to make the most of his opportunity, and perfect political timing.
Ford's PCs were elected or leading in 80 of Ontario's 124 seats early Tuesday, making him the first leader since the 1950s to win three consecutive majorities in this province
Success in politics means winning elections, so the majority three-peat means the name Doug Ford must now be included with the likes of Bill Davis, Leslie Frost, James Whitney and Oliver Mowat in conversations about the most successful Ontario premiers of all time.
"This election, we promised to do whatever it takes to protect Ontario and I'm so proud of the support we received," Ford told the crowd in his speech at his election night celebration in Toronto.
Ford had set his sights higher than just another status-quo majority. "The bigger the mandate I receive from you, the better we'll be able to protect our province," he said in his first speech of the campaign.
Measured by seats, Ford's mandate is actually smaller than the one he had before triggering the election. However, a majority is a majority, so Ford has now won himself another four years in power.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbc.ca ...
The numbers from just after midnight are likely final, with all but 6 of more than 8000 polls (precincts ) reporting, and none of the outstanding polls in the eight closest ridings---with the PCs behind in the one in single digits and ahead in the two in double digits, as well as the four closes three-digit leads (all of which have a difference of less than 200).
(Stats from the link below) https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/elections/ontario/2025/results/#/
Ping Canada Ping
Freepmail me if you want on or off
Unfortunately most of the better stuff at the moment looks to be behind paywalls.
Here is another try at the link to the CBC page with the numbers
https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/elections/ontario/2025/results/#/
I just heard.
Ford kept his majority status.
NDP lost seats.
Liberals regained their party status.
And here is a link to elections Ontario
https://www.elections.on.ca/en/election-results/provincial-results.html
The PCs, the two “fringe” parties further two the right (which are conservative without too much of the Progressive part, founded by former MPPs who were too conservative from the PC caucus perspective) and the re-elected independent (who was also too conservative but opted to focus on retaining a seat rather than her party) have approximately 47% of the vote. Pretty well all of remaining 53% of the vote is split among the three liberal parties that won seat.
Arguably the PCs are the fourth liberal party-—they just are less liberal than the alternatives.
That is the tweet version. The most significant omission is that Crombie failed to win her seat, but given that the libs both regained party status and were up by about 10 points, to almost 30%, she stays on.
That the Greens retained both seats and fought very hard for a third (the lost Parry Sound by about 46-42, and about 2000 votes) is of minor interest, as a three-way split in the “left” is in the interest of the PCs.
This is touted as the first three-peat since the 1950’s—but the 1959 win was followed by five more to stretch things from 1945 into the 70’s. Still, the first in over 50 years is something.
I thought he had a bunch of personal computers voting for him.
No, although Ontario election seems to have stepped up their game another notch. IDs as per usual, then a paper ballot which is then entered into the scanning machine in front of the voter in a manner that preserve anonymity.
Assuming that the scanning machines are honest, this is an impressive and sound system. Enough of the results were in that the race was called eight minutes after the polls closed, and nearly everything was in after two hours.
Of course it helps that there is only one race in each riding and write ins were not allowed. That only paid party members (a very small percentage of the electorate) are involved in picking the candidates, and the party leader ultimately has complete power over all of the candidates is rather off-putting for an American. Maybe eventually one of the fringe right parties will evolve into a viable alternative that actually involves representing the people in the riding rather than representing the party in the riding.
This is why we don’t want Canadia joining the US. It’s another MA/CA/WA.
Thanks for running these postings on the Ontario election.... given that tariffs are planned to kick in next week, there is certainly some added relevance to this.
ALberta and Saskatchewan are more like Colorado or New Mexico and Manitoba is like Minnesota. BC is another OR or WA (I’m originally from Oregon). Ontario is another NY. The Maritimes are like Maine, NH, and Vermont.
And Quebec is weird—France with British and American sub-currents.
As am American who has ended up in Canada, I think joining would be bad for both countries. Canada to some extent is kept sane by being close to the U.S., and the Canadian popluation is large enough to tip the political balance in the U.S. permanently to the left.
“Assuming that the scanning machines are honest…”
I would t assume that in a month of sundays. Digital? Software? Leftists?
Election fraud, as is usual for the left.
I am very confident that the vote tabulation in Canada is honest in almost all cases. That is one of the few areas where Canada is both better on paper than the U.S. and better in reality.
