At the eleventh hour, a would-be NDP and Liberal candidate in two key ridings pulled their candidacies. In one candidate’s case, it was a calculated move to avoid a vote split.
With no incumbent in the race and a star Liberal candidate on the ballot, Eglinton-Lawrence is anyone’s game — and it’s essential to any party’s electoral math. In 2018, the Tories snagged the once-Liberal bastion, with Robin Martin beating Mike Colle by 957 votes. In 2022, the margin shrank — Arlena Hebert lost to Martin by a narrow 524 votes.
This time around, it’s a top target seat inside the blue war room. Vince Gasparro, former principal secretary to then-mayor John Tory, is the Liberal candidate, up against Michelle Cooper, the executive director of the Progressive Conservative fund. Leah Tysoe is the Green candidate.
Natasha Doyle-Merrick was set to carry the NDP banner. Just ahead of the nomination deadline, she bowed out — a strategic retreat, she says, aimed at consolidating the progressive vote in a riding with slim margins.
“I recognize the race in Eglinton-Lawrence is a clear two-party contest between Liberals and Conservatives,” she said in a statement posted to X. “To prevent a Conservative win and more years of neglect, I’m stepping aside to avoid a vote split.”
In an exclusive interview, Doyle-Merrick explained why, while sources walked us through what went down behind the scenes.
Here’s what happened:
At the eleventh hour, a would-be NDP and Liberal candidate in two key ridings pulled their candidacies. In one candidate’s case, it was a calculated move to avoid a vote split.
With no incumbent in the race and a star Liberal candidate on the ballot, Eglinton-Lawrence is anyone’s game — and it’s essential to any party’s electoral math. In 2018, the Tories snagged the once-Liberal bastion, with Robin Martin beating Mike Colle by 957 votes. In 2022, the margin shrank — Arlena Hebert lost to Martin by a narrow 524 votes.
This time around, it’s a top target seat inside the blue war room. Vince Gasparro, former principal secretary to then-mayor John Tory, is the Liberal candidate, up against Michelle Cooper, the executive director of the Progressive Conservative fund. Leah Tysoe is the Green candidate.
Natasha Doyle-Merrick was set to carry the NDP banner. Just ahead of the nomination deadline, she bowed out — a strategic retreat, she says, aimed at consolidating the progressive vote in a riding with slim margins.
“I recognize the race in Eglinton-Lawrence is a clear two-party contest between Liberals and Conservatives,” she said in a statement posted to X. “To prevent a Conservative win and more years of neglect, I’m stepping aside to avoid a vote split.”
In an exclusive interview, Doyle-Merrick explained why, while sources walked us through what went down behind the scenes.
Here’s what happened:
At the eleventh hour, a would-be NDP and Liberal candidate in two key ridings pulled their candidacies. In one candidate’s case, it was a calculated move to avoid a vote split.
With no incumbent in the race and a star Liberal candidate on the ballot, Eglinton-Lawrence is anyone’s game — and it’s essential to any party’s electoral math. In 2018, the Tories snagged the once-Liberal bastion, with Robin Martin beating Mike Colle by 957 votes. In 2022, the margin shrank — Arlena Hebert lost to Martin by a narrow 524 votes.
This time around, it’s a top target seat inside the blue war room. Vince Gasparro, former principal secretary to then-mayor John Tory, is the Liberal candidate, up against Michelle Cooper, the executive director of the Progressive Conservative fund. Leah Tysoe is the Green candidate.
Natasha Doyle-Merrick was set to carry the NDP banner. Just ahead of the nomination deadline, she bowed out — a strategic retreat, she says, aimed at consolidating the progressive vote in a riding with slim margins.
“I recognize the race in Eglinton-Lawrence is a clear two-party contest between Liberals and Conservatives,” she said in a statement posted to X. “To prevent a Conservative win and more years of neglect, I’m stepping aside to avoid a vote split.”
In an exclusive interview, Doyle-Merrick explained why, while sources walked us through what went down behind the scenes.
Here’s what happened:
While the party scrambled to recruit a candidate in the riding, they reached out to Doyle-Merrick — who ran in the last election and placed third — to rejoin the ticket less than three weeks ago.
Running — and ultimately withdrawing — was, for her, all about the community. “I put my name on the ballot because I wanted to amplify the voices of the community,” she said. “It’s not a decision I took lightly.”
“It would’ve been a disservice to keep my name on the ballot knowing the race is pivotal and that residents, especially those from communities like mine, Laurence Heights, can’t afford another four years of Doug Ford,” she explained. “If I was on the ballot, there was a possibility that could happen.”
Doyle-Merrick wouldn’t say if she was unhappy with the party and Marit Stiles’ leadership.
But privately, a source, who spoke on condition of anonymity to candidly recount what transpired, says the party neglected ground-level organizing in Lawrence Heights, leaning in on Doyle-Merrick’s local ties for votes at the eleventh-hour.
While it would be adequate for the per-vote subsidy, it wasn’t enough to finish on top. The riding association languished without adequate resources.
“Right now, I just really want to focus on Eglinton and Lawrence. That’s the conversation that I want to have because that’s who I did it for,” she said. “My relationship with the party is a very separate conversation.”
Over the weekend, a local organizer approached Doyle-Merrick, pitching that she step aside to avoid a third vote split. “There was not a deal between the parties. It was Natasha’s decision through and through,” the source said.
It was a “bare-bones operation.” “It was all done quite discreetly,” the source explained. “It was done at the eleventh-hour, just before the deadline, to ensure there would not be a vote split and that they could not put another candidate on the ballot.”
The source says the fault lies squarely with Stiles’ team. “Ultimately, they shouldn’t have asked Natasha,” the source said, characterizing her decision to run as one driven by “attrition.”
Doyle-Merrick said no to the party’s request that she run — one they made repeatedly until their insistence finally pushed her to give in. “It’s a sign that they don’t have anyone else in the riding. They took her for granted — and they took Lawrence Heights for granted.”
A senior party source called the move “wrong” and “upsetting,” describing it as a signal to disillusioned voters — frustrated with the Liberal or Conservative record — that “this election isn’t for you.” “Denying voters a chance to choose a New Democrat, if they oppose cuts or dislike what the last Liberal government did to health care or hydro, is wrong,” they said.
“Ultimately, it’s a voter suppression tactic. It causes people to stay home. It causes fewer people to see themselves represented in the candidates.”
Some want to see it happen elsewhere. “For the greater good of our community and our province, I hope the NDP candidate in Hamilton Centre, Robin Lennox, is taking a long walk in the snow tonight,” said David Mivasair, the riding association’s vice-president.
Moe Chehab is out as the Liberal candidate in Windsor West — an orange riding Ford is hoping to snag from Stiles.
He withdrew his nomination papers at around 11 a.m., according to a source, citing a “family emergency.”
The party says it’s too bad. “Ontario’s Liberals have a strong slate of candidates across the province and Bonnie Crombie is the only leader in a position to take on Doug Ford and win,” spokesperson Bahoz Dara said. (Asked if “too bad” hinted there was more to his exit, she declined to elaborate).
