Crucial last TV debate looms for Ontario leaders as June 7 voting day nears
TORONTO — The third and final televised debate ahead of Ontario’s June 7th election will offer voters on Sunday one last chance to size up the three main party leaders side by side as they vie to lead the province for the next four years.
With polls suggesting a degree of volatility in the race, a strong debate performance could prove the deciding factor for many voters yet to make up their minds on where their support will go — particularly given the recently resurgent NDP under Andrea Horwath, who has long failed to move her party beyond third-party status.
“Here is a chance for someone who wasn’t a front-runner, is now a front-runner, and people are going to start making assessments about fitness for the premiership that have not been made about Andrea Horwath in the past,” said Tamara Small, an associate professor of political science at the University of Guelph. “We’re just going to be paying way more attention to her.”
Incumbent Kathleen Wynne, who has acknowledged her poll-trailing Liberals have a monumental task in winning re-election, said her goal will be to try to impress on viewers that her party has the best plan for improving their lives and that she can be trusted to follow through.