Government Clears the Agenda for an Election

Late on Tuesday, May 8 or Wednesday, May 9, Kathleen Wynne will make the walk from her 2nd floor East Wing office to the Lieutenant Governor’s Suite on the 2nd floor of West Wing office of the Legislative Building to ask to dissolve Parliament to call for a June 7th election. This will put an end to the 41st Legislature and set up a month of hyper-political campaigning.

A few legislative initiatives remain to be addressed before she takes this walk. Bill 31 - the Budget Bill, and Bill 53 - the Government Contract Wages Act are in place for Third and final ready on the morning of the 8th. At this writing, it’s not clear if Labour Minister Flynn will be successful at introducing and passing back to work legislation for the York University Strike.

Bill 53 is a curious proposal for the construction industry. It introduces powers that already exist, to set and require a fair wage be paid to every employee working on government owned and occupied buildings. A fair wage schedule has been set and enforced under the Employment Standards Act for decades, but the Bill proposes to establish and enforce minimum contract wages in the cleaning, security and construction sectors.

It also establishes a Director of Contract Wages be appointed to oversee the establishment of the wage schedules and to respond to complaints and inquiries.

We encourage all members to involve themselves in the campaign by supporting the candidate of their choice. Campaigns matter. The PCs entered each of the past three elections with leads, only to have the Liberals win the campaign and the election.

We expect three televised leaders' debates, and Third Party advertising will again try to focus the discussion and change minds. The fight for the right to form a government is never for the timid and we expect it to dominate the media right to the end.