It’s all about optics — and some Tories took a swipe at Crombie and Stiles for “striking a deal:”
{{LINE}}
— Here’s what each leader pitched to voters this week:
Bonnie Crombie zeroed in on younger voters — a bloc notorious for mediocre turnout — by pledging 40,000 new paid co-op, internship and apprenticeship spots; kiboshing interest on OSAP with a drop on the repayment threshold to $50,000; a 10 per cent cap on international student enrollment with expanded campus resources and student residence options.
She also laid out her plan to kill hallway health care by hiring 3,100 new doctors, doubling residency spaces and speeding up accreditation for foreign-trained physicians.
The Liberal leader took her tour to Elmvale — a town without a single family doctor. Background here.
On health care, Marit Stiles vowed to enforce nurse-to-patient ratios, ditch private nursing agencies and hire 15,000 nurses over three years. She pledged to restore service to Port Colborne Urgent Care Centre, Fort Erie Urgent Care Centre and the Welland Hospital — two of which were forced to scale back after-hours service.
The NDP leader took to Kitchener and Sudbury to roll out her Southwestern and Northern Ontario plan.
Mike Schreiner released his full-on pitch. In it: a tax hike for top earners, a promise to build 2 million homes over 10 years, scrap the Land Transfer Tax for first-time buyers, kill development charges on smaller urban homes, double the ODSP, hire 3,500 more doctors, end subsidies to fossil fuel companies and create a Foodbelt.
He also promised free heat pumps for households earning under $100,000 — with no-interest loans for those above that line. The Canadian Press dug into the Green blueprint.
— Doug Ford’s jaunt to Washington included a meeting in the White House and a controversial video that has drawn his opponents’ ire.
The Progressive Conservative leader — who made the trip with the First Ministers on the campaign’s dime, no less — met the Chamber of Commerce, legislators and the Canadian American Business Council. At the White House, Ford says they made the case that “there’s no better partner to create jobs, grow our economies and keep our communities safe than America’s ally to the north.”
Not everyone was sold. Trump’s deputy chief — responding to David Eby’s insistence that statehood was a “non-starter” — wrote: “... The best way to understand President Trump’s position is to take what he says at face value.”
The trip is over, but Ford is facing heat at home over the partisan slant of a promotional video of the trip.
“Protect Ontario,” which is Ford’s campaign slogan, made the cut in the original version of the promo. It was later scrubbed and re-posted without the Tories’ tagline or logo.
His foes were quick to pounce. Stiles — who deemed the deletion as a “sure sign of guilt” — lodged an integrity complaint, requesting J. David Wake probe a breach of the caretaker convention and whether tax dollars “were put to use in service of the personal or partisan gain” of Ford.
No word yet on whether Wake will investigate it.
— Send ‘em right to sparky: The Tories are playing defense over a leaked recording of Ford calling to bring back the death penalty in a closed-door campaign speech. “I send ‘em right to sparky and then we’ll take everything from there… We need to straighten out all these criminals,” he said.
Team Ford is calling it a “poor-taste joke.” A spokesperson said he “does not support capital punishment” but believes more should be done to “keep violent and repeat offenders behind bars where they belong.”
— No press, no problem: In Toronto, Bonnie Crombie’s Monday presser began before most reporters showed up, forcing a do-over once journalists arrived. “You guys OK?” asked Ford’s campaign. The Liberal leader challenged Ford to a push-ups contest and spoke about a “Fight Tariffs Fund” (also “F Trump Fund”), which would give businesses access to lower-than-market interest rates.
“Who starts a press conference without the press?” one Liberal texted.
— While the Tories continue to steer clear of local debates, one showed up: Michael Kerzner went head-to-head with Liberal candidate Sam Nestico at a debate hosted by B’nai Brith, a Jewish advocacy group, in York Centre. Watch here.
— Nestico was forced to pull an ad vowing to “jail corrupt politicians.”
— Money muscle: The NDP cashed in $1.6 million since the writ, bringing the annual total to nearly $3 million since January. One source lobbed a job at Crombie’s campaign: “By comparison, the stalled-out Liberals were bragging in their fundraising email about raising $50,000 in all of last weekend.”
— The Liberal leader invited Brock Wunderlich to hit the campaign trail with her.
— Fred Hahn — whose relationship with the Ford government has been, er, murky — says they’re putting the province on the auction block.
“Remember Service Ontario? To Staples!” CUPE’s president said in a video posted to X, singling them out as an “American firm.”
From the campaign trail to the kitchen, Natalie Hart has been the culinary MVP for Bonnie Crombie’s campaign team in Cooksville.
From pumpkin loaf to pistachio chocolate bites, the councillor — in her free time — has been doing a ton of baking. “Armies march on their stomachs — and nothing can build a team faster than food,” she said.
We asked her to dish on her favourite campaign recipe. Here are her coconut cookies:
Here’s what you’ll need:
— 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
— 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
— 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
— ½ teaspoon salt
— 2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for rolling
— ½ cup of add-ins (I use ⅓ each dried cherries chopped, pistachio chopped and mini dark chocolate chips).
Instructions:
— Beat butter briefly.
— Add sugar and beat until fluffy.
— Add salt, vanilla, and flour; beat until well combined.
— On the lowest speed or by hand, add in cherries, chocolate, and pistachios. You could use pecans and cranberries with orange zest, dried apricots and almonds, or candied ginger, Hart says.
— Roll dough into two logs, roughly 8 inches long.
— Chill overnight — or up to 3 days — or freeze for up to 3 months.
— If frozen, thaw for at least 2 hours before baking.
— Remove from the fridge 15 minutes before baking.
— Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
— Slice dough thinly (or thicker if preferred).
— Bake at 350°F for 12 minutes, rotating at 6 minutes.
— Check at 10 minutes to see if cookies are done.
— On Family Day, the Leg will be open, with a guided tour, face painting, live performances and more. Here's the full schedule. No registration required.
— A teen takeover! The High School Model Parliament will meet next Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
{{SUB_BUTTON}}
— SCOOP — It’s déjà vu in London North Centre.
A new poll by Mainstreet found the NDP on top — by 7 per cent — in the riding, with the Progressive Conservatives at 29 per cent and the Liberals lagging behind at 19 per cent.
That’s largely on par with the result of the last election. With 40 per cent of the vote, the NDP claimed the seat, leaving the Tories at 30 per cent and the Liberals at 20 per cent.
For the NDP, it’s one more riding — once in Liberal grip — that could decide if they can hang on to second place. Terence Kernaghan is back on the NDP ticket. Jerry Pribil will carry the Progressive Conservative banner, with Tariq Khan as the Liberal and Carol Dyck as the Green candidate.
The survey, provided exclusively to this newsletter, was conducted on Tuesday and Wednesday, polling a sample of 407 adults in the riding via IVR.
Here’s the upshot:
— Among all voters: Kernaghan earned 36 per cent support, with Pribil back at 29 per cent. 19 per cent say they’d vote for Khan. 11 per cent of respondents are undecided.
— Among the leaning and decided: It’s the same lead. Kernaghan’s lead grew to 37 per cent. Pribil is at 30 per cent, with 21 per cent saying they’d vote for Khan, 6 per cent picking Dyck and 2 per cent voting for someone else.
