Toronto·The Campaigner

So the Ontario election is tomorrow, what you need to know a day before voting day

The leaders have 24 hours left to convince you they should be the next premier of Ontario.

The youngest group of MPP candidates are in Niagara West

Voters will head to the polls in Ontario on October 24. (Martha Dillman/CBC)

So tomorrow is election day.

That means the leaders have 24 hours left to convince you they should be the next premier of Ontario.

All the party leaders are out in full force, and in some ridings people are being very clear who they don't want to be in charge of the province after June 7.

Here's where we are on day 29.

Latest from the campaign

  • With a day to go, Ontario election is still Doug Ford's to lose
    • CBC's Éric Grenier takes a look at the campaign less than 24 hours before the polls open and voters begin to cast their ballots. The opinion polls show that the Progressive Conservatives are holding on to their slim lead over Andrea Horwath's New Democrats. And because of how the vote is projected to break down across the province, that likely is enough to give the PCs a majority government.
  • If Ontario Liberals lose 'recognized party' status after Thursday's election, what comes next?
    • As of June 5, according to CBC News Poll Tracker, the seat projections were at 74 for the PCs, 48 for the NDP and two for the Liberals. In this province, the standing orders of the legislature declare that any party with fewer than eight seats loses its status as a "recognized party" and, with that status, the funding for administrative staff and research activities that help inform the caucus's work.

The moment

It's perhaps the bluntest lawn sign of the campaign so far: "STOP Doug Ford," reads a yellow-and-black sign. "Vote John Fraser."

There isn't a drop of Liberal red in sight, nor does the party's name appear anywhere on the signs that began popping up in the last few days in the riding of Ottawa South.

Ottawa-South candidate John Fraser calls his new signs a "call to arms." (Amanda Pfeffer/CBC)

But they were put up by the Liberal incumbent's campaign in a last-ditch attempt to stop the PCs.

Fraser told the CBC that the signs are a "call to arms" to stop Ford and what the Liberals are characterizing as a platform of cuts to services.

The riding has been Liberal since Dalton McGuinty Sr. won in 1987. And it's stayed that way ever since, most notably held by former premier Dalton McGuinty Jr. who represented the riding from 1990 until he resigned in 2013. McGuinty was replaced by Fraser, his constituency man, who's now under siege from both the Tories and the NDP.

When Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne conceded the election last weekend, and pleaded with voters to elect Liberals to keep a PC or NDP government in check, it was seats like Ottawa South she was hoping to save. In a competitive three-way race, it's more likely the Progressive Conservatives will come out ahead.

One day will tell if the strategy worked or if, as his competitors see it, an act of desperation.

Noted

Two weeks ago, Don Valley North Liberal candidate Shelley Carroll was standing next to Leader Kathleen Wynne, praising her track record on transit and calling her "too humble."

But Carroll diverted from Liberal strategy Tuesday, arguing a tweet from the party's account which went after the NDP "wasn't helpful." Carroll then deleted said tweet in the middle of the night.

While one accused her of doing so under party pressure, Carroll explained her husband's phone kept going off with every retweet and she didn't know how to silence it.

"I still believe focus should be on keeping Doug out of the premier's office," she clarified.

Riding to watch

Niagara West, population 90,480, profile by Haydn Watters

Those who think young people don't care about politics clearly aren't watching the race in Niagara West.

The newly-named riding, which includes the towns of Grimsby, Lincoln and parts of St. Catharines, is home to PC incumbent Sam Oosterhoff, the 20-year-old who became the youngest ever MPP when he easily won a 2016 by-election.

This time around, Oosterhoff is up against candidates his own age — and even younger. The NDP's Curtis Fric is also 20, once a political science classmate of Oosterhoff's at Brock University. The Greens are running 18-year-old Jessica Tillmanns, headed to Brock in the fall where she'll join the varsity wrestling team.

At 27, the Liberal's Joe Kanee is the elder of the bunch — and the only one who was old enough to vote in the last provincial election.

Unlike in many other ridings, things have stayed civil. Fric, Tillmanns and Oosterhoff posed for a photo after a recent debate, tagging and retweeting each other on Twitter — Tillmanns even managed to sneak in her campaign sign.

The area has strong Conservative roots, served by former PC leader Tim Hudak before Oosterhoff took over. It's also home to longtime Tory MP Dean Allison.

Environment panel

The environment panel included, from left to right, host Craig Norris of CBC Kitchener-Waterloo, transit activist Yvette Tendick, environmental consultant Evan Ferrari and water advocate Tamanna Kohi. (Haydn Watters/CBC)

CBC's provincial election team was in Guelph last night, hosting a panel about the environment. It's an issue that affects everyone in the province — flagged by you as one of the top issues to watch this campaign.

But it's not come up much during the campaign. The lack of talk was a hot topic during last night's panel. Watch it below:

Poll Tracker

With a day to go, the PCs continue to hold a narrow lead in the polls and a wider lead in the seat projection. Get the latest breakdown.

Where the leaders are

  • Ford: Visit to diner in Milton (9:30 a.m.), visit to bakery in Oakville (11:30 a.m.), announcement at Hilton Garden Inn in Burlington (1 p.m.), candidate office visit in Etobicoke (2 p.m.), rally in Caledonia (7 p.m.) 
  • Horwath: Event at breakfast restaurant in Scarborough (9:30 a.m.), event at Indian grocery store in Scarborough (11:30 a.m.), event at cupcake shop in Brampton (1 p.m.), event in North York (2:30 p.m.), event in York (3:30 p.m.)
  • Schreiner: Campaigning in Guelph (all day)
  • Wynne: Announcement at Hugh Garner Co-op in Toronto (10 a.m.), visit to home in Port Dover (1:45 p.m.), candidate office visit in Burlington (5:45 p.m.)

We're tracking the Ontario leaders on the campaign trail. See where they have stopped.

NDP Leader stopped Andrea Horwath for ice cream in Guelph yesterday but it was a quick break ahead of a full day of campaign stops today in the Toronto area. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)

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