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.
Ford confirmed, however, that he has given his party's members of provincial parliament a December deadline to decide if they will run again.
"You always have to be prepared," he said when asked about the nomination process that usually kicks off some six months before an election.
"We aren't too far from any election no matter if it's next year or the following year and we have to know where we're moving and going and making sure we have good candidates."
He said in the interim, his government will focus on job creation, health care, education and infrastructure projects like building highways and transit.
"We're going to focus on what people want right now and that's a good paying job, making sure that we do the infrastructure right across the province that people need by building the hospitals and the schools," he said.
The premier had previously left open the possibility of an early election when asked about one last spring.
Those musings kicked off a summer of campaign preparations from the opposition parties, as well as the majority-government Tories.
Ontario's New Democrats raised $1.1 million in 10 weeks over the summer as Opposition Leader Marit Stiles crisscrossed the province.
“These numbers send a clear message that Ontarians are stepping up behind Marit," Kevin Beaulieu, the party's provincial director, wrote in a statement.
The party said they received nearly 20,000 contributions over that time frame making the average donation just shy of $52.
"The Ontario NDP relies primarily on smaller donations from a larger number of ordinary Ontarians than the other parties," Beaulieu said.
The Liberals – who are introducing their new leader, Bonnie Crombie, to voters – started putting out calls to potential campaign staff and volunteers this summer, and began nominating candidates.
"There is only one reason Doug Ford would call an early election: to outrun the RCMP investigation into his shady backroom deals," said Liberal spokesman Carter Brownlee, referencing an RCMP investigation into the government's moves on the Greenbelt.
The RCMP is probing the Greenbelt land swap that saw the province remove 15 parcels of land from the protected area to build 50,000 homes. Two provincial watchdogs found the process to remove the lands favoured certain developers over others. After a public outcry, Ford reversed course on those plans.
Brownlee said the Liberals are ready for a snap election and have raised nearly $3 million from some 10,000 donors since Crombie became leader last December. In the second quarter of 2024, the party raised nearly $1 million, he said.
The Green Party of Ontario, which now has two seats in the legislature, has said it spent the summer working on building local teams as its leader and deputy leaders canvassed in ridings.
The Tories, who currently hold 78 seats, had caucus members out door-knocking this summer although Ford encourages that year-round.
Ford is set to fulfil a campaign promise this week from the 2018 election where he pledged to allow corner stores to sell beer and wine. Those changes will take effect on Thursday.
The province is forking over $225 million to The Beer Store in order to break a previous 10-year deal with the company as it moves to get beer, wine and coolers into convenience stores.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 3, 2024.
Liam Casey, The Canadian Press