— For the decided only: Kernaghan’s lead grew again to 39 per cent. Pribil is at 31 per cent, with 22 per cent backing Khan. 6 per cent picking Dyck and 2 per cent picked someone else.
Read the complete report on their website later today.
We’re teaming up with Mainstreet Research to zero in on where this election could be won or lost. Each week, we’ll share fresh polling from two must-watch ridings.
— One food bank was forced to slash their workforce by 16 per cent and cancel two programs — the “only path forward” to keep food distribution steady.
— More snow and gusty winds are headed our way.
— Snow days? Some thought those were behind us.
— Six times this week, the Liberal leader “stretched the truth or lacked enough context that it painted an incomplete picture,” according to a Toronto Star analysis.
— A survey found that health care, the economy and dealing with Donald Trump are top of mind for the public.
— Will a snap election keep voters at home? Some say it’s possible.
— Voter apathy, Nam Kiwanuka says, isn't to blame for that.
— It’s time to talk about housing, John Michael McGrath says.
— Martin Regg Cohn says Ford’s trek to Washington is about dodging accountability.
— Toronto’s city manager says a complete ban of American products would “not be prudent.”
— It's hollow talk, Matt Elliott says, in a city that still bars new local retailers from operating across vast stretches.
— At council, anti-police protesters disrupted the budget debate. One councillor called it an “egregious” breach.
— Kathryn Mannie found that most local candidates won't be debating in this campaign.
— This riding will be the hardest hit by Trump’s tariffs.
— Here’s a bio of Mississauga’s “outspoken, bold and sometimes controversial” mayor.
{{LINE}}
Thank you for reading POLICORNER. Are you Marit Stiles? Dave Clark? Kevin Beaulieu? A disgruntled NDP candidate? Have a juicy tip, a slice of gossip or FOI idea? Hit me up and you’ll stay anonymous. We’re back in your inbox next week.
Have a brand or message? Looking to grab the attention of the province’s top and most powerful political players during this election? Ad space is available — reach out for our rate card.
At the eleventh hour, a would-be NDP and Liberal candidate in two key ridings pulled their candidacies. In one candidate’s case, it was a calculated move to avoid a vote split.
With no incumbent in the race and a star Liberal candidate on the ballot, Eglinton-Lawrence is anyone’s game — and it’s essential to any party’s electoral math. In 2018, the Tories snagged the once-Liberal bastion, with Robin Martin beating Mike Colle by 957 votes. In 2022, the margin shrank — Arlena Hebert lost to Martin by a narrow 524 votes.
This time around, it’s a top target seat inside the blue war room. Vince Gasparro, former principal secretary to then-mayor John Tory, is the Liberal candidate, up against Michelle Cooper, the executive director of the Progressive Conservative fund. Leah Tysoe is the Green candidate.
Natasha Doyle-Merrick was set to carry the NDP banner. Just ahead of the nomination deadline, she bowed out — a strategic retreat, she says, aimed at consolidating the progressive vote in a riding with slim margins.
“I recognize the race in Eglinton-Lawrence is a clear two-party contest between Liberals and Conservatives,” she said in a statement posted to X. “To prevent a Conservative win and more years of neglect, I’m stepping aside to avoid a vote split.”
In an exclusive interview, Doyle-Merrick explained why, while sources walked us through what went down behind the scenes.
Here’s what happened:
While the party scrambled to recruit a candidate in the riding, they reached out to Doyle-Merrick — who ran in the last election and placed third — to rejoin the ticket less than three weeks ago.
Running — and ultimately withdrawing — was, for her, all about the community. “I put my name on the ballot because I wanted to amplify the voices of the community,” she said. “It’s not a decision I took lightly.”
“It would’ve been a disservice to keep my name on the ballot knowing the race is pivotal and that residents, especially those from communities like mine, Laurence Heights, can’t afford another four years of Doug Ford,” she explained. “If I was on the ballot, there was a possibility that could happen.”
Doyle-Merrick wouldn’t say if she was unhappy with the party and Marit Stiles’ leadership.
But privately, a source, who spoke on condition of anonymity to candidly recount what transpired, says the party neglected ground-level organizing in Lawrence Heights, leaning in on Doyle-Merrick’s local ties for votes at the eleventh-hour.
While it would be adequate for the per-vote subsidy, it wasn’t enough to finish on top. The riding association languished without adequate resources.
“Right now, I just really want to focus on Eglinton and Lawrence. That’s the conversation that I want to have because that’s who I did it for,” she said. “My relationship with the party is a very separate conversation.”
Over the weekend, a local organizer approached Doyle-Merrick, pitching that she step aside to avoid a third vote split. “There was not a deal between the parties. It was Natasha’s decision through and through,” the source said.
It was a “bare-bones operation.” “It was all done quite discreetly,” the source explained. “It was done at the eleventh-hour, just before the deadline, to ensure there would not be a vote split and that they could not put another candidate on the ballot.”
The source says the fault lies squarely with Stiles’ team. “Ultimately, they shouldn’t have asked Natasha,” the source said, characterizing her decision to run as one driven by “attrition.”
Doyle-Merrick said no to the party’s request that she run — one they made repeatedly until their insistence finally pushed her to give in. “It’s a sign that they don’t have anyone else in the riding. They took her for granted — and they took Lawrence Heights for granted.”
A senior party source called the move “wrong” and “upsetting,” describing it as a signal to disillusioned voters — frustrated with the Liberal or Conservative record — that “this election isn’t for you.” “Denying voters a chance to choose a New Democrat, if they oppose cuts or dislike what the last Liberal government did to health care or hydro, is wrong,” they said.
“Ultimately, it’s a voter suppression tactic. It causes people to stay home. It causes fewer people to see themselves represented in the candidates.”
Some want to see it happen elsewhere. “For the greater good of our community and our province, I hope the NDP candidate in Hamilton Centre, Robin Lennox, is taking a long walk in the snow tonight,” said David Mivasair, the riding association’s vice-president.
Moe Chehab is out as the Liberal candidate in Windsor West — an orange riding Ford is hoping to snag from Stiles.
He withdrew his nomination papers at around 11 a.m., according to a source, citing a “family emergency.”
The party says it’s too bad. “Ontario’s Liberals have a strong slate of candidates across the province and Bonnie Crombie is the only leader in a position to take on Doug Ford and win,” spokesperson Bahoz Dara said. (Asked if “too bad” hinted there was more to his exit, she declined to elaborate).
It’s all about optics — and some Tories took a swipe at Crombie and Stiles for “striking a deal:”
{{LINE}}
— Here’s what each leader pitched to voters this week:
Bonnie Crombie zeroed in on younger voters — a bloc notorious for mediocre turnout — by pledging 40,000 new paid co-op, internship and apprenticeship spots; kiboshing interest on OSAP with a drop on the repayment threshold to $50,000; a 10 per cent cap on international student enrollment with expanded campus resources and student residence options.
She also laid out her plan to kill hallway health care by hiring 3,100 new doctors, doubling residency spaces and speeding up accreditation for foreign-trained physicians.
The Liberal leader took her tour to Elmvale — a town without a single family doctor. Background here.
