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Turnout

As it stands, Elections Ontario has the turnout count pegged at 43%. The ridings with the highest turnout are Huron—Bruce with 54%, and then both Niagara West and Parry Sound—Muskoka with 53%. The ridings with the lowest turnout were Kiiwetinoong with 28% (only 92% of results are in), Humber River—Black Creek with 32%, and Windsor West with 33%.

It’s impossible to gauge how many voters were discouraged from voting by polls that consistently showed the PCs with a strong advantage. We also don’t know how many people didn’t vote due to Covid-19 infection or a lack of easy access to a nearby polling station. All parties were handed a major setback yesterday when a tech issue prevented them from downloading lists of which voters had already cast a ballot and which hadn’t yet, so their ability to work strategically yesterday was limited. Regardless, 43% is a pathetic turnout rate.

It’s worth noting that the Green Party campaigned relentlessly in Parry Sound—Muskoka because, with no Liberal candidate running, they had a good chance of winning that seat. A lot of effort was made to engage with voters and win their support, both from the Greens and the incumbent PCs. Niagara West is Sam Oosterhoff’s riding, where he can mobilize a large group of supporters from his church to canvass and help people vote. Running an energetic campaign is a candidate’s job, but for the rest of us, volunteering and helping to get people to a polling station really does help. Persuading friends and family to vote helps. We’re at a disadvantage in a first past the post electoral system, so there’s zero room for apathy.

Andrea Horwath and the NDP

After four elections as leader, Andrea Horwath read the room and stepped down after running a low-energy and uninspiring campaign. In Brampton, deputy party leader Sara Singh lost her seat, as did Gurratan Singh. The PCs secured several union endorsements over the traditionally more labour-friendly NDP. The Liberals will get more attention for their trainwreck of an election, but yesterday was awful for the NDP.

With Horwath quitting, the NDP’s other deputy leader, John Vanthof, may be interested in running for the party leadership. Joel Harden and Marit Stiles are other potential contenders.

Notable losers

New Blue MPP Belinda Karahalios and New Blue leader Jim Karahalios both lost badly in Cambridge and Kitchener—Conestoga respectively. Derek Sloan also lost by a huge margin. The former Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders lost in Kathleen Wynne’s old riding.

The Liberals took the riding of Kingston and the Islands from the NDP, beating Mary Rita Holland, the former president of Ontario’s NDP. Sandeep Singh, who was controversially chosen as the NDP candidate in Brampton North over the incumbent, Kevin Yarde, also lost.

Steven Del Duca has stepped down after failing to secure party status for the Liberals or win in Vaughan—Woodbridge. After flipping from the PCs to the Liberals in 2020, MPP Amanda Simard lost her seat and two of the most well-known Liberal newbie candidates, nurse Tyler Watt and vaccination advocate Jill Promoli, also lost.

There’s not much for the PCs to be disappointed about, but their candidate in Haldimand—Norfolk lost to an independent. Former seven-term PC MPP Toby Barrett chose not to run in this election, but he endorsed his assistant Bobbi Ann Brady who was running as an independent. 

Notable winners

After narrowly losing in 2018, Chandra Pasma unexpectedly flipped Ottawa West—Nepean to the NDP. With the NDP’s only other flip, Lise Vaugeois won in Thunder Bay—Superior North.

York Centre MPP and lying enthusiast Roman Baber has been removed by Doug Ford from caucus and will not be permitted to run for the PCs in the next provincial election.

Twenty-five years ago this month, then Ontario premier Mike Harris slashed social assistance rates by 21.6 per cent.

In response to criticism of the cuts, Harris’s minister in charge of social services, David Tsubouchi, put forward a shopping list — later dubbed the “welfare diet” — to prove that welfare recipients could survive on the new lower rates by adhering to a $90-a-month grocery budget.

Tsubouchi’s list, which included nine servings of pasta but no sauce, and did not include butter, salt or other pantry staples, was widely ridiculed.

“It is totally out of touch with reality and is consistent with the stupidity and the ignorance of this minister,” Liberal MPP Dominic Agostino said in the legislature at the time.

Environmental groups are taking the Ontario government to court over its unlawful use of a Ministerial Zoning Order (MZO) to force through development on the provincially significant Duffins Creek wetlands complex.

Ecojustice, on behalf of Environmental Defence and Ontario Nature, filed the legal application to maintain protections on this special area, which the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs has approved as the future site of a warehouse facility.

Provincially Significant Coastal Wetlands, such as the Lower Duffins Creek complex, are of huge importance to local communities, helping to mitigate flooding, store carbon, filter water and provide habitat to wildlife.

MZOs are meant to be an extraordinary measure. In the past, they were rarely used and were reserved for exceptional circumstances.  But in this year alone, the Ontario government has issued over 30 MZOs to fast-track development.

The legal challenge seeks to have the MZO quashed and declared unlawful for failing to comply with provincial law and policy.  The 2020 Provincial Policy Statement under the Planning Act clearly does not permit development on provincially significant wetlands. Yet, the Minister ignored this prohibition and issued the MZO, thereby allowing development to take place in an otherwise protected wetland.

The proposed development at Lower Duffins Creek faces considerable opposition from several  groups, and thousands of citizens. The Williams Treaties First Nations were not consulted and have voiced concerns. The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority has also rejected development in protected wetlands.

The Ford government has been allowing Ontario foster homes to be inspected over the phone, increase in size and require less documentation, like health records, for more than a month.

The amendments to the Child, Youth and Family Services Act went into effect May 8 and will remain in place while the province is in a state of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

But APTN News recently obtained documents related to amendments and had them reviewed by David Miller, a long-time child protection lawyer in Toronto.

“Every change involved in these amendments serves to make foster homes and group homes less safe for our most vulnerable children and youth,” said Miller, adding these homes will be “busier, more chaotic … and with reduced government oversight.”

That’s particularly the case with in-home inspections and/or annual reviews, which can be now done by video or the telephone. Annual reviews, which make sure a child’s care is being met, can also be delayed for three months.

There are now fewer requirements for foster parents and group home staff, as well.

They can hire staff and recruit foster parents with less stringent requirements, such as no health assessments.

Premier Doug Ford has ejected Cambridge MPP Belinda Karahalios from the Progressive Conservative caucus for voting against controversial legislation expanding the government’s emergency authority.

“Belinda Karahalios will no longer be sitting as a member of the Progressive Conservative caucus,” Ford said in a terse statement Tuesday night less than an hour after Karahalios broke ranks.

Karahalios voted against legislation that she warned was “unnecessary overreach on our parliamentary democracy.”

Premier Doug Ford shot down suggestions that the letter written on the weekend by Burlington MPP Jane McKenna and Milton MPP Parm Gill indicated signs of disunity in the back benches. The letter the two signed asked the Province’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. David Williams to take a targeted approach to any COVID restrictions for Halton rather than a blanket lockdown. The Premier told reporters that he urged his MPPs and Oakville Mayor Rob Burton to write the letters.

Here’s a surprisingly positive update regarding the Ontario government’s shameful attempt to appeal against an order to increase annuity payments to 21 different First Nations.