The Ontario election campaign began in earnest on Wednesday, with party leaders vowing to either build or cancel a planned highway that will cross and serve key battlefield areas.
The proposed Highway 413 is to serve communities in the Toronto area, including Vaughan, Ont.
Progressive Conservative leader Doug Ford began his day in Brampton, reiterating his promise to build Highway 413, saying it would ease the blockade and save travelers time.
“Friends, we say ‘yes’ to road and highway construction, no matter where you live,” Ford said, rejecting a list of other highway projects that are central to his re-election campaign.
“We will overcome all excuses, all obstacles and delays, and it’s time to start pouring concrete.”
The Liberals and the NDP, both of which have promised to cancel the project, say it will save travelers just seconds – instead of the 30 minutes the Tories advertise – and pave critical green spaces.
Mati Semyaticki, director of the Institute of Infrastructure at the University of Toronto, said it was a “classic wedge problem”.
“This outlines the election as a referendum on how the region will grow and how people will move around the region,” he said in an interview.
Much of the Progressive Conservative platform is built not only around infrastructure such as roads, but also for cheaper and easier travel to work, by reducing tolls on motorways 412 and 418, reimbursing toll renewal fees and reducing of the gas tax that will come in the summer, Semyatitsky noted.
“It’s a whole set of policies that really target motorists, and you can see where the geography is headed,” said Semyatitsky, also a professor of geography and planning at the university.
“It’s laser-focused on Toronto’s 905 district, which is a large voting area for the province. It usually wins and loses provincial elections.”
The wedge aspect comes into play because other countries have designed the highway project in the opposite way, as one that will exacerbate urban sprawl, erode protected land in the Green Belt, create more pollution and not actually deal with congestion. said Semyatitsky.
Liberal leader Stephen Del Duca has promised to use approximately $ 10 billion in highway savings to build and renovate schools, and has tried to portray progressive conservatives as a party that does not choose public education.
“We saw the undermining and underfunding of publicly funded education by Doug Ford and the Conservatives before the pandemic began,” he said, referring to intense contract negotiations with teachers and the introduction of mandatory online high school courses.
“Conservatives just can’t help but think that when they are given a chance … one of their first actions is to attack publicly funded education.”
Ford has not published an overall estimate of the cost of Highway 413 and will not do so when asked again on Wednesday, saying the worst thing it can do on a construction site is to give an accurate figure.
NDP leader Andrea Horvat, who also started her campaign in the Peel area, said it was important to spend money on infrastructure. But she suggested that the Tories continue on Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass, which will connect Highways 400 and 404, for the wrong reasons.
“There are billions, billions and billions of dollars that the government has taken from all other road infrastructure projects and focused on those two projects to help Doug Ford’s developer friends,” she said.
“I will not make these decisions based on who owns a golf course or who owns land and property that could help with my election campaign.
This Canadian Press report was first published on May 4, 2022.
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