Dear friends:
Premier Doug Ford called this election saying he wanted a strong mandate from the people of Ontario.
He didn’t get it.
Of those who could vote in Ontario, only 45 per cent cast a ballot. All told, the number of people who voted PC was just over 19 per cent of those eligible.
That’s not a mandate. It’s a tragedy.
Doug Ford’s greatest fear was that he would have to defend his record. Because he couldn’t.
He did everything he could to avoid accountability. PC candidates refused to participate in debates and didn’t return calls from journalists. After the two televised debates, the premier refused to face the cameras at all.
Ford didn’t want to talk about the steep rise in hallway health care or the skyrocketing cost of housing. Or his deep cuts to education and social services. Or the 81,000 homeless people and one million food bank users in Ontario. Or his plans for private health care and multi-billion-dollar giveaways to developers and big corporations.
And it looks like he got away with it. At least for now.
But democracy isn’t just about elections. It isn’t just about voting. It’s about building our power together to make things better. It’s about fighting back against bad decisions and holding governments accountable. And at OPSEU/SEFPO, that’s exactly what we’ll keep doing.
I want to say a huge thank you to all the OPSEU/SEFPO members and staff who put their names forward as candidates in this election. It takes real courage and commitment to run for elected office, and we are proud to work alongside them.
OPSEU/SEFPO members are ready to fight for the issues that matter in our workplaces and in our communities. We know the value of public services and how to make those services stronger for all Ontarians.
And we will not stop fighting for the Ontario we all deserve.
The next four years will likely be the toughest we’ve ever gone through. We’ll face attacks on everything we hold dear: our jobs, our rights, and the public services all Ontarians rely on.
In the face of this, there is one thing we must remember.
History teaches us that there is only one way for working people to resist these attacks: by working together. Solidarity wins, every single time. The only thing that shifts governments is people coming together and saying, “We’ve had enough, and we won’t take it anymore.”
I look forward to fighting beside you to build a better Ontario, a better Canada, and a better world. For all of us.
In solidarity,
JP Hornick
President, OPSEU/SEFPO