On health care, Marit Stiles vowed to enforce nurse-to-patient ratios, ditch private nursing agencies and hire 15,000 nurses over three years. She pledged to restore service to Port Colborne Urgent Care Centre, Fort Erie Urgent Care Centre and the Welland Hospital — two of which were forced to scale back after-hours service.
The NDP leader took to Kitchener and Sudbury to roll out her Southwestern and Northern Ontario plan.
Mike Schreiner released his full-on pitch. In it: a tax hike for top earners, a promise to build 2 million homes over 10 years, scrap the Land Transfer Tax for first-time buyers, kill development charges on smaller urban homes, double the ODSP, hire 3,500 more doctors, end subsidies to fossil fuel companies and create a Foodbelt.
He also promised free heat pumps for households earning under $100,000 — with no-interest loans for those above that line. The Canadian Press dug into the Green blueprint.
— Doug Ford’s jaunt to Washington included a meeting in the White House and a controversial video that has drawn his opponents’ ire.
The Progressive Conservative leader — who made the trip with the First Ministers on the campaign’s dime, no less — met the Chamber of Commerce, legislators and the Canadian American Business Council. At the White House, Ford says they made the case that “there’s no better partner to create jobs, grow our economies and keep our communities safe than America’s ally to the north.”
Not everyone was sold. Trump’s deputy chief — responding to David Eby’s insistence that statehood was a “non-starter” — wrote: “... The best way to understand President Trump’s position is to take what he says at face value.”
The trip is over, but Ford is facing heat at home over the partisan slant of a promotional video of the trip.
“Protect Ontario,” which is Ford’s campaign slogan, made the cut in the original version of the promo. It was later scrubbed and re-posted without the Tories’ tagline or logo.
His foes were quick to pounce. Stiles — who deemed the deletion as a “sure sign of guilt” — lodged an integrity complaint, requesting J. David Wake probe a breach of the caretaker convention and whether tax dollars “were put to use in service of the personal or partisan gain” of Ford.
No word yet on whether Wake will investigate it.
— Send ‘em right to sparky: The Tories are playing defense over a leaked recording of Ford calling to bring back the death penalty in a closed-door campaign speech. “I send ‘em right to sparky and then we’ll take everything from there… We need to straighten out all these criminals,” he said.
Team Ford is calling it a “poor-taste joke.” A spokesperson said he “does not support capital punishment” but believes more should be done to “keep violent and repeat offenders behind bars where they belong.”
— No press, no problem: In Toronto, Bonnie Crombie’s Monday presser began before most reporters showed up, forcing a do-over once journalists arrived. “You guys OK?” asked Ford’s campaign. The Liberal leader challenged Ford to a push-ups contest and spoke about a “Fight Tariffs Fund” (also “F Trump Fund”), which would give businesses access to lower-than-market interest rates.
“Who starts a press conference without the press?” one Liberal texted.
— While the Tories continue to steer clear of local debates, one showed up: Michael Kerzner went head-to-head with Liberal candidate Sam Nestico at a debate hosted by B’nai Brith, a Jewish advocacy group, in York Centre. Watch here.
— Nestico was forced to pull an ad vowing to “jail corrupt politicians.”
— Money muscle: The NDP cashed in $1.6 million since the writ, bringing the annual total to nearly $3 million since January. One source lobbed a job at Crombie’s campaign: “By comparison, the stalled-out Liberals were bragging in their fundraising email about raising $50,000 in all of last weekend.”
— The Liberal leader invited Brock Wunderlich to hit the campaign trail with her.
— Fred Hahn — whose relationship with the Ford government has been, er, murky — says they’re putting the province on the auction block.
“Remember Service Ontario? To Staples!” CUPE’s president said in a video posted to X, singling them out as an “American firm.”
From the campaign trail to the kitchen, Natalie Hart has been the culinary MVP for Bonnie Crombie’s campaign team in Cooksville.
From pumpkin loaf to pistachio chocolate bites, the councillor — in her free time — has been doing a ton of baking. “Armies march on their stomachs — and nothing can build a team faster than food,” she said.
We asked her to dish on her favourite campaign recipe. Here are her coconut cookies:
Here’s what you’ll need:
— 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
— 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
— 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
— ½ teaspoon salt
— 2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for rolling
— ½ cup of add-ins (I use ⅓ each dried cherries chopped, pistachio chopped and mini dark chocolate chips).
Instructions:
— Beat butter briefly.
— Add sugar and beat until fluffy.
— Add salt, vanilla, and flour; beat until well combined.
— On the lowest speed or by hand, add in cherries, chocolate, and pistachios. You could use pecans and cranberries with orange zest, dried apricots and almonds, or candied ginger, Hart says.
— Roll dough into two logs, roughly 8 inches long.
— Chill overnight — or up to 3 days — or freeze for up to 3 months.
— If frozen, thaw for at least 2 hours before baking.
— Remove from the fridge 15 minutes before baking.
— Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
— Slice dough thinly (or thicker if preferred).
— Bake at 350°F for 12 minutes, rotating at 6 minutes.
— Check at 10 minutes to see if cookies are done.
— On Family Day, the Leg will be open, with a guided tour, face painting, live performances and more. Here's the full schedule. No registration required.
— A teen takeover! The High School Model Parliament will meet next Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
{{SUB_BUTTON}}
— SCOOP — It’s déjà vu in London North Centre.
A new poll by Mainstreet found the NDP on top — by 7 per cent — in the riding, with the Progressive Conservatives at 29 per cent and the Liberals lagging behind at 19 per cent.
That’s largely on par with the result of the last election. With 40 per cent of the vote, the NDP claimed the seat, leaving the Tories at 30 per cent and the Liberals at 20 per cent.
For the NDP, it’s one more riding — once in Liberal grip — that could decide if they can hang on to second place. Terence Kernaghan is back on the NDP ticket. Jerry Pribil will carry the Progressive Conservative banner, with Tariq Khan as the Liberal and Carol Dyck as the Green candidate.
The survey, provided exclusively to this newsletter, was conducted on Tuesday and Wednesday, polling a sample of 407 adults in the riding via IVR.
Here’s the upshot:
— Among all voters: Kernaghan earned 36 per cent support, with Pribil back at 29 per cent. 19 per cent say they’d vote for Khan. 11 per cent of respondents are undecided.
— Among the leaning and decided: It’s the same lead. Kernaghan’s lead grew to 37 per cent. Pribil is at 30 per cent, with 21 per cent saying they’d vote for Khan, 6 per cent picking Dyck and 2 per cent voting for someone else.
— For the decided only: Kernaghan’s lead grew again to 39 per cent. Pribil is at 31 per cent, with 22 per cent backing Khan. 6 per cent picking Dyck and 2 per cent picked someone else.
Read the complete report on their website later today.
We’re teaming up with Mainstreet Research to zero in on where this election could be won or lost. Each week, we’ll share fresh polling from two must-watch ridings.
— One food bank was forced to slash their workforce by 16 per cent and cancel two programs — the “only path forward” to keep food distribution steady.
— More snow and gusty winds are headed our way.
— Snow days? Some thought those were behind us.
— Six times this week, the Liberal leader “stretched the truth or lacked enough context that it painted an incomplete picture,” according to a Toronto Star analysis.