The parties are similar enough that the elections aren’t worth stealing. Since Henry VIII England/Britain has been an oligarchy, and to the extent that America provided a counterbalance, things are fading. Of the four parties that won seats, the only one that has any ideas differing from the status quo worth considering is the Greens, who at least have enough of a populist flavour to be against the leader of the party dictating everything.
Canada, oddly enough, in fact has a much more robust sense of Federalism than the U.S. has had since FDR, even though on paper the U.S. system is superior.
When 98% of the voters either stay home or back a leftist party, there is no need for fraud.
So the PC’s are totally in charge of Ontario.
The largest and the most liberal province.
How can Trudeau be a prime minister, if his party is gone in Ontario?
I obviously do not understand Canada’s politics, but after the first win of Ford in Ontario, I expected liberals to be gone in Canada, but NO, Trudeau somehow managed to keep in charge?!
What am I missing?
Somebody, please, enlighten me.
Read my post 10. Ontario is not the most liberal province-—that is B.C.. Depending on how you define liberal, Manitoba and Quebec are also more liberal.
As well, be aware that Liberal in Canada was used in the 19th century sense in the 19th century and into the 20th century, with a result for much of the 20th century the “Liberal” party in Ontario would be more analogous to the Liberal party in Australia, which is the Conservative party.
The Conservatives were still more conservative during the 20th century than any party is now, but so were the Democrats. The only conservative leader in Ontario since I have been here who has had conservative bones in his body was Mike Harris. A few people talked a good game to get elected leader, but sold out almost immediately (a pattern also found at times at the federal level).
Ontario is very much like New York with Alaska tacked on—it is slightly smaller in population, but in an area half again the size of Texas, but with most of the population concentrated in the south-eastern 10% of the land mass, and within that about half of the population concentrated in the GTA (the Toronto metropolitan area).
Ford was a city counsellor in Toronto, and was his brother’s right-hand man when his brother was mayor. He is conservative for this context, but that is like being a conservative NYC politician.
The rural areas are the backbone of the Conservative strategy-—win about 70-95% of the more rural seats (in the most rural areas the NDP is the primary composition-—again, think Alaska), and around half of the suburban seats and one will have a majority. Extra seats in the suburbs and seats in Ottawa, Toronto proper, Hamilton, and London are bonuses.
Because of the nature of parliamentary parties, the rural areas don’t always get to pick their candidates (all six in my riding were picked by parties in the course of the four week campaign-—but we had a 20+ year incumbent who announced retirement only a few months ago, so the situation was unusual). As the MPs actually have very little power as MPs (the cabinet ministers do have power), and will get kicked out of caucus if they step too far out of line, not being able to pick the MP doesn’t matter as much as it would in the U.S. where there seems to be somewhat less party discipline.
Long-standing incumbents tend to have a bit more liberty to be themselves, but local candidates who are elected but found unacceptable can expect to not be allowed to run again.
On the provincial level we have two minor conservative parties founded by MPs that were kicked out of caucus—ideally they would merge (or one of them would fold), but politicians have egos.
How much is Donald trumps comments galvanizing the illegals and suicidal liberals? Which in turn makes it easier for them to cheat and win.
Trudeau already had begun a crackdown on immigration about two years ago that would make Trump blush. It is evident to everyone that immigration has led to a housing crisis.
Running against the U.S. is almost always a winning tactic in Canada if it can be justified. That was what Ford did, and it about balanced out calling an early election at a lousy time of year.
The conservatives in Alberta are pro-Trump——maybe in SK as well, but SK is small enough that it gets over-looked.
The Federal conservatives are still trying to figure out what to do—that they can’t come out with guns blazing against everything Trump stands for is probably handicapping them, which is why they are likely to blow what had been an insanely huge lead to a Harvard-educated governor of the Bank of England beating anti-Trump/anti-American/Canada first drums.
You're missing the part that this was a provincial election in the province of Ontario, equivalent to a governor's race here.
On the federal level, Trudeau's successor will be named in early March at a Liberal Party convention. That person will automatically become the next Prime Minister.
Parliament will resume later in March after which the Liberal government will almost certainly be forced to call an election on a non-confidence vote.
The Conservatives, led by Pierre Poilivere, had been expected to win in a landslide but by all accounts the race is much tighter today than it was two weeks ago. I suspect the Tories (conservatives) will win a very small majority based on today's polls. The election should be either May 5th or May 12th if it's called late this month.
You know a tremendous amount about Canada for some one from New Jersey. Any connection to Alberta?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.