THE GREEN LINE GUIDE TO...
2025 ontario election
The Ontario Legistlative building in Queen's Park.
: Benson Kua/Wikimedia Commons.
The Green Line
The Green Line is an award-winning, hyperlocal publication that delivers information you can actually use in your daily life.
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Feb. 13, 2025
Provincial politics affect Torontonians every day.Â
This spring, the city could lose three major bike lanes and five supervised consumption sites following bills passed by the Ontario government. Decisions out of Queen's Park can also impact your access to housing and healthcare.
So, are you ready to vote in the Ontario election on Feb. 27?
Let us help you.
Step One: register to vote
Register to vote by Feb. 17 on registertovoteon.ca. You'll need to confirm or update your address, personal information and your ID. You should receive your voter registration card by Feb. 22.
After registering to vote, you have a few options.
- You can vote on election day from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. by bringing your ID at your assigned voting location.
- You also have options to vote in advance from Feb. 20 to 22 between 10 a.m to 8 p.m. at an advance voting location in your electoral district.
- You can also apply to vote by mail. The deadline to do so is Feb. 21 at 6 p.m.
Step two: Research political parties
How to choose who to vote for? Well, that's up to you.
To help you make an informed decision, we collected information on where the Ontario Liberal Party, Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, the Ontario New Democratic Party and the Green Party of Ontario stands when it comes to The Green Line's five pillars of liveability: housing, jobs, food, commuting and health.
The Greens and NDP sent us their statements by email. The Liberals and PCs did not respond to multiple requests for comment in time, so we collected the following information from news releases and publicly available statements.
When it comes to housing, all four major parties want to invest more into housing. The Liberals, NDP and Greens also want to establish rent control.Â
Here are the Liberals' plans:
- Establish the Rental Emergency Support for Tenants (REST) Fund to help vulnerable renters
- Eliminate the provincial Land Transfer Tax for first-time home buyers
- Scrap development charges to save people up to $170,000 on the cost of a new home
Here are the PC's plans:
- Provide $5 billion for the Building Ontario Fund to invest in housing, long-term care, energy, transportation and municipal infrastructure projects
- Invest $2 billion in the Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program and the Enabling Water Systems Fund to create new opportunities for construction workers and help build more homes
Here are the NDP's plans:
- Protect and support renters while delivering 1.5 million new homes over the next 10 years through the Homes Ontario planÂ
- Crack down on renovictions and demovictionsÂ
- Legalize more housing like fourplexes in all neighbourhoodsÂ
- Build at least 300,000 permanently affordable, non-market homes
Here are the Greens' plans:
- Build more kinds of homes that people can afford
- Reduce fees on homes to reduce cost for for first-time buyers
- Build 250,000 new affordable non-profit and co-op homes and 60,000 permanent supportive homes
Jobs are a priority for all the parties especially in the context of potential tariffs. The four major parties advocate for expanding protections for Ontario industries and protecting jobs. The NDP and the Greens also want to support unions.Â
Here are the Liberals' plans:
- Support the creation of 40,000 new paid co-op, internship and apprenticeship positions through tax credits for employers who hire young people
- Cut the small business tax rate in half so employers can hire more employees
Here are the PC's plans:
- Invest an additional $1 billion in the Skills Development Fund
- Invest an additional $100 million in the Better Jobs Ontario program
- Invest $38 million to mobilize action centres in the event of layoffs to provide immediate employment
- Advocate for the federal government to expand protections, including the Wage Earner Protection Program
Here are the NDP's plans:
- Work with trade-exposed industries to create and maintain new export markets, and invest in retraining opportunities in post-secondary and the skilled trades
- Partner with Ontario employers and unions to protect jobs
- Promote interprovincial cooperation and break down trade barriers
- Launch a Buy Ontario campaign to promote Ontario goods
- Negotiate a joint federal-provincial income assistance program to support people whose livelihoods are impacted by U.S. tariffs
Here are the Greens' plans:
- Increase the minimum wage to $20 and index it to inflation each year
- Increase the number of paid sick days from three to ten
- Make it easier for workers to join unions and engage in bargaining across regions
- Strengthen rights and protections for gig workers
- Invest in an Ontario strategy to create more jobs in the clean energy industry
When it comes to food, the NDP and Green Party agree on fighting price-gouging. The PCs and Liberals have not released a platform on food, and did not get back to us before publication. So, we looked at their previous statements to give you an idea of where they stand. Â
Here are the Liberals' previous plans (2022 platform):
- Remove provincial HST on prepared food under $20, funded by a one per cent surtax on companies operating in Ontario whose profits exceed one billion dollars a year, and a two per cent income tax increase for individuals on income earned over $500,000 annually
Here are the PC's plans:
- Increase annual funding for its Risk Management Program (RMP) from $150 million to $250 million to enhance support for farmers and the province’s $51 billion agri-food sector
Here are the NDP's plans:
- Provide a recurring Monthly Grocery Rebate of up to $122 per month based on household income and family size
- Force big retailers to publicly post when they raise prices more than two per cent in a week, and establish a watchdog to enforce competition laws and keep food prices fair
- Create a universal school food program
Here are the Greens' plans:
- Provide startup funding for community-owned food markets
- Support community gardens through land gifts and organisational support
- Create an Ontario Foodbelt to protect prime farmland from being lost to non-agricultural uses
- Introduce strict anti-gouging and collusion laws to stop grocery corporations from gouging people on their grocery bills
When it comes to commuting, two of the four major parties want to invest in highways and three of the four major parties want to invest in transit.