— A survey found that health care, the economy and dealing with Donald Trump are top of mind for the public.
— Will a snap election keep voters at home? Some say it’s possible.
— Voter apathy, Nam Kiwanuka says, isn't to blame for that.
— It’s time to talk about housing, John Michael McGrath says.
— Martin Regg Cohn says Ford’s trek to Washington is about dodging accountability.
— Toronto’s city manager says a complete ban of American products would “not be prudent.”
— It's hollow talk, Matt Elliott says, in a city that still bars new local retailers from operating across vast stretches.
— At council, anti-police protesters disrupted the budget debate. One councillor called it an “egregious” breach.
— Kathryn Mannie found that most local candidates won't be debating in this campaign.
— This riding will be the hardest hit by Trump’s tariffs.
— Here’s a bio of Mississauga’s “outspoken, bold and sometimes controversial” mayor.
{{LINE}}
Thank you for reading POLICORNER. Are you Marit Stiles? Dave Clark? Kevin Beaulieu? A disgruntled NDP candidate? Have a juicy tip, a slice of gossip or FOI idea? Hit me up and you’ll stay anonymous. We’re back in your inbox next week.
Have a brand or message? Looking to grab the attention of the province’s top and most powerful political players during this election? Ad space is available — reach out for our rate card.
At the eleventh hour, a would-be NDP and Liberal candidate in two key ridings pulled their candidacies. In one candidate’s case, it was a calculated move to avoid a vote split.
With no incumbent in the race and a star Liberal candidate on the ballot, Eglinton-Lawrence is anyone’s game — and it’s essential to any party’s electoral math. In 2018, the Tories snagged the once-Liberal bastion, with Robin Martin beating Mike Colle by 957 votes. In 2022, the margin shrank — Arlena Hebert lost to Martin by a narrow 524 votes.
This time around, it’s a top target seat inside the blue war room. Vince Gasparro, former principal secretary to then-mayor John Tory, is the Liberal candidate, up against Michelle Cooper, the executive director of the Progressive Conservative fund. Leah Tysoe is the Green candidate.
Natasha Doyle-Merrick was set to carry the NDP banner. Just ahead of the nomination deadline, she bowed out — a strategic retreat, she says, aimed at consolidating the progressive vote in a riding with slim margins.
“I recognize the race in Eglinton-Lawrence is a clear two-party contest between Liberals and Conservatives,” she said in a statement posted to X. “To prevent a Conservative win and more years of neglect, I’m stepping aside to avoid a vote split.”
In an exclusive interview, Doyle-Merrick explained why, while sources walked us through what went down behind the scenes.
Here’s what happened:
While the party scrambled to recruit a candidate in the riding, they reached out to Doyle-Merrick — who ran in the last election and placed third — to rejoin the ticket less than three weeks ago.
Running — and ultimately withdrawing — was, for her, all about the community. “I put my name on the ballot because I wanted to amplify the voices of the community,” she said. “It’s not a decision I took lightly.”
“It would’ve been a disservice to keep my name on the ballot knowing the race is pivotal and that residents, especially those from communities like mine, Laurence Heights, can’t afford another four years of Doug Ford,” she explained. “If I was on the ballot, there was a possibility that could happen.”
Doyle-Merrick wouldn’t say if she was unhappy with the party and Marit Stiles’ leadership.
But privately, a source, who spoke on condition of anonymity to candidly recount what transpired, says the party neglected ground-level organizing in Lawrence Heights, leaning in on Doyle-Merrick’s local ties for votes at the eleventh-hour.
While it would be adequate for the per-vote subsidy, it wasn’t enough to finish on top. The riding association languished without adequate resources.
“Right now, I just really want to focus on Eglinton and Lawrence. That’s the conversation that I want to have because that’s who I did it for,” she said. “My relationship with the party is a very separate conversation.”
Over the weekend, a local organizer approached Doyle-Merrick, pitching that she step aside to avoid a third vote split. “There was not a deal between the parties. It was Natasha’s decision through and through,” the source said.
It was a “bare-bones operation.” “It was all done quite discreetly,” the source explained. “It was done at the eleventh-hour, just before the deadline, to ensure there would not be a vote split and that they could not put another candidate on the ballot.”
The source says the fault lies squarely with Stiles’ team. “Ultimately, they shouldn’t have asked Natasha,” the source said, characterizing her decision to run as one driven by “attrition.”
Doyle-Merrick said no to the party’s request that she run — one they made repeatedly until their insistence finally pushed her to give in. “It’s a sign that they don’t have anyone else in the riding. They took her for granted — and they took Lawrence Heights for granted.”
A senior party source called the move “wrong” and “upsetting,” describing it as a signal to disillusioned voters — frustrated with the Liberal or Conservative record — that “this election isn’t for you.” “Denying voters a chance to choose a New Democrat, if they oppose cuts or dislike what the last Liberal government did to health care or hydro, is wrong,” they said.
“Ultimately, it’s a voter suppression tactic. It causes people to stay home. It causes fewer people to see themselves represented in the candidates.”
Some want to see it happen elsewhere. “For the greater good of our community and our province, I hope the NDP candidate in Hamilton Centre, Robin Lennox, is taking a long walk in the snow tonight,” said David Mivasair, the riding association’s vice-president.
Moe Chehab is out as the Liberal candidate in Windsor West — an orange riding Ford is hoping to snag from Stiles.
He withdrew his nomination papers at around 11 a.m., according to a source, citing a “family emergency.”
The party says it’s too bad. “Ontario’s Liberals have a strong slate of candidates across the province and Bonnie Crombie is the only leader in a position to take on Doug Ford and win,” spokesperson Bahoz Dara said. (Asked if “too bad” hinted there was more to his exit, she declined to elaborate).
It’s all about optics — and some Tories took a swipe at Crombie and Stiles for “striking a deal:”
{{LINE}}
— Here’s what each leader pitched to voters this week:
Bonnie Crombie zeroed in on younger voters — a bloc notorious for mediocre turnout — by pledging 40,000 new paid co-op, internship and apprenticeship spots; kiboshing interest on OSAP with a drop on the repayment threshold to $50,000; a 10 per cent cap on international student enrollment with expanded campus resources and student residence options.
She also laid out her plan to kill hallway health care by hiring 3,100 new doctors, doubling residency spaces and speeding up accreditation for foreign-trained physicians.
The Liberal leader took her tour to Elmvale — a town without a single family doctor. Background here.
On health care, Marit Stiles vowed to enforce nurse-to-patient ratios, ditch private nursing agencies and hire 15,000 nurses over three years. She pledged to restore service to Port Colborne Urgent Care Centre, Fort Erie Urgent Care Centre and the Welland Hospital — two of which were forced to scale back after-hours service.
The NDP leader took to Kitchener and Sudbury to roll out her Southwestern and Northern Ontario plan.
Mike Schreiner released his full-on pitch. In it: a tax hike for top earners, a promise to build 2 million homes over 10 years, scrap the Land Transfer Tax for first-time buyers, kill development charges on smaller urban homes, double the ODSP, hire 3,500 more doctors, end subsidies to fossil fuel companies and create a Foodbelt.
