Ontario voters officially headed to polls early for provincial election

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has officially set a provincial election in motion for Feb. 27, more than a year before the next fixed election date.

The election had been set for June 2026, but Ford confirmed last week he would trigger the vote, saying he needs a new mandate to deal with four years of a Donald Trump presidency in the United States.

The premier visited the lieutenant-governor to dissolve the provincial legislature today (effective at 4 p.m.), and writs ordering elections in all 124 of the province’s electoral districts are to be issued on Wednesday.

Ford has said Trump’s threat to impose 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods would hit Ontario and its auto sector hard, and the provincial government would need to spend tens of billions of dollars to protect jobs and the economy.

Ford said today his cabinet has discussed an “economic action plan” to respond to tariffs and it will be announced throughout an election campaign.

Opposition parties have insisted an early election is not necessary, because they would support stimulus spending and Ford already has a mandate after voters handed him a large majority last time.

Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie accused Ford of calling the early election to “run away” from a criminal probe into the Greenbelt scandal.

The RCMP is probing the government’s decision to open up parts of the protected Greenbelt for housing development. Ford has since reversed that policy and says nothing criminal took place.

The auditor general found that a handful of developers stood to benefit to the tune of more than $8 billion.