Voters should not get fooled again – PC Party re-election would mean more dishonest, unethical, secretive and wasteful government decisions and actions
Green Party receives overall C best grade, NDP a C- and Liberals a D- in Report Card on parties’ 2025 election platforms
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Tuesday, February 25, 2025
OTTAWA – Today, Democracy Watch issued its Report Card on the Doug Ford PC Party’s seriously unethical and undemocratic record since it was re-elected in 2022, and its Report Card on the Ontario Parties’ 2025 Democracy and Accountability Platforms (To see the Report Card, click here, and 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 since the June 2022 election because of a “dirty dozen” seriously unethical, undemocratic actions. Click here to see Ford’s Dirty Dozen Unethical, Undemocratic Actions since June 2022.
From 2018 to 2022, Ford’s PC government had 25 seriously unethical and undemocratic actions.
The Ford PC Party also received an F fail grade overall, and in all five areas of DWatch’s Report Card – the worst grade ever for any party across Canada in the past 30 years.
“Don’t get fooled again Ontario voters, as the Ford PC Party’s dirty dozen seriously unethical, secretive and undemocratic actions in the past three years show clearly that if the PC Party wins the election we’re in for more 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 NDP received a C- and the Liberals a D-.
“While the Greens and NDP have some key democracy reforms in their platforms, and all three opposition parties promise some important general accountability reforms, 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 158 years, be effectively required to act honestly, ethically, openly, representatively and to prevent waste.”
The Greens and NDP had their best grades in the area of Representative Government as they both 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). In the area of Honest, Ethical Government, they both promise a few measures to strengthen ethics rules for politicians and lobbyists (in contrast to the Ford government’s horribly unethical record).
All three opposition parties had their other best grades in the area of 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 opposition parties’ grades were not good in the areas of Open Government or 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’ 2025 Democracy and Accountability Platforms
Sources
To see the criteria and grading system used to assess the parties’ platforms, click here
Mike Schreiner’s Green Party of Ontario platform webpage
(NOTE: See pages 15, 18-19, 22, 27, 29, 30-31, 34, 46, 50-53 and 58-59 (and re: General Accountability see pages 12, 14, 21-23, 28-29, 33, 41, 44, 53 and 55-57) of platform PDF)
Bonnie Crombie Ontario Liberal Party platform webpage
(NOTE re: General Accountability see pages 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 ,12 and 14 of platform PDF)
Marit Stile’s Ontario NDP platform webpage
(NOTE: See pages 7, 14, 17, and 19-20 (and re: General Accountability see pages 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 15, 17 and 20) of platform PDF)
Doug Ford’s Ontario Progressive Conservative Party platform webpage