Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative Party has won the Ontario election, securing a third straight majority win.
“I’ll fight tooth and nail against Donald Trump, I’ll promise you that,” Ford told CP24 before heading to his election night party after the results came in.
“I’m very grateful for the people of Ontario. We’re gonna make sure we protect the people of Ontario – protect their families and protect their jobs.”
He noted it’s “quite a feat” to win three straight majorities and promised to work hard “every day” for Ontarians.
Marit Stiles and the NDP will once again form the official opposition, while the Ontario Liberals are returning to official party status seven years after they were swept out of office.
Early results showed the PCs projected to win 78 seats – that would be one less than they had in the last assembly. Meanwhile the NDP looked poised to win 26 seats, the Liberals 14, and two for the Greens.
As for the leaders, Ford, NDP Leader Marit Stiles and Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner have won their seats, while Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie lost to Conservative candidate Silvia Gualtieri in a tight race in Mississauga-East Cooksville.
Tariff threat dominated
Ford called the snap winter election – Ontario’s first February election in more than 140 years – saying he needed a “strong mandate” from voters to deal with the threat of U.S. tariffs that could devastate Ontario’s economy.
Polls showed for months that Ford’s PCs had the wind at their backs and the campaign did little to change that. Nightly tracking conducted for CTV News by Nanos Research showed the PCs with a roughly 15-point lead among decided voters throughout the election.
The writ was dropped just as $200 rebate cheques –announced in November – were mailed out to Ontarians.
Ford opened his campaign, with its “Protect Ontario” slogan in Windsor, Ont., under the Ambassador Bridge to the U.S. setting the theme for his re-election effort. During the campaign, he twice travelled to Wahington, D.C. to lobby U.S. officials and promote Ontario, leading opposition parties to charge that he was blurring the line between premier and candidate in violation of the long-standing caretaker convention.
Ford defended the trip, saying it was important for him to show up and present a united front with other Canadian leaders. Still, his campaign deleted a video post that blended his campaign slogan with footage from his Washington trip. The campaign defended the post, but said they deleted it “out of an abundance of caution.”
While the other parties tried to reframe the election around issues such as health care, education and questionable deals, such as the Ontario Place redevelopment, those issues failed to sufficiently move the needle with voters amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats.
PC Campaign Manager Kory Teneycke acknowledged the PCs ran the election in “unusual” circumstances.
“This sort of economic crisis, perhaps even sovereignty crisis, associated with Donald Trump’s presidency is sort of something I think most people didn’t anticipate and it’s really dominated a lot of the campaign, and that’s pretty unusual,” Teneycke said.
Toward the end of the election, NDP Leader Marit Stiles and Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie – both leading their parties into an election for the first time – increasingly turned their firepower on one another as they failed to close the gap with Ford. During a televised debate, Crombie appealed to NDP voters to back her, saying Stiles believes that “money grows on trees.”
For her part, Stiles told past Liberal voters that they should turn to her, accusing Crombie of taking questionable contributions from wealthy donors. Crombie maintained that none of the contributions she accepted broke any rules.
While there were a handful of candidate resignations from various parties, there were few major surprises in the rare winter election.
Leaders claim gains
Speaking with her supporters Thursday night, Crombie said she knows the result is disappointing for Liberals, but she nevertheless sounded upbeat.
“I know tonight isn’t exactly the result we’re looking for, but you should be very, very proud of what we did tonight,” Crombie said. “People counted us out. They said the Ontario Liberal Party was dead. Tonight, you proved them wrong.”
She hailed the return of the Liberals to official party status and called it a “building block” the party can grow from.
She acknowledged that voters have given Ford another mandate, but added that “many of you are asking for a strong voice to hold him accountable as premier, and you can count on me.”
Speakers with her supporters, Stiles acknowledged the result was disappointing for her party, but said it was concern about Donald Trump’s tariffs that drove people to re-elect the PCs.
“Now the results aren’t everything that we hoped for, but the people of Ontario made their choice. They’ve re elected the government, hoping it will help protect them from Donald Trump and his tariffs, and they’ve entrusted me and my team to do a different but also very important job.”
Stiles congratulated Ford and said she and her party stand ready to do whatever they can to help combat the “real” threat posed by Trump.
“My message to the people of Ontario is, in the face of Trump, we will stand together. And we, the Ontario NDP, will stand up for the people.
She vowed at thew same time to continue to hold the government to account.
Crombie’s gain came in part at Stiles’ expense. The Liberals chipped away three seats from their NDP rivals.
Toward the end of the election, Stiles and Crombie – both leading their parties into an election for the first time – increasingly turned their firepower on one another as they failed to close the gap with Ford. During a televised debate, Crombie appealed to NDP voters to back her, saying Stiles believes that “money grows on trees.”
For her part, Stiles told past Liberal voters that they should turn to her, accusing Crombie of taking questionable contributions from wealthy donors. Crombie maintained that none of the contributions she accepted broke any rules.
What comes next
During the campaign, Ford promised some $40 billion in new spending. Those promises include a $1.8-billion plan to connect every Ontarian to primary care within four years; $2 billion for municipal infrastructure to support housing construction; and billions of dollars to bolster businesses and workers in the face of the tariff threats.
The PCs also promised to remove tolls from a portion of Highway 407; build new GO train lines and expand the commuter service; and to dig a massive tunnel for cars and transit under Highway 401 in the GTA.
The party also promised to build 30 new schools and expand 15 others at a cost of $1.3 billion.
Those commitments will likely mean a deviation from the party’s previous plan to balance the budget.
Weather may have impacted voter turnout
Political observers had cautioned that the weather could lead to historically low voter turnout, especially in the wake of a major snowstorm that swept across the province last week.
Mother Nature also delivered a messy mix of winter weather on election day, with snow in the morning and rain in the afternoon across the Greater Toronto Area. A winter weather travel advisory was in effect for much of the province throughout the day, with some parts of Ontario under snowfall warnings as well.
However the official voter turnout won’t be known until all results are formally compiled by Elections Ontario.
The independent government agency said ahead of election day that it was working closely with municipal officials to ensure voting places were easy to access, no matter the weather.
Voting hours were extended at nine polling stations due to local problems.
About six per cent of voters took part in three days of advance voting.