Stiles accuses Ford of breaking integrity rules with campaign-style post about Washington trip

Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles speaks during a campaign event in Ottawa, Tuesday, Feb.4, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

It’s a snow day across much of Ontario, but the Ontario election campaign is nevertheless plowing ahead.

Here’s what’s happening today.

6 p.m.

With nominations officially closing at 2 p.m. today, the slate of candidates for Ontario’s Feb. 27 election is nearly set.

You can check the latest on who’s running in your riding on the Elections Ontario website.

5:15 p.m.

Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stile has formally asked Ontario’s integrity commissioner to review PC Leader Doug Ford’s trip to Washington in the wake of a since-deleted social media post that trumpeted Ford’s actions on the trip while using his campaign slogan, “Protecting Ontario.”

Ford’s campaign team said earlier in the day that they deleted the post “out of an abundance of caution” and that they did nothing wrong because “footage of the premier being the premier is routinely used in political social content.”

Stiles’ letter asks the integrity commissioner to answer a number of questions about the trip, including whether taxpayer money was used for partisan purposes and whether the so-called caretaker convention was breached.

Stiles is asking that the integrity commissioner weigh in with a review of the trip before election day so that voters are informed before they cast their ballots.

4:30 p.m.

Other party leaders are commenting on Ford’s deleted post on X.

Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner told CP24.com he thinks Ford is being “selfish” by “playing politics with tariffs when so many people’s jobs are on the line.”

He called it “irresponsible” to campaign on the tariff threats.

“So many Canadian workers are worried about losing their jobs, Canadian companies are worried about being able to survive this and for the premier to use it for his own political advantage just seems selfish and irresponsible to me,” Schreiner said.

Meanwhile Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie said during a campaign stop that she believes the post shows Ford’s Washington trip was a misuse of public funds.

“He’s travelled to Washington, so you know, he has no concern for taxpayers’ dollars or the rules as laid out during election campaigns,” Crombie said.

3 p.m.

NDP Leader Marit Stiles is accusing PC leader Doug Ford of violating the terms of his Washington trip with a post on X that appeared to blend images from the trip with his campaign slogan.

Ford posted a video to the platform on Thursday morning highlighting images from his trip to Washington with the other premiers to promote Canada in the face of tariff threats from Donald Trump.

Government officials are not supposed to use their positions in order to politically promote themselves during an election, a policy generally referred to as the caretaker convention.

The integrity commissioner cleared the trip, provided that it would not be used for partisan purposes. However, the post appeared to show images from the trip alongside Ford’s campaign slogan “Protect Ontario.”

In her own post Thursday, Stiles said she was asking the integrity commissioner and Elections Ontario to investigate the post, which has since been deleted and replaced with another post that doesn’t feature the slogan.

“Ford is in fact using his tax-payer funded Washington photo op for partisan purposes,” Stiles wrote, adding that he “keeps finding new and expensive ways to erode our democracy.”

In a response to CTV Toronto, Ford’s campaign said the following when asked about the post:

“Footage of the premier being the premier is routinely used in political social content; however, out of an abundance of caution, the video was reposted without campaign branding.”

12 p.m.

Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner says he’ll cancel Highway 413 if he becomes premier.

Making an appearance alongside local candidate Sandy Brown Thursday, Schreiner said he’d use $10 billion from the cancelled project for health care instead.

He called the highway project part of “Doug Ford’s anti-Greenbelt agenda.”

Speaking in the Dufferin-Caledon home riding of Sylvia Jones, who has most recently served as health minister, he took aim at the Progressive Conservative track record on health care, especially in rural areas.

“Sandy knows Ontarians can’t afford to waste $10 billion dollars on a highway that will pave over 2,000 acres of prime farmland and slice through the Greenbelt when people in our rural communities don’t have access to health care,” Schreiner said.

Hi party officially released its full platform Wednesday, including a promise that everyone will have a primary care provider within three to four years through the recruitment of 3,500 more doctors in Ontario.