Ontario Liberals, NDP dangle differing platforms to same pool of voters
Bonnie Crombie, Marit Stiles compete for the anti-Doug Ford vote in provincial election
Some Ontario voters who consider themselves politically non-aligned — setting aside their desire to boot Doug Ford and his PC government out of office — often bemoan the unwillingness of the Liberals and NDP to co-operate at election time.
Those voters underestimate how much animosity there is between the Liberal and NDP campaigns.
"Liberals and New Democrats have a far more bitter rivalry than Liberals and Conservatives because we're competing for the same voter pool," says Dan Moulton, a partner at Crestview Strategy and a part-time adviser to Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie's campaign.
"There are certain values that progressive voters have that they don't always see reflected in the governing style of the Liberal Party," says Kim Wright, founder of Wright Strategies and a part-time adviser to NDP Leader Marit Stiles's campaign.
United only by their desire to defeat the Progressive Conservatives, the differences between Stiles' New Democrats and Crombie's Liberals are on full display as Thursday's election draws nearer, particularly as each party tries to pitch itself as the only real alternative to Ford.
The two rivals released their platforms on the same morning at the end of last week and while some promises are similar, the contrasts are notable.
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One of the starkest differences between the two parties's platforms is found in their plans to put money back in taxpayers' pockets.
The Liberal proposal is aimed solely at middle-income earners: an income-tax cut that would chop two percentage points off the provincial tax rate on annual earnings between $51,446 and $75,000.
The NDP proposal is aimed at low-to-moderate income earners: a tax rebate, pitched as a 'grocery rebate," in which individuals earning less than $50,000 and households earning less than $65,000 get the full amount, while the rebate is reduced for those who earn more.
The answer to the question of which party offers you a bigger tax break depends on your income, the size of your household and whether you have children.
The answer to the question of which party is promising more tax relief in total seems clearer:
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The Liberal income-tax cut (along with scrapping HST on home heating and hydro) would deliver $2.8 billion annually back to taxpayers once fully implemented, according to a background document.
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The NDP tax rebate would deliver about $4 billion back to taxpayers once fully implemented, according to a background document.
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The NDP and Liberal platforms do share a number of promises in common: doubling rates for the Ontario Disability Support Program, billions of dollars to be invested to get everyone in Ontario a family doctor within four years and a promise of universal mental health care under OHIP.
The two platforms are even pretty similar in the frequency of references to Doug Ford: the NDP uses his name 17 times in its 22-page platform; the Liberals mention him 20 times in 19 pages.
Neither party provides a ton of detail in their platform costing documents — far less than Mike Schreiner's Green Party offers in its platform, released on Feb. 12. The PCs have yet to release a costed platform, but party officials said one will be released on Monday.
The NDP platform costing lists eight lines of new annual costs, each labelled under such categories as "Homes Ontario" (the party's affordable housing construction plan pegged at $2.5 billion per year) and "Defending Ontario Jobs" (support for businesses affected by tariffs, $530 million in the coming fiscal year).
The Liberals' costing document is a chart on page 17 of their platform, listing just four lines of new annual costs, each labelled with a broad category such as "a better future for you" ($1.88 billion per year) and "a community that works for you" ($475 million per year), with an average listed for each year and no breakdown of where the figures come from.
The NDP's promises of tax rebates and increased spending grow each year, starting at $16.7 billion in year one of the plan, rising to $27 billion in year three.
The Liberals don't offer a year-by-year breakdown of their promises of tax cuts and increased spending, instead showing them as an average of $16.3 billion per year.
How would parties pay for promises?
The Liberals say they would find $7.1 billion in "savings, value, efficiency and reallocation of existing spending," but provide no details of how they would do that.
They claim the remaining $9.2 billion in additional costs would be covered through faster than forecasted economic growth.
"A 50 basis point improvement in economic growth would result in a surplus of more than $11 billion per year as of 2026-27," says the Liberal platform. "This would more than offset the new investments and tax cuts outlined in our plan."
This claim is facing criticism as a provincial version of "the budget will balance itself," an infamous 2014 comment by Justin Trudeau in his first campaign as federal Liberal leader.
The NDP is pledging to pay for some of its new spending and tax rebates with new taxes on the wealthy. The platform promises higher income tax rates on earnings of $300,000 and up (generating $3 billion per year), increasing the amount of capital gains subject to tax (generating $3.6 billion per year and a one-time tax on grocery store profits (generating $1 billion in 2026).
Like. the Liberals, the NDP platform math also relies on reallocating some government spending. It totals $12.7 billion over the course of three years, notably less than the Liberals' $7.1 billion per year.
Crombie, Stiles compare their platforms
CBC News asked each leader what makes their campaign platform different from their rival's.
"Well, mine is costed. It's realistic. We've had the experts design it," said Crombie in an interview on Sunday.
Crombie emphasized her plan to ensure that everyone in Ontario has a family doctor within four years — a promise that the NDP makes too.
"Our platform offers immediate solutions to the issues that people are grappling with right now in Ontario," Stiles said in an interview on Sunday.
Stiles emphasized the NDP's rent control promise, which would cap rent increases in two situations that are currently exempt from provincial limits: when a new tenant moves into an existing rental, and when a unit was built after 2018.
The Liberals are promising what they describe as "fair, phased-in rent control similar to Manitoba" but Crombie has not provided any specifics during the campaign, and the platform contains no further details.
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with files from Shawn Jeffords