Ontario

The Ford government has spent more than any other previous administration in any other year on advertisements which, the auditor general has found, were “designed to promote the governing party.”

Auditor General Shelley Spence found as part of her annual report that, in the fiscal year ending at the end of March, the province spent a total of $104.6 million on advertising.

That is the most any Ontario government has ever spent on advertising in a single year, the auditor general said, and triple what was spent the year before.

Did Bonnie Crombie get ‘sold a bill of goods’? Here’s why the Liberal leader is struggling to find her footing and take down Doug Ford

… “This party is like a start-up. There is no infrastructure. There is no money,” says another Liberal veteran, maintaining the “draft Crombie” movement that lured her from a comfortable perch running Ontario’s third-largest city underplayed the challenge.

Instead, Crombie is running Ontario’s third party.

“I think Bonnie got sold a bill of goods. It’s not an easy job. If they’re in third place one more time, I don’t know what the future is,” adds the veteran Liberal.

Ontarians are expected to go to the polls this spring in an early election that Premier Doug Ford will contend is necessary due to the spectre of Donald Trump.

Thanks to the economic uncertainty triggered by a second Trump presidency, Ford’s planned pitch to voters would be a simple one, Progressive Conservative sources told the Star.

An ex-Ontario premier and a former Toronto mayor could play pivotal roles in an upcoming city council byelection, amid concerns from some left-leaning insiders that a trio of candidates with Liberal connections are on track to split the vote and give a controversial conservative a path to victory.

Although voters won’t go to the polls to elect a new councillor in Don Valley West until Nov. 4, the race is already being shaped by behind-the-scenes manoeuvring featuring Kathleen Wynne and John Tory, the Star has learned.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford ruled out calling an early election this year, but left the door open on Tuesday to calling one in 2025.

The province’s next fixed election date isn’t until June 2026, but Ford continued to dance around the issue of whether or not he’ll call an early election.

“We aren’t having an election this year,” the premier said at an unrelated news conference, without providing further clarity on whether he would call an early vote.

RCMP detectives are interviewing witnesses linked to Premier Doug Ford’s government about the $8.28-billion Greenbelt land swap scandal, the Star has learned.

Progressive Conservative insiders said current and former political aides have begun sitting down with the Mounties to discuss Ford’s controversial 2022 decision to open up 7,400 acres of the two-million-acre Greenbelt to housing development.

While condemning Kathleen Wynne, the former Ontario premier, and the Liberals for years of reckless spending, Ontario Premier Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservatives are doing the same thing, according to a new study by the Fraser Institute.

The very first government-run liquor stores opened in Ontario nearly 100 years ago, garnering huge fanfare, hours-long lines and a healthy degree of puritanical skepticism.

Reporters chronicled the scenes in a massive spread published in The Globe and Mail on June 2, 1927, where they noted that people were mostly civilized as they waited to acquire their permits to buy alcohol, though there was some line-cutting and “police reported one drunk arrested” at a store in London, Ont. Reporters also observed with some bewilderment that women – women! – were often among those lining up to purchase alcohol, some pushing baby carriages “with the baby at home apparently” to cart their bottles home.

Who asked Ontario’s government to blow upward of $225-million to accelerate the introduction of beer and wine in corner stores?

Is there an overworked nurse in Thunder Bay who has been pleading for respite in the form of 12-packs at her local convenience store? Have parents of children with autism been banging on the Premier’s door, demanding better access to Coors Light? Is there some sort of clandestine wine-drinking lobby in this province that told Doug Ford they simply can’t wait another 16 months for new places to shop for booze?

Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his Progressive Conservative Party had solid wins in both of the province’s byelections last week. In the riding of Milton, Zee Hamid won 47 per cent of the vote, while in Lambton-Kent-Middlesex, Steve Pinsonneault won 57 per cent. The victorious PC candidates will take their seats in the Ontario legislature shortly.

The ink is red and the Tories are blue.

Amid a rapidly slowing economy, Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy has tabled a record $214.5-billion budget with $9.8-billion deficit for 2024-25 — a staggering $10-billion swing from the $200-million surplus he projected last March.

“It has been a challenging year. Life has rarely been this expensive,” Bethlenfalvy conceded Tuesday in the legislature.

8 highlights from the Ontario budget — and 2 things all drivers will want to know

Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives have tabled a $214.5-billion budget with an unexpectedly high $9.8-billion deficit. Here are the highlights…

Ontario deficit will triple as economy weakens, 2024 budget shows

High interest rates are expected to take a toll on Ontario’s economy this year, the province said in its 2024 budget, which includes projections of weak economic growth and a ballooning deficit.

Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy tabled the government’s $214-billion budget at Queen’s Park Tuesday, saying it is investing in housing, roads and public services during a time of uncertainty without raising taxes.

Bonnie Crombie declared new Ontario Liberal leader after three rounds of voting