Doug Ford pledges aid for tradesman in Waterloo, accepts endorsement from union

Ontario PC Party leader Doug Ford stopped in Waterloo to meet with local tradesman on Thursday, and to announce his pledge to invest an additional $1 billion in the Skills Development Fund (SDF).

UA Local 257, a union based in Waterloo, is endorsing Ford’s bid to be re-elected as Premier, noting that under his leadership, he promoted skilled trades and expanded training opportunities in Ontario.

“We’re going to add another billion dollars, that’s a billion dollars on top of another billion-and-a-half, to our Skills Development Fund to provide more than a million people with training opportunities and partnership with our great, great unions,” said Ford.

Ford re-iterated his intentions to protect workers in the face of potential tariffs put in place by US President Donald Trump by investing tens of billions of dollars to keep people working.

A focal point of Ford’s bid for re-election has been building the Ontario economy by investing $200 billion to build roads, highways, and transit.

This week, Liberal leader Bonnie Crombie was critical of Ford’s inaction when it comes to expanding transit in Kitchener, adding that if elected her party would expand the ION LRT system by adding 17 km of rapid transit from Fairway Station to Downtown Cambridge, and deliver all-day GO Transit between Kitchener and Toronto.

“It’s ironic, the Liberals built absolutely nothing,” said Ford in response to Crombie’s criticism. “They didn’t build any transit in Toronto, they didn’t build any transit outside of Toronto, they didn’t build Go Train expansion. We’re playing catch-up.”

“They’ve been talking about Highway 7 here since before Moses. We’re actually moving forward with Highway 7.”

During his media availability on Thursday, Ford took a moment to address the ongoing Wilmot Land Assembly.

“If they want to assemble land to create more jobs and more opportunities, we always say ok, we’ll support them,” said Ford. “We aren’t getting involved directly. Do I wish they handled it a little differently? Absolutely. And they know that.”