He also promised free heat pumps for households earning under $100,000 — with no-interest loans for those above that line. The Canadian Press dug into the Green blueprint.
— Doug Ford’s jaunt to Washington included a meeting in the White House and a controversial video that has drawn his opponents’ ire.
The Progressive Conservative leader — who made the trip with the First Ministers on the campaign’s dime, no less — met the Chamber of Commerce, legislators and the Canadian American Business Council. At the White House, Ford says they made the case that “there’s no better partner to create jobs, grow our economies and keep our communities safe than America’s ally to the north.”
Not everyone was sold. Trump’s deputy chief — responding to David Eby’s insistence that statehood was a “non-starter” — wrote: “... The best way to understand President Trump’s position is to take what he says at face value.”
The trip is over, but Ford is facing heat at home over the partisan slant of a promotional video of the trip.
“Protect Ontario,” which is Ford’s campaign slogan, made the cut in the original version of the promo. It was later scrubbed and re-posted without the Tories’ tagline or logo.
His foes were quick to pounce. Stiles — who deemed the deletion as a “sure sign of guilt” — lodged an integrity complaint, requesting J. David Wake probe a breach of the caretaker convention and whether tax dollars “were put to use in service of the personal or partisan gain” of Ford.
No word yet on whether Wake will investigate it.
— Send ‘em right to sparky: The Tories are playing defense over a leaked recording of Ford calling to bring back the death penalty in a closed-door campaign speech. “I send ‘em right to sparky and then we’ll take everything from there… We need to straighten out all these criminals,” he said.
Team Ford is calling it a “poor-taste joke.” A spokesperson said he “does not support capital punishment” but believes more should be done to “keep violent and repeat offenders behind bars where they belong.”
— No press, no problem: In Toronto, Bonnie Crombie’s Monday presser began before most reporters showed up, forcing a do-over once journalists arrived. “You guys OK?” asked Ford’s campaign. The Liberal leader challenged Ford to a push-ups contest and spoke about a “Fight Tariffs Fund” (also “F Trump Fund”), which would give businesses access to lower-than-market interest rates.
“Who starts a press conference without the press?” one Liberal texted.
— While the Tories continue to steer clear of local debates, one showed up: Michael Kerzner went head-to-head with Liberal candidate Sam Nestico at a debate hosted by B’nai Brith, a Jewish advocacy group, in York Centre. Watch here.
— Nestico was forced to pull an ad vowing to “jail corrupt politicians.”
— Money muscle: The NDP cashed in $1.6 million since the writ, bringing the annual total to nearly $3 million since January. One source lobbed a job at Crombie’s campaign: “By comparison, the stalled-out Liberals were bragging in their fundraising email about raising $50,000 in all of last weekend.”
— The Liberal leader invited Brock Wunderlich to hit the campaign trail with her.
— Fred Hahn — whose relationship with the Ford government has been, er, murky — says they’re putting the province on the auction block.
“Remember Service Ontario? To Staples!” CUPE’s president said in a video posted to X, singling them out as an “American firm.”
From the campaign trail to the kitchen, Natalie Hart has been the culinary MVP for Bonnie Crombie’s campaign team in Cooksville.
From pumpkin loaf to pistachio chocolate bites, the councillor — in her free time — has been doing a ton of baking. “Armies march on their stomachs — and nothing can build a team faster than food,” she said.
We asked her to dish on her favourite campaign recipe. Here are her coconut cookies:
Here’s what you’ll need:
— 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
— 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
— 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
— ½ teaspoon salt
— 2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for rolling
— ½ cup of add-ins (I use ⅓ each dried cherries chopped, pistachio chopped and mini dark chocolate chips).
Instructions:
— Beat butter briefly.
— Add sugar and beat until fluffy.
— Add salt, vanilla, and flour; beat until well combined.
— On the lowest speed or by hand, add in cherries, chocolate, and pistachios. You could use pecans and cranberries with orange zest, dried apricots and almonds, or candied ginger, Hart says.
— Roll dough into two logs, roughly 8 inches long.
— Chill overnight — or up to 3 days — or freeze for up to 3 months.
— If frozen, thaw for at least 2 hours before baking.
— Remove from the fridge 15 minutes before baking.
— Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
— Slice dough thinly (or thicker if preferred).
— Bake at 350°F for 12 minutes, rotating at 6 minutes.
— Check at 10 minutes to see if cookies are done.
— On Family Day, the Leg will be open, with a guided tour, face painting, live performances and more. Here's the full schedule. No registration required.
— A teen takeover! The High School Model Parliament will meet next Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
{{SUB_BUTTON}}
— SCOOP — It’s déjà vu in London North Centre.
A new poll by Mainstreet found the NDP on top — by 7 per cent — in the riding, with the Progressive Conservatives at 29 per cent and the Liberals lagging behind at 19 per cent.
That’s largely on par with the result of the last election. With 40 per cent of the vote, the NDP claimed the seat, leaving the Tories at 30 per cent and the Liberals at 20 per cent.
For the NDP, it’s one more riding — once in Liberal grip — that could decide if they can hang on to second place. Terence Kernaghan is back on the NDP ticket. Jerry Pribil will carry the Progressive Conservative banner, with Tariq Khan as the Liberal and Carol Dyck as the Green candidate.
The survey, provided exclusively to this newsletter, was conducted on Tuesday and Wednesday, polling a sample of 407 adults in the riding via IVR.
Here’s the upshot:
— Among all voters: Kernaghan earned 36 per cent support, with Pribil back at 29 per cent. 19 per cent say they’d vote for Khan. 11 per cent of respondents are undecided.
— Among the leaning and decided: It’s the same lead. Kernaghan’s lead grew to 37 per cent. Pribil is at 30 per cent, with 21 per cent saying they’d vote for Khan, 6 per cent picking Dyck and 2 per cent voting for someone else.
— For the decided only: Kernaghan’s lead grew again to 39 per cent. Pribil is at 31 per cent, with 22 per cent backing Khan. 6 per cent picking Dyck and 2 per cent picked someone else.
Read the complete report on their website later today.
We’re teaming up with Mainstreet Research to zero in on where this election could be won or lost. Each week, we’ll share fresh polling from two must-watch ridings.
— One food bank was forced to slash their workforce by 16 per cent and cancel two programs — the “only path forward” to keep food distribution steady.
— More snow and gusty winds are headed our way.
— Snow days? Some thought those were behind us.
— Six times this week, the Liberal leader “stretched the truth or lacked enough context that it painted an incomplete picture,” according to a Toronto Star analysis.
— A survey found that health care, the economy and dealing with Donald Trump are top of mind for the public.
— Will a snap election keep voters at home? Some say it’s possible.
— Voter apathy, Nam Kiwanuka says, isn't to blame for that.
— It’s time to talk about housing, John Michael McGrath says.
— Martin Regg Cohn says Ford’s trek to Washington is about dodging accountability.
— Toronto’s city manager says a complete ban of American products would “not be prudent.”
— It's hollow talk, Matt Elliott says, in a city that still bars new local retailers from operating across vast stretches.
— At council, anti-police protesters disrupted the budget debate. One councillor called it an “egregious” breach.
