Premier Doug Ford is going to send Ontario voters to the polls a year early.
The Canadian Press was first to report Friday that Premier Ford confirmed that he plans to visit the lieutenant governor on Tuesday, which will be followed on Wednesday by the official election call.
The election will be held on February 27, more than a year before Ontario's fixed election date of June 2026.
Defending the decision, Premier Ford told reporters at a news conference in Brampton that he needs a strong mandate in the face of threatened 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods imported into the United States.
“We need the largest mandate in Ontario’s history,” he told reporters.
Perth-Wellington MPP Matthew Rae says his focus will be firmly on his own riding, but he notes that he believes achieving a stronger provincial mandate will be helpful to his riding and all of Ontario when it comes to combating potential U.S. tariffs from President Donald Trump.
"Obviously I've heard from our local business community, auto sector, agriculture sector around the threat of U.S. tariffs, and I know we wanna ensure we have a strong mandate to meet that challenge ahead of us," Rae commented.
Rae says he believes the Conservatives building on the 79 of 124 seats would be beneficial and give a clear voice from the people.
"A lot has changed in the world in the last two weeks, in the last three months, especially with the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, and so I know we want to ensure that, the people, we always appreciate hearing from them, the Premier, he always says 'Good ideas come from outside of Queen's Park' and so, an election is one way to hear directly from the people of Ontario," added Rae.
When asked what potentially losing seats would do, Rae stated that his only concern in that respect is on what Ontarians say on election day.
"The only poll, I know there's a lot of polls out there for both federal and provincial politics right now, the only poll that matters is on election day, and I know I'll work hard to earn the trust again of voters in Perth-Wellington," Rae stated.
Rae adds that it's important for the Conservatives to stress to their U.S. counterparts just how critical Ontario is to their economies south of the border. According to Rae, Ontario is the number one export destination for 17 U.S. states and is number two for 11 others.
NDP MP for Windsor-West Lisa Gretzky said what Ontario needs now is stability.
"This is a completely unnecessary election. We are not supposed to have an election until June of 2026," said Gretzky. "The Conservatives and Premier Ford have a majority government, they already have a mandate to do what they need to do. We're talking anywhere between $150-$200 million on an election."