The province of Ontario, which is home to over 1/3 of Canada's total population, is currently in a critical election with competing parties on the opposite ends of both social and fiscal spectrums.

If you live in Ontario, we strongly encourage you to get out and vote. This election is extremely important for the future of Ontario.

We encourage you to vote for the party that will be the best stewards of our finances (as this affects almost all other issues), not drive up the provincial debt/deficit and stand for family values & parental rights.

To help you we have composed a summary of the platforms of all three major parties below. We pray this is helpful for you as you prayerfully consider your choice.

If you do not live in Ontario, please join us in praying and fasting for Ontario at this important time.

Pray Ontario, an initiative to mobilize prayer for this election, has been releasing daily prayer directives and is organizing church based prayer gatherings all across the province. To find out more please visit prayon.ca.

BRIEFING // MAJOR PARTY PLATFORMS

FISCAL PLATFORM

Deficits

Liberal

Conservative
* promise to quickly balance the books and keep them that way
* run deficit in first year
* cut $6 billion from Ontario’s budget without laying off any public employees
* convene an “outside audit” to probe spending under the Liberal government of Kathleen Wynne
* give more funding to the office of Ontario’s Auditor General

NDP
multi-year deficits with its heavy investment in healthcare and social services
* five consecutive deficits that would see the province incur a deficit of $3.3. billion in 2018-2019, peaking at more than $5 billion in 2020-2021 before shrinking to $1.9 billion by 2022-2023
* no clear timeline to return to a balanced budget

TAXES

Liberal
* ditched the provincial surtax
* tax rates for approximately 8.6 million people would stay roughly the same, no change to corporate taxes

Conservative
* scrap minimum wage hike from $14 to $15 next year
* income tax credit for workers earning minimum wage
* cut corporate tax rates from 11.5 to 10.5 per cent to attract new businesses to Ontario
* use a tax rebate program to cover up to $6,750 for childcare costs
—lower-income families would receive 75 per cent of child-care costs back,
* cut the small business tax rate from 3.5 per cent to 3.2 per cent

NDP
* increase the corporate tax rate from 11.5 per cent to 13 per cent
* keeping the Liberals’ earlier reduction to small business corporate tax rates
* raise income tax rates by one percentage point for those earning more than $220,000 and two percentage points on incomes greater than $300,000,
* expand pension coverage

SOCIAL ISSUES

Sex Ed Curriculim

Liberal
* will maintain the status quo

Conservative
* will repeal the current sex ed curriculum and replace it with something that upholds the rights / wished of parents

Abortion

Conservative
* will make parental consent mandatory for minors having an abortion

Liberal
* will maintain status quo

NDP
*will maintain status quo

Drugs / Alcohol

Liberal
* plan to regulate the sale of marijuana through the Ontario Cannabis Retail Corporation
* expand sales of beer to a total of 450 grocery stores, and wine to 300 grocery stores

Conservative
* let the market dictate pot sales
* careful in regulating the cannabis market
* expand sales of beer, wine, cider and coolers into corner stores

NDP
* favours restricting the sale of pot to adults aged 19 or older, use the LCBO to distribute pot
* eels 40 LCBO-run pot shops by next year (150 by 2020) won’t be enough to curb the black market
* rime agricultural land must be preserved from being overrun by marijuana-growing operations
* oppose expanding sales of alcohol into corner stores

Health Care

Liberal
* invest $822 million to bolster hospital care and infrastructure
* spend $300 million over three years for registered nurses
* increase the number of hours each RN spends with patients by 2022
* introducing a drug and dental program to cover 80 per cent of specific drugs and dental costs.
* expanding OHIP+ program to cover drug costs to seniors 65 and over, which is projected to cost $575 million
* spend $2.1 billion to “rebuild” Ontario’s mental health system.
Hire 3,500 new nurses by the end of this year

Conservative
* add 15,000 new long-term care beds over the next five years and 30,000 new beds over the next 10 years, Spend $1.9 billion over the next decade on mental health and addiction support
* encourage more doctors to move to northern Ontario by cutting their provincial taxes down to as low as zero per cent.
* opposed to planned safe-injection sites for Ontario, particularly “in neighbourhoods”

NDP
* invest $19 billion over 10 years for hospitals, 2,000 new hospital beds and 15,000 long-term care beds by 2023
* fund more hospital staff to ensure shorter wait times and fewer cancellations for surgeries
* implement a $475-million pharmacare plan covering 125 commonly prescribed drugs including some take-home cancer medication and drugs used for those transitioning genders
* expand full dental to contract, full and part-time workers, as well as low-income children and retired seniors living without a pension or dental insurance, at a cost of $670 million in the first year
* hire 4,500 new nurses in her first year in office

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

Liberal
* spend $1.7 billion over three years to support energy-saving programs
* invest $52 million over three years for new technologies to deal with toxic chemicals, excessive algae and road salt; better manage sewer system overflow
* spend $15 million over the next three years to protect forests, wetlands and lakes
Invest more than $90 million in 2017–18 to support commuter cycling.

Conservative
* oppose the federally-mandated minimum price on carbon emissions
* end Ontario’s Green Energy Act
* cancel energy projects initiated by the current Liberal government that are in the pre-construction phase
* issue a moratorium on new energy contracts and re-negotiating other energy contracts

NDP
* $50 million from cap-and-trade programs for new no-interest and on-bill home retrofitting to help residents pay for power-saving technology into their homes
* direct 25 per cent of cap-and-trade revenue to rural, northern and lower-income homes and trade-exposed industries
* clean up the mercury in the English–Wabigoon River in northwestern Ontario and commit an additional $12 million to a Mercury Disability Fund for people suffering from complications
* update the Environmental Bill of Rights and expand parks in consultation with First Nations

A Few Points From the Green Party Platform

ACTION POINTS

1 // VOTE IN ADVANCE POLLS UNTIL MAY 30th // This helps your party to focus its energy where it's needed and removes our name off the list of door knocks and phone calls.

2 // GET OUT AND VOTE JUNE 7TH // You should receive a voters card in the mail. If you do not, you can still vote. Just bring ID and proof of address (like a hydro bill). Be sure to look at the amount on your hydro bill and consider this in how you cast your vote (tongue in cheek).

3 // VOLUNTEER IN A CAMPAIGN // Contact the Member of Provincial Parliament in your riding that you want to vote for and ask how you can help. Some things you can do are: put up a lawn sign, help door knock, remind people of voting, provided rides to voters, make phone calls, volunteer at a voting station, help on election day and more. Click here to search who is running in your riding, as well as how and where to vote

4 // PRAY // Pray that the best candidate for the job wins. Pray that the voting church gets out to the polls like never before. Pray that Ontario becomes the leader for all of its positive qualities so that Ontario can be a blessing to the rest of Canada.