— Kathryn Mannie found that most local candidates won't be debating in this campaign.
— This riding will be the hardest hit by Trump’s tariffs.
— Here’s a bio of Mississauga’s “outspoken, bold and sometimes controversial” mayor.
{{LINE}}
Thank you for reading POLICORNER. Are you Marit Stiles? Dave Clark? Kevin Beaulieu? A disgruntled NDP candidate? Have a juicy tip, a slice of gossip or FOI idea? Hit me up and you’ll stay anonymous. We’re back in your inbox next week.
Have a brand or message? Looking to grab the attention of the province’s top and most powerful political players during this election? Ad space is available — reach out for our rate card.
At the eleventh hour, a would-be NDP and Liberal candidate in two key ridings pulled their candidacies. In one candidate’s case, it was a calculated move to avoid a vote split.
With no incumbent in the race and a star Liberal candidate on the ballot, Eglinton-Lawrence is anyone’s game — and it’s essential to any party’s electoral math. In 2018, the Tories snagged the once-Liberal bastion, with Robin Martin beating Mike Colle by 957 votes. In 2022, the margin shrank — Arlena Hebert lost to Martin by a narrow 524 votes.
This time around, it’s a top target seat inside the blue war room. Vince Gasparro, former principal secretary to then-mayor John Tory, is the Liberal candidate, up against Michelle Cooper, the executive director of the Progressive Conservative fund. Leah Tysoe is the Green candidate.
Natasha Doyle-Merrick was set to carry the NDP banner. Just ahead of the nomination deadline, she bowed out — a strategic retreat, she says, aimed at consolidating the progressive vote in a riding with slim margins.
“I recognize the race in Eglinton-Lawrence is a clear two-party contest between Liberals and Conservatives,” she said in a statement posted to X. “To prevent a Conservative win and more years of neglect, I’m stepping aside to avoid a vote split.”
In an exclusive interview, Doyle-Merrick explained why, while sources walked us through what went down behind the scenes.
Here’s what happened:
While the party scrambled to recruit a candidate in the riding, they reached out to Doyle-Merrick — who ran in the last election and placed third — to rejoin the ticket less than three weeks ago.
Running — and ultimately withdrawing — was, for her, all about the community. “I put my name on the ballot because I wanted to amplify the voices of the community,” she said. “It’s not a decision I took lightly.”
“It would’ve been a disservice to keep my name on the ballot knowing the race is pivotal and that residents, especially those from communities like mine, Laurence Heights, can’t afford another four years of Doug Ford,” she explained. “If I was on the ballot, there was a possibility that could happen.”
Doyle-Merrick wouldn’t say if she was unhappy with the party and Marit Stiles’ leadership.
But privately, a source, who spoke on condition of anonymity to candidly recount what transpired, says the party neglected ground-level organizing in Lawrence Heights, leaning in on Doyle-Merrick’s local ties for votes at the eleventh-hour.
While it would be adequate for the per-vote subsidy, it wasn’t enough to finish on top. The riding association languished without adequate resources.
“Right now, I just really want to focus on Eglinton and Lawrence. That’s the conversation that I want to have because that’s who I did it for,” she said. “My relationship with the party is a very separate conversation.”
Over the weekend, a local organizer approached Doyle-Merrick, pitching that she step aside to avoid a third vote split. “There was not a deal between the parties. It was Natasha’s decision through and through,” the source said.
It was a “bare-bones operation.” “It was all done quite discreetly,” the source explained. “It was done at the eleventh-hour, just before the deadline, to ensure there would not be a vote split and that they could not put another candidate on the ballot.”
The source says the fault lies squarely with Stiles’ team. “Ultimately, they shouldn’t have asked Natasha,” the source said, characterizing her decision to run as one driven by “attrition.”
Doyle-Merrick said no to the party’s request that she run — one they made repeatedly until their insistence finally pushed her to give in. “It’s a sign that they don’t have anyone else in the riding. They took her for granted — and they took Lawrence Heights for granted.”
A senior party source called the move “wrong” and “upsetting,” describing it as a signal to disillusioned voters — frustrated with the Liberal or Conservative record — that “this election isn’t for you.” “Denying voters a chance to choose a New Democrat, if they oppose cuts or dislike what the last Liberal government did to health care or hydro, is wrong,” they said.
“Ultimately, it’s a voter suppression tactic. It causes people to stay home. It causes fewer people to see themselves represented in the candidates.”
Some want to see it happen elsewhere. “For the greater good of our community and our province, I hope the NDP candidate in Hamilton Centre, Robin Lennox, is taking a long walk in the snow tonight,” said David Mivasair, the riding association’s vice-president.
Moe Chehab is out as the Liberal candidate in Windsor West — an orange riding Ford is hoping to snag from Stiles.
He withdrew his nomination papers at around 11 a.m., according to a source, citing a “family emergency.”
The party says it’s too bad. “Ontario’s Liberals have a strong slate of candidates across the province and Bonnie Crombie is the only leader in a position to take on Doug Ford and win,” spokesperson Bahoz Dara said. (Asked if “too bad” hinted there was more to his exit, she declined to elaborate).
It’s all about optics — and some Tories took a swipe at Crombie and Stiles for “striking a deal:”
{{LINE}}
— Here’s what each leader pitched to voters this week:
Bonnie Crombie zeroed in on younger voters — a bloc notorious for mediocre turnout — by pledging 40,000 new paid co-op, internship and apprenticeship spots; kiboshing interest on OSAP with a drop on the repayment threshold to $50,000; a 10 per cent cap on international student enrollment with expanded campus resources and student residence options.
She also laid out her plan to kill hallway health care by hiring 3,100 new doctors, doubling residency spaces and speeding up accreditation for foreign-trained physicians.
The Liberal leader took her tour to Elmvale — a town without a single family doctor. Background here.
On health care, Marit Stiles vowed to enforce nurse-to-patient ratios, ditch private nursing agencies and hire 15,000 nurses over three years. She pledged to restore service to Port Colborne Urgent Care Centre, Fort Erie Urgent Care Centre and the Welland Hospital — two of which were forced to scale back after-hours service.
The NDP leader took to Kitchener and Sudbury to roll out her Southwestern and Northern Ontario plan.
Mike Schreiner released his full-on pitch. In it: a tax hike for top earners, a promise to build 2 million homes over 10 years, scrap the Land Transfer Tax for first-time buyers, kill development charges on smaller urban homes, double the ODSP, hire 3,500 more doctors, end subsidies to fossil fuel companies and create a Foodbelt.
He also promised free heat pumps for households earning under $100,000 — with no-interest loans for those above that line. The Canadian Press dug into the Green blueprint.
— Doug Ford’s jaunt to Washington included a meeting in the White House and a controversial video that has drawn his opponents’ ire.
The Progressive Conservative leader — who made the trip with the First Ministers on the campaign’s dime, no less — met the Chamber of Commerce, legislators and the Canadian American Business Council. At the White House, Ford says they made the case that “there’s no better partner to create jobs, grow our economies and keep our communities safe than America’s ally to the north.”
