analysis of election platforms flood online media
Interesting to read the decidedly diverse commentary out there on each party’s election platform as they are unveiled this month. There are already a wide range of analyses of the ONDP’s election platform
Hill Knowlton summarizes each component of the platform. Under Education it notes that the ONDP intends to:
- Re-write the education funding formula
- Base special education funding on actual needs, not overall populations, with timely needs assessments.
- Place a moratorium on school closures until the funding formula is fixed
- Continue to develop schools as community hubs to provide greater community programming and use of these facilities
- Invest $16 billion to repair crumbling schools
- End EQAO testing
- Fix the rules around education development charges so they can fund the new schools families need
One economic commentator from Manitoba (where successive NDP governments held power) notes that the Chamber of Commerce, although critical of proposed increases in education, healthcare, childcare and other social spending, does not “accuse the NDP of socialism or cozying up to workers, which is an important sign that the ONDP platform still fits within the ‘tent’ of Ontario [fiscal policy] and presents a more aggressive balanced budget schedule than that of the current government.”
A less accessible analysis, QP Briefing is the property of Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd. It’s analysis is available to Star subscribers and staffers.
Chris Selley in the National Post states that “Andrea Horwath won’t be outflanked on the left again”.
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives puts it this way: “Back in March, the Ontario Liberals put all of their chips on the table with their election-style provincial budget. They promised free child care, more support for dental care and drugs, and a reinvestment in health care—bankrolling it by deficit spending for the next six years. That left the opposition parties with two options: they could call the Liberals on a bluff or they could raise the stakes. New PC Leader Doug Ford is raising the stakes by tearing up his predecessor’s comprehensive, fully costed platform and promising five planks—as yet not revealed to the public. Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner, whose party does not have a seat in the provincial legislature, has thrown all of his chips in the game, too: promoting a broad-ranging platform that includes measures to reduce economic inequality and to address climate change.
“Last move, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath. Monday, she showed her hand by releasing a fully costed platform that goes big on health care spending, promises $12 a day child care (free for households making less than $40,000), a commitment to build 65,000 more affordable homes, and a much needed raise in social assistance rates. This increased commitment to public services means an additional $5.4 billion going to essential public services in 2018-19, rising to $15.8 billion in 2022-23. The NDP have a plan to raise taxes on businesses and the wealthy to pay for these promises—and that plan includes smaller deficits than the Liberals’. It seems they have upped the stakes in this dramatic pre-election period. We read the 100-page platform document so you don’t have to, but you can review it for yourself on their website. Here, we break down some of the planks of the NDP platform.”
