The freedom and agency we enjoy living in a democratic society is a privilege. The ability to exercise our democratic right by voting in elections is also a privilege. With a provincial election coming up in June, our hope is that every eligible voter in Ontario will exercise their right to vote and will do so with thoughtfulness. We invite you to be part of an open, respectful dialogue about how we approach voting, and what we consider when casting our ballots. How do you approach voting and what things do you consider when voting?
Our Personal Priorities and Beliefs:
Voting is a personal decision. Therefore, a good starting point is to get clear on our own priorities and beliefs. At Fix Our Schools, we are passionate about publicly funded schools and education. For members of our working group these are the key priorities for us in any provincial election. In particular, our focus has always been on ensuring safe, healthy, well-maintained schools that provide environments conducive to learning and working.
- We believe school conditions matter and can positively (or negatively!) impact students’ health, attendance, performance and achievement.
- We believe that our provincial government must provide adequate, stable funding for school infrastructure.
- We believe that a necessary source of public revenue is corporate taxes, which have been dropping as a proportion of their profits for years.
- We believe that standards of good repair must be in place for schools, schoolyards and portables, and that data must be collected to ensure these standards are met.
These beliefs serve as guiding lights for Fix Our Schools as we make decisions on which candidate to vote for in a provincial election. We want to cast our ballot in a way that most aligns with our priorities and beliefs.
Party Platform:
A political platform outlines a party’s values and beliefs, and provides a sense of which issues the party prioritizes. A platform also provides a sense of the policies a political party would adopt relative to an issue.
Back in 2018, Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative (PC) party won a resounding majority based on a platform dubbed a “Plan for the People”, with a large emphasis on “restoring respect for the taxpayer”. The details of PC party’s education platform were scant at best, and made no mention of addressing the $15.9-billion of disrepair that plagued Ontario’s publicly funded schools back in 2018 (spoiler alert: total school disrepair in Ontario has grown to $16.8-billion under Ford’s leadership). The PC platform also did not mention fixing the flawed provincial education funding formula that has allowed our schools to accumulate such an enormous level of disrepair.
In short, the PC party’s 2018 election platform under Doug Ford did not align with the personal priorities and beliefs of the members of Fix Our Schools’ working group outlined above. Therefore, we looked at casting our votes for candidates other than our local PC candidates.
For the upcoming provincial election, we will be looking closely at the education platforms of all parties, and have been trying to influence those platforms. We want to see safe, healthy, well-maintained schools prioritized. Fix Our Schools suggests that for the 2022 provincial election, we all pay attention to party platforms and demand answers and details on how each party plans to improve and fix Ontario’s publicly funded schools. We believe that every individual has the power to influence a party’s priorities and platforms.
In 2018 parents from a single school council banded together to submit questions about school disrepair at a local all-candidates debate. The result? School disrepair was the first topic to be discussed by all candidates at their local debate. The whole community heard about the importance of schools in our communities.
Swing Ridings and Strategic Voting:
A swing riding is a riding where the voting result was close previously, and there is a reasonable chance the outcome could be different this time. Many ridings in Ontario “swung” from Liberal to PC in the 2018 election and are polling to return to being Liberal in 2022. The 2018 election also included 17 new ridings, which don’t yet have a historical voting pattern.
Strategic voting occurs when a citizen decides to vote not for their preferred party, but for a stronger contender in order to defeat the likeliest winner. For instance, if a voter views a PC victory as an undesirable outcome, they may vote for the NDP candidate polling second in that riding, even though their usual preference is the Green candidate. This strategic voting would be done with the hope of preventing the PC candidate from winning.
In the upcoming provincial election, there are many ridings that have been identified as possible swing ridings where voters could choose to vote strategically.
Fix Our Schools wants a provincial government that:
- Provides a thoughtful, detailed election platform that serves as the mandate from which they govern
- Prioritizes public education and schools
- Provides the funding needed to meet the standards we want for schools and education in this province
- Is transparent
- Meets with stakeholders and values/integrates their input into policy
While Fix Our Schools is a non-partisan campaign, we have seen the Ford government fail students, families, teachers and communities for 4 years. Based on past performance, we suggest you consider voting strategically for the candidate in your riding who has the best chance of defeating the PC candidate.
Looking ahead to the June Provincial Election:
As you consider who you will vote for in the provincial election this June, please think about the 2-million children in Ontario who spend their days in publicly-funded schools. At the moment, $16.8-billion of disrepair exists in these buildings. There are no measurable standards in place to even specify what constitutes “acceptable school conditions” and our provincial government does not collect data about the results achieved through investing in schools. We believe this situation needs to change – so we will be voting for change.