Canada: Ontario province votes, with Progressive Conservatives ahead in polls

Canada's most populous province, Ontario, went to the polls on Thursday, with the right-leaning Progressive Conservatives set to retain power on the back of a promise to increase spending despite a massive existing debt load.

The party led by Doug Ford has been holding a clear lead over the opposition New Democrats and the Liberals, who both compete for the center-left vote.

An Ekos Research poll published on Sunday gave the Progressive Conservatives a seven-point lead over their closest challenger, the Liberal Party.

Elections Ontario said it was extending voting for up to two hours in some polls in 19 different electoral districts, including some closely contested ones, after delays to the start of voting.

Results for these parliamentary constituencies would not be released until all voting had ended, it said. Polls in other districts close at 9pm ET (0100 GMT on Friday).

Ford, who swept to power in 2018 after 15 years of Liberal rule, needs to win 63 seats in the 124-seat provincial legislature to retain his majority. At dissolution the party held 67.

Ontario, home to just under 40 percent of Canada's 38.2 million people, is Canada's manufacturing heartland.

It is also one of the world's largest sub-sovereign borrowers, with publicly held debt currently standing at CA$418.7 billion (US$330.8 billion).

With inflation in Canada at a three-decade high, housing and cost-of-living issues drove the election campaign.

In a pre-election budget tabled in April, Ford promised billions of dollars of spending on infrastructure projects and outlined a tax credit for low-income earners, resulting in a higher budget deficit in the current fiscal year than the last.

The budget also put forth a slower path back to balance than some analysts had expected.

"Day 29, I am so excited!" Ford, 57, said in a video tweeted on Wednesday, referring to the 29th day of his campaign.

With a debt-to-GDP ratio of 40.7 percent, Ontario's debt load is higher than the next three most populous provinces and it pays more to borrow in the bond market.

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Ford's popularity plunged in 2020 amid accusations Ontario had bungled the Covid-19 epidemic.

But his fortunes revived this year, in part through some populist moves like eliminating licence plate renewal fees and expanding a foreign buyer tax on homes.

The New Democrats' Andrea Horwath vowed to create an annual speculation and vacancy tax on residential property.

The Liberals, led by Steven Del Duca, promised to reduce public transit fares while imposing a surtax on companies with annual profits exceeding CA$1 billion.

A poll tracker maintained by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp showed that the Liberals and the New Democrats each had just a 1-percent chance of winning.

(Reuters)