Young enthusiastic progressives like Frank Domenic, a Tik Tok influencer, Polaris lobby-polling outfit, or SmartVoting.ca, are very active in promoting ‘’Strategic Voting’’ (SV) in this situation. They like to look at all 124 ridings, choose the candidate most likely to defeat the OPCs and promote them head to head, playing armchair quarterback, so we don’t ‘’split the progressive vote’’. SV is close to the official position of the major teachers’ unions because it solves an internal problem of a roughly, equally divided membership. SV sounds a lot more like ‘’save the Liberals ASSets’’Since the Grits rack up far second place finishes, but very few wins. 

 

Academics like Larry Savage at Brock University point out the SV campaigns have a long history of failure from Leadnow, and Dogwood institute to even unions like CAW/Unifor. They always fail because people want to vote for the party that they wish to see in government, period. They frankly object to being advised to vote for a different party. Most NDPers see the Liberals as a 2nd conservative party.Some polls show that although a slight majority of Liberals (56%) have the NDP as the second choice, only  only a minority of NDPers (33%) choose the Liberals as a second choice, They choose Green (18%) or express no preference. They would rather stay home, than vote Liberal. We know that some Liberal leaders get in trouble with their base if they are too critical of the ‘’Dippers’’. They tend to see them as well meaning people, a bit naive, not ‘’with it’’ on the art of the possible. The reverse is not true. The NDPers see Liberals as faux progressives, opportunists, overly compromised, and inauthentic. Some estimates indicate that ⅓ of Liberals have social democratic instincts but their anti-conservative instincts are even stronger. 

 

SV is just too ‘’wonkish’’ - the advocates come off as know it alls, the chosen candidates are often wrong, they fail to account for campaign surges, and those who would consider SV, already vote with that in mind and don’t need any prompting. All things considered, SV is a proven failure. The teachers’ unions went all in on the NDP in 2018, but seem to have forgotten why. 

 

We had an OLP government 2003-2017 under premiers McGuinty and Wynne. They were right wing, reactionary governments which attacked public education relentlessly, which is the thesis of this piece. Nevertheless, some education moderates want to tell us that only the OLP  can defeat the OPCs and that Liberals are something other than Tories wearing red ties. The central question is, as always, the ‘’class question.’’The OLP can attempt to use identity politics like SOGI to project a progressive image, especially when there is little financial cost but when the chips are down, labour vs management, expenditure vs taxes, the OLP folds like a cheap suit. To defeat Liberals, most NDPers have learned to ‘’out bid’’ them on the class question. Higher minimum wage, more union rights, shorter hours, more holidays, higher OT premiums, - you have to go where Liberal backers will not allow Liberal politicians to go. 

 

Let’s look at the failure of the OLP governments 2003-2017. We’ll stick to education although the privatization of Hydro One was a total disaster. The higher rates ever since, make it difficult for school boards to balance their budgets. 

 

Under just the Wynne regime, 600 schools were closed across Ontario, tearing at the heart of the communities. The time to close a school is when the local community tells you that it’s time, and not before. 

 

The OLP retained the EQAO, the $33 million dollars per year testing regime that, as you may have noticed, has had absolutely no positive effect on Ontario education in 29 years.That money would cover 220 more teachers. Educators don’t want EQAO, but yet it survives. Each year they tell us exactly the same thing - the poor kids did badly, the middle class kids were in the middle, and the rich kids did well. They might have just as well have changed the date on last year’s press release. The EQAO demoralizes hard working staff in low scoring schools who are dedicated to our poorest kids. It's really shameful. 

 

In 2009, Bill 177 established more provincial control over school boards including a take over if they failed to meet performance standards. Any educator with a clue about the reasons for underachievement knows that it is overwhelmingly determined by poverty rates. 

 

Under the OLP regime, the school repairs bill ballooned to $16 Billion which is 3 times what they inherited in 2003 from the Harris-Eves regime. 

 

In probably the worst decision the OLP ever made, in 2009, McGuinty froze educators wages for 2 years and imposed a CA. Attacks on free collective bargaining are the number one litmus test of a progressive government. They are simply intolerable. Governments must know that the courts will reverse attacks on labour rights and impose remedies but they still ‘’kick that can down the road’’. To teachers and education workers, the CA is a sacred thing. You don’t touch it unless you want a new powerful enemy. There should be no statute of limitations on this one. 

 

Wynne imposed province wide bargaining and although the unions mitigated some of the worst aspects of it, class size caps were increased, and prep time was attacked.  

 

Somehow, the naive, the gullible, the partisans, for some reason, resist the glaringly obvious answer that they knew in 2018 but ‘’forgot’’ in 2025. The OLP is a  right-of-center party. Bonnie Crombie publicly insisted on moving the OLP even further to the right. They are not the good guys The western Canadian provinces have figured this out and virtually eliminated their provincial Liberal parties. MLA Cindy Lamoureux of Tyndall Park riding in Winnipeg is the last surviving provincial Liberal west of Ontario. 

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The solution is straightforward and simple. Only support the NDP candidate, whether they are the incumbent or whether they came 4th behind the GPO like the riding where I grew up in Bruce Grey Owen Sound. It may take 2 more elections, there are no shortcuts in politics, but the NDP has come in second in the last 3 elections and once again, is the official opposition. 

 

Keep in mind, in the last 25 years, we have had 14 years of non OPC government, In the last 35 years, we have had 18 years of non Tory government. Basically, more than half the time. It doesn’t take a new electoral system or SV to defeat the Tories, Just smarter, class based politics and the best way to do that is to eliminate the OLP.  

 

The natural political alignment of western democracies in 2025, is one conservative party and one social democratic party on the left side. A Liberal shape shifting, allegedly centrist, actually conservative party simply muddies the waters. The OLPs ‘best before date’ has come and gone, Clear enough?

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​​ADDENDUM:

For those who continue to believe that the Liberals are a progressive party, recall the 2018 Ontario provincial election. Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne in the dying days of the provincial election, realizes that the Liberals cannot win, in fact they will be lucky to retain party status. They were headed to an overwhelming defeat. 

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Wynne then joined Doug Ford in warning about an NDP victory, that the NDP would raise corporate taxes. ''Are we ready to turn the economy over to the NDP? The risk is too great.'' In effect Wynne endorsed Ford over the NDPs Andrea Horwath in a close PC-NDP race. 9 days before the election. 

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So much for the Liberals as a progressive party. When the chips were down, they supported Ford.