Ladies and Gentlemen:

I write on February 4, 2025, approximately one week after Doug Ford called a premature and illegal "snap" election for February 27, 2025. Although the Election Act mandates that the next regularly scheduled election is to be held in June of 2026, Ford's personal polling numbers were high over the last few weeks, and he wanted to catch everyone (who is planning for the June 2026 election) unprepared. In other words: he wanted to cheat, so as to extend his rule to 2029.

In an effort to justify his $175,000,000 illegal election, Ford has decided (like he did during Covid) to capitalize upon your fear. He claims that President Trump's threatened 25% tariff on Canadian goods is an emergency that will require that Ontario's government respond by spending "tens of billions" of your earnings on hand-outs to Ontario businesses affected by the Trump tariff. He claims he needs a new mandate before going on that spending spree. It is a lie. He was given that mandate in the election of 2022, as a result of which he already has a super-majority in the Ontario Legislature. The truth is that Ford is using the Trump tariff threat as an excuse to cover up Ford's real purpose in holding a snap election: to extend the duration of his Premiership.

Of course, on February 3rd, President Trump announced that he was delaying the imposition of the tariff for at least 30 days. And, if Canada works with the Trump administration to work out problems with the current trade arrangements, it is quite likely that we'll never see the tariff at all. Even Donald Trump understands that tariffs on imports from Canada - which are a tax not on Canadians, but on Americans - are bad economics, and are unpopular for the Americans who would pay them (i.e., all Americans). Trump is on record as a person who is in favour of free trade, and opposed to tariffs; as a person who will threaten tariffs to cause other countries to stop their unfair protectionist measures, such as: Doug Ford's plan to give "tens of billions" to Ontario businesses so that they can sell their wares at lower prices than their U.S. competitors.

So, here were are in an election the real purpose of which was always just to keep Doug Ford in power until 2029, at a cost to us all of $175,000,000.00. The tariff that was Doug's false excuse for the election...hasn't happened. There is no excuse for this election.

Nonetheless, Freedom Party will again rise to the challenge. This election platform is titled "Zeitgest", which means "spirit of the times". It contains rational, common-sense, and doable solutions to some of the most pressing problems that exist at this time: how to deal - and how not to deal - with the current trade dispute; how to deal with "gender" theory's attacks on children, on women, and on good governance; how to remedy the injustices done to those who opposed lock-downs or mandatory vaccinations during Covid; how to deal with anti-individual, anti-justice "DEI" programs; and how to ensure that the government can never use alleged emergencies to sideline the Legislature, undermine democracy, and violate the freedom of individuals to think and choose for themselves.

Doug Ford is equating the current trade dispute with a "pandemic", and he wants to deal with it - for four more years - in the same way he dealt with Covid. We must not allow him to declare an "economic emergency" so that he can again commandeer the economy and our lives, and leave the province indebted and in ruins. We must not let him finish that job. On February 27, 2025 exercise your power to be free to think and choose for yourself, and to pursue your own happiness as you see fit: vote for your Freedom Party candidate.

Paul McKeever,
Leader of the Freedom Party of Ontario