Ontario leaders kick off election campaign by debating proposed Highway 413
Ontario's election campaign began in earnest Wednesday with the party leaders promising to either build or cancel a planned highway that would cut through and serve key battleground areas.
The proposed Highway 413 is set to serve Greater Toronto Area communities including Vaughan, Ont., and Brampton, Ont., a region holding several seats that all three major parties consider to be in play.
Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford began his day in Brampton reiterating his pledge to build Highway 413, saying it will ease gridlock and save commuters time.
"Friends, we're saying yes to building roads and highways no matter where you live," Ford said, rattling off a list of other highway projects central to his re-election campaign.
"We'll cut through all the excuses, all the obstacles and delays and it's time to start pouring the concrete."
The Liberals and NDP, who both promise to cancel the project, say it would save commuters mere seconds -- instead of the 30 minutes the Tories tout -- and would pave over critical green space.
Matti Siemiatycki, the director of the University of Toronto's Infrastructure Institute, said this is "a classic wedge issue."
"This is framing the election as a referendum on how the region is going to grow and how people are going to get around the region," he said in an interview.
Much of the Progressive Conservative platform is built around not only infrastructure such as roads, but making it cheaper and easier to commute, through cutting tolls on highways 412 and 418, refunding licence plate renewal fees and a gas tax cut set to come in the summer, Siemiatycki noted.
"It's a whole suite of policies geared really towards motorists and you can see where the geography of this is targeted," said Siemiatycki, also a professor of geography and planning at the university.
"It's laser focused on the 905 region of Toronto, which is a big voting area for the province. It's where elections are typically won and lost in the province."
The wedge aspect comes into play because the other parties have framed the highway project in the opposite way, as one that will exacerbate urban sprawl, cut into the protected Greenbelt land, create more pollution and not actually address congestion, Siemiatycki said.
Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca pledged to use an estimated $10 billion in savings from not going ahead with the highway to instead build and repair schools, and attempted to paint the Progressive Conservatives as a party that does not choose public education.
"We saw the undermining and the underfunding of publicly funded education by Doug Ford and the conservatives before the pandemic began," he said, referencing tense contract negotiations with teachers and the instituting of mandatory online courses in secondary school.
"Conservatives just cannot help themselves, that when they're given a chance ... one of their first actions is to go on the attack against publicly funded education."
Ford has not released an overall cost estimate for Highway 413, and wouldn't do so when asked again Wednesday, saying the worst thing he could do on a construction site is give an exact figure.
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, who also began her campaign in a Peel Region riding, said it is important to spend money on infrastructure. But she suggested the Tories are going ahead with Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass that would connect highways 400 and 404, for the wrong reasons.
"There's billions and billions and billions of dollars that the government has kind of taken from all of the other … road infrastructure projects and focused them in on these two projects to help Doug Ford's developer buddies," she said.
"I won't be making those decisions based on who owns a golf course or who owns land and property that might might help out with my election campaign war chest."
With files from Holly McKenzie-Sutter, Liam Casey and Maan Alhmidi.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 4, 2022.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Which Canadian cities have the highest and lowest grocery prices?
Where you live plays a big factor in what you pay at the grocery store. And while it's no secret the same item may have a different price depending on the store, city or province, we wanted to see just how big the differences are, and why.
'State or state-sponsored actor' believed to be behind B.C. government hacks
The head of British Columbia’s civil service has revealed that a “state or state-sponsored actor” is behind multiple cyber-security incidents against provincial government networks.
Swarm of 20,000 bees gather around woman’s car west of Toronto
A swarm of roughly 20,000 bees gathered around a woman’s car in the parking lot of Burlington Centre.
Mother assaulted by stranger while breastfeeding baby in her car: Vancouver police
A person was arrested in East Vancouver Thursday after allegedly entering a car while a mother was breastfeeding her four-month-old boy.
More than half the Canadians once detained in Syrian camps for suspected ISIS family members have returned home
A total of 29 Canadians have been freed from detention camps in northeast Syria and brought back to Canada since human rights advocates began lobbying for their release years ago.
Rare severe solar storm Friday could bring spectacular aurora light show across Canada
A rare and severe solar storm is expected to bring spectacular displays of the northern lights, also known as aurora borealis, across much of Canada and parts of the United States on Friday night.
Canada abstains from Palestinian UN membership vote but supports two-state solution
Canada was one of 25 countries that abstained from a United Nations vote on Palestinian membership that passed with overwhelming support on Friday.
Amish youth experience a rite of passage called Rumspringa. It’s not what you might think
The idea of “Rumspringa” has a specific spot in the American imagination. A rite of passage for young people in some Amish communities, Rumspringa is seen by most outsiders as a wild time away from strict Amish rules, when teenagers can experiment with the modern vices of the world.
Djokovic needs medical attention after getting knocked on the head by a water bottle at Italian Open
Novak Djokovic needed medical attention after apparently getting knocked on the head by a water bottle after a win at the Italian Open on Friday.