Here are the Liberals' plans:
- Hire an additional 300 special constables for TTC, Metrolinx and other major transit across the province
- Establish the Crisis Assistance and Response Enhancement Fund to double investment in Mobile Crisis Intervention Teams
- Install platform doors in all TTC subway stations
Here are the PC's plans:
- Move up the Sheppard East subway extension to connect the TTC’s Line 4 with the Scarborough Subway Extension at Sheppard Avenue East and McCowan Road
- Deliver multiple new GO lines, enable expanded two-way, all-day service for Milton and Kitchener and build dozens of new stations and add convenient connections to existing transit systems across the Greater Golden Horseshoe
- Rehabilitate Highway 401 by: building a tunnel under the highway from Mississauga in the west to the Markham area in the east, adding additional lane at the Kennedy Road interchange and replacing the bridge at the Leslie Street and Bayview Avenue interchanges
- Invest $56 million to repair and upgrade Highway 174, and eventually upload the highway to the province
- Invest $181 million for highways and transit, including the construction of a phased interchange at Highway 416 and Barnsdale Road
Here are the NDP's plans:
- Provide provincial funding for 50 per cent of municipal transit operations to ensure local transit services are reliable, frequent, convenient and affordable for riders
- Deliver long-delayed GO rail expansions to Kitchener, Niagara and Bowmanville
Here are the Greens' plans:
- Prioritize transit-oriented development
- Upload costs to the province that had previously been downloaded onto municipalities, including transit funding to increase access for riders
- Expand GO service and inter-regional bus service
For health, all the four major parties emphasize the importance of ensuring every Ontarian has access to a primary healthcare provider. The Liberals and Greens, as well as the NDP want to hire more healthcare workers. The PCs wants to enhance digital tools for providers and patients.Â
Here are the Liberals' plans:
- Educate, attract and retain 3,100 family doctors
- Ensure that everyone in Ontario has a family doctor within four years
- Offer a bonus to nurses and doctors who want to come back home to Canada from the U.S.
- Double Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) benefits and index it to inflation
Here are the PC's plans:
- Invest $1.8 billion to connect more people to primary care providers
- Modernize Health Care Connect to improve user experience
- Enhance digital tools for providers and patients to reduce administrative burden
Here are the NDP's plans:
- Recruit and support 3,500 new doctors
- Invest $4.05 billion over four years in new residency spots and refreshed budgets to resolve the crisis in primary care
- Establish and fund more family health teams, nurse practitioner-led clinics and Community Health Centres
- Clear the path for 13,000 internationally trained doctors and increase residency spots
- Free up time for doctors and NPs to spend with patients by giving more funding for administrative support
- Expand healthcare in Northern Ontario by hiring 350 doctors, including 200 family physicians and 150 specialists
Here are the Greens' plans:
- Hire more nurses, doctors as PSWs in every region
- Ensure every Ontarian has access to a primary healthcare provider within three to five years
- Stop healthcare privatization and bringing per-capita healthcare funding up to the national average
- Increase access to affordable, barrier-free mental healthcare by providing free access under OHIP
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
With elections coming up soon, we know a lot of you still have questions about registering, voting and finding out where parties stand. So, we'll try to answer the most common concerns that we received so far.
We'll keep updating this section so if you have any more questions, make sure to message us on our socials or email us at hello@thegreenline.to.
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