Not everyone was sold. Trump’s deputy chief — responding to David Eby’s insistence that statehood was a “non-starter” — wrote: “... The best way to understand President Trump’s position is to take what he says at face value.”
The trip is over, but Ford is facing heat at home over the partisan slant of a promotional video of the trip.
“Protect Ontario,” which is Ford’s campaign slogan, made the cut in the original version of the promo. It was later scrubbed and re-posted without the Tories’ tagline or logo.
His foes were quick to pounce. Stiles — who deemed the deletion as a “sure sign of guilt” — lodged an integrity complaint, requesting J. David Wake probe a breach of the caretaker convention and whether tax dollars “were put to use in service of the personal or partisan gain” of Ford.
No word yet on whether Wake will investigate it.
— Send ‘em right to sparky: The Tories are playing defense over a leaked recording of Ford calling to bring back the death penalty in a closed-door campaign speech. “I send ‘em right to sparky and then we’ll take everything from there… We need to straighten out all these criminals,” he said.
Team Ford is calling it a “poor-taste joke.” A spokesperson said he “does not support capital punishment” but believes more should be done to “keep violent and repeat offenders behind bars where they belong.”
— No press, no problem: In Toronto, Bonnie Crombie’s Monday presser began before most reporters showed up, forcing a do-over once journalists arrived. “You guys OK?” asked Ford’s campaign. The Liberal leader challenged Ford to a push-ups contest and spoke about a “Fight Tariffs Fund” (also “F Trump Fund”), which would give businesses access to lower-than-market interest rates.
“Who starts a press conference without the press?” one Liberal texted.
— While the Tories continue to steer clear of local debates, one showed up: Michael Kerzner went head-to-head with Liberal candidate Sam Nestico at a debate hosted by B’nai Brith, a Jewish advocacy group, in York Centre. Watch here.
— Nestico was forced to pull an ad vowing to “jail corrupt politicians.”
— Money muscle: The NDP cashed in $1.6 million since the writ, bringing the annual total to nearly $3 million since January. One source lobbed a job at Crombie’s campaign: “By comparison, the stalled-out Liberals were bragging in their fundraising email about raising $50,000 in all of last weekend.”
— The Liberal leader invited Brock Wunderlich to hit the campaign trail with her.
— Fred Hahn — whose relationship with the Ford government has been, er, murky — says they’re putting the province on the auction block.
“Remember Service Ontario? To Staples!” CUPE’s president said in a video posted to X, singling them out as an “American firm.”
From the campaign trail to the kitchen, Natalie Hart has been the culinary MVP for Bonnie Crombie’s campaign team in Cooksville.
From pumpkin loaf to pistachio chocolate bites, the councillor — in her free time — has been doing a ton of baking. “Armies march on their stomachs — and nothing can build a team faster than food,” she said.
We asked her to dish on her favourite campaign recipe. Here are her coconut cookies:
Here’s what you’ll need:
— 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
— 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
— 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
— ½ teaspoon salt
— 2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for rolling
— ½ cup of add-ins (I use ⅓ each dried cherries chopped, pistachio chopped and mini dark chocolate chips).
Instructions:
— Beat butter briefly.
— Add sugar and beat until fluffy.
— Add salt, vanilla, and flour; beat until well combined.
— On the lowest speed or by hand, add in cherries, chocolate, and pistachios. You could use pecans and cranberries with orange zest, dried apricots and almonds, or candied ginger, Hart says.
— Roll dough into two logs, roughly 8 inches long.
— Chill overnight — or up to 3 days — or freeze for up to 3 months.
— If frozen, thaw for at least 2 hours before baking.
— Remove from the fridge 15 minutes before baking.
— Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
— Slice dough thinly (or thicker if preferred).
— Bake at 350°F for 12 minutes, rotating at 6 minutes.
— Check at 10 minutes to see if cookies are done.
— On Family Day, the Leg will be open, with a guided tour, face painting, live performances and more. Here's the full schedule. No registration required.
— A teen takeover! The High School Model Parliament will meet next Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
{{SUB_BUTTON}}
— SCOOP — It’s déjà vu in London North Centre.
A new poll by Mainstreet found the NDP on top — by 7 per cent — in the riding, with the Progressive Conservatives at 29 per cent and the Liberals lagging behind at 19 per cent.
That’s largely on par with the result of the last election. With 40 per cent of the vote, the NDP claimed the seat, leaving the Tories at 30 per cent and the Liberals at 20 per cent.
For the NDP, it’s one more riding — once in Liberal grip — that could decide if they can hang on to second place. Terence Kernaghan is back on the NDP ticket. Jerry Pribil will carry the Progressive Conservative banner, with Tariq Khan as the Liberal and Carol Dyck as the Green candidate.
The survey, provided exclusively to this newsletter, was conducted on Tuesday and Wednesday, polling a sample of 407 adults in the riding via IVR.
Here’s the upshot:
— Among all voters: Kernaghan earned 36 per cent support, with Pribil back at 29 per cent. 19 per cent say they’d vote for Khan. 11 per cent of respondents are undecided.
— Among the leaning and decided: It’s the same lead. Kernaghan’s lead grew to 37 per cent. Pribil is at 30 per cent, with 21 per cent saying they’d vote for Khan, 6 per cent picking Dyck and 2 per cent voting for someone else.
— For the decided only: Kernaghan’s lead grew again to 39 per cent. Pribil is at 31 per cent, with 22 per cent backing Khan. 6 per cent picking Dyck and 2 per cent picked someone else.
Read the complete report on their website later today.
We’re teaming up with Mainstreet Research to zero in on where this election could be won or lost. Each week, we’ll share fresh polling from two must-watch ridings.
— One food bank was forced to slash their workforce by 16 per cent and cancel two programs — the “only path forward” to keep food distribution steady.
— More snow and gusty winds are headed our way.
— Snow days? Some thought those were behind us.
— Six times this week, the Liberal leader “stretched the truth or lacked enough context that it painted an incomplete picture,” according to a Toronto Star analysis.
— A survey found that health care, the economy and dealing with Donald Trump are top of mind for the public.
— Will a snap election keep voters at home? Some say it’s possible.
— Voter apathy, Nam Kiwanuka says, isn't to blame for that.
— It’s time to talk about housing, John Michael McGrath says.
— Martin Regg Cohn says Ford’s trek to Washington is about dodging accountability.
— Toronto’s city manager says a complete ban of American products would “not be prudent.”
— It's hollow talk, Matt Elliott says, in a city that still bars new local retailers from operating across vast stretches.
— At council, anti-police protesters disrupted the budget debate. One councillor called it an “egregious” breach.
— Kathryn Mannie found that most local candidates won't be debating in this campaign.
— This riding will be the hardest hit by Trump’s tariffs.
— Here’s a bio of Mississauga’s “outspoken, bold and sometimes controversial” mayor.
{{LINE}}
Thank you for reading POLICORNER. Are you Marit Stiles? Dave Clark? Kevin Beaulieu? A disgruntled NDP candidate? Have a juicy tip, a slice of gossip or FOI idea? Hit me up and you’ll stay anonymous. We’re back in your inbox next week.
Have a brand or message? Looking to grab the attention of the province’s top and most powerful political players during this election? Ad space is available — reach out for our rate card.