The Ontario NDP released its platform for the next provincial election, which includes billions more in spending on services..Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said that the last few years have been “tough.” .“But it really doesn’t have to be this way,” said Horwath in a Monday press release. “Ontario is the greatest place in the world to live, and together we can start to fix the things that have been broken — the things that matter most to everyday people.”.According to the press release, the NDP will create universal mental health care and the first real pharmacare program in Canada. Universal dental care, said the press release, will be brought in sooner. .The NDP said that it will hire 10,000 personal support workers and 30,000 nurses. Horwath said that she is committed to hiring 20,000 teachers and education workers to make class sizes smaller. .Some measures the NDP said it would bring in to make life more affordable are reinstating rent control, stopping large rent hikes in between tenants, and introducing a speculation and vacancy tax. .The press release said that the party will freeze income taxes for low and middle class households for four years. It said that multimillionaires and large corporations should expect to pay more in income taxes. .Horwath said that people should vote for her because Ford “won’t fix things.” She added that people “can’t trust Steven Del Duca’s Liberals to fix what they helped break.”.“This is a platform that works for people,” she said. “We’re promising that we’re going to work for you — and if we come together, we can defeat Doug Ford and get everyday families back on solid ground.”.The NDP has not released the full cost of its platform. .The party made a $1.4 billion annual costing mistake in its 2018 election platform. .While the miscounting of a $700 million annual reserve fund as revenue rather than as an expense will affect deficit projections for several years, Horwath downplayed the error. .“It doesn’t prevent us from doing any of the things that we believe we can do to help get rid of hallway medicine for example, and fix seniors’ care in our province,” she said. “The deficit will be a little bigger than expected, but we still will be on the trajectory to balance.”.Jonathan Bradley is a contributor at the Western Standard based out of Toronto.
