PC Party’s F fail grade for 2022 election platform shows voters should not get fooled again
Green Party receives overall C- best grade, Liberals and NDP both receive a D, in Report Card on parties’ 2022 election platforms
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Monday, May 30, 2022
OTTAWA – Today, Democracy Watch issued its Report Card on the Doug Ford PC Party’s seriously unethical and undemocratic record since it was elected in 2018, and its Report Card on the Ontario Parties’ 2022 Democracy and Accountability Platforms (To see the criteria and grading system used to assess the parties, click here).
Democracy Watch gives the Ford PC Party government an F fail grade for the past four years because of 25 seriously unethical and undemocratic actions (To see the list of 25 bad actions, click here).
The Ford PC Party’s 2022 platform also received an F fail grade overall, and in all five areas of the Report Card, as it doesn’t contain any promises for any changes to require Ontario and municipal politicians, lobbyists, government appointees and employees to be honest, ethical, open, representative and waste-preventing.
“Don’t get fooled again Ontario voters, as the Ford PC Party’s dozens of seriously unethical, secretive and undemocratic actions in the past four years, and negligently bad election platform, show clearly that if the PC Party wins the election we’re in for another four years of wasteful, dishonest, unethical, secretive, unrepresentative government,” said Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch.
The other three main Ontario parties have not promised nearly enough changes to reverse the Ford PC Party government’s bad record, or prevent ongoing unethical, secretive and undemocratic actions. The Green Party received a C- as the best grade of overall bad grades for all the parties, while the Liberals and NDP each received a D.
“While the Greens, Liberals and NDP have some key democracy and accountability reforms in their platforms, they unfortunately continue to fail to promise key changes,” said Conacher. “One can only hope that the parties will actually address these concerns when the Ontario legislature opens again so that everyone in Ontario politics will, finally after 155 years, be effectively required to act honestly, ethically, openly, representatively and to prevent waste.”
The lack of an honesty-in-politics law in Ontario means voters should be skeptical of all the parties’ promises, as it is legal for misleaders to bait voters with false election promises.
The three parties had their best grades in the areas of:
- Representative Government – as they all promise to change Ontario’s voting system and consult with the public in many policy areas (in contrast to the Ford government’s regular practice of imposing decisions on Ontarians without any consultation), and;
- General Accountability – as they all promise to increase the independence and strength of watchdogs over various Ontario industries and sectors (in contrast to the Ford government which has weakened accountability in many industries and sectors).
However, the three parties’ grades were not good in the areas of: Honest, Ethical Government; Open Government, and; Efficient Government.
Many surveys over the past 15 years have shown that a large majority of voters do not trust politicians, and want honesty, ethics, lobbying, open government and other key reforms to stop politicians from abusing their power. Tens of thousands of messages have been sent to Ontario party leaders and politicians through Democracy Watch’s campaigns calling for dozens of key changes needed to ensure fully democratic, ethical, open, representative, waste-preventing and accountable government and politics across Ontario.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch
Tel: (613) 241-5179
Cell: 416-546-3443
Email: [email protected]
Democracy Watch’s Campaigns page
Democracy Watch’s Report Card on the Ontario Parties’ 2022 Democracy and Accountability Platforms
Sources
To see the criteria and grading system used to assess the parties’ platforms, click here
Doug Ford’s Ontario Progressive Conservative Party platform webpage
Mike Schreiner’s Green Party of Ontario platform webpage
(NOTE: See pages 20, 34, 42-43 and 54-55 (and re: General Accountability see pages 11-12, 14-15, 23-24, 26, 31-32, 48, 51 and 53-55 of platform PDF)
Steven Del Duca Ontario Liberal Party platform webpage
(NOTE: See pages 16 and 81 (and re: General Accountability see pages 12, 17, 24, 34, 39, 61, 72-73, 75, 78 and 80) of platform PDF)
Andrea Horwath’s Ontario NDP platform webpage
(NOTE: See pages 85-87 (and re: General Accountability see pages 6, 7, 11, 23, 26, 29-30, 39, 42-43, 61-62, 67, 69-70, 77, 81-82 and 94) of platform PDF)