Are you better off, here in Ontario, in 2025 than you were in 2018?
That’s it.
That should be the only ballot question going into the February 27th early provincial election, cynically called by Doug Ford, 6 and a half years and 2 majority governments into his maladministration as premier.
Are you better off now than you were then?
There’s a good chance, a very, very good chance that, unless you’re a big-ass property developer (and a Progressive Conservative party donor) or the otherwise well-placed and financially secure who are rarely put out when their governments are ill-run and pillaged for parts by elected mercenaries and ideologues, the answer to the question will be a resounding ‘No!’
No, as a matter of fact, we are not better off. No. Absolutely not.
Do you have a family doctor yet? No. Have wait times in emergency rooms and on critical care lists improved and the practice of hallway medicine ended? No. How about special needs programs? Has there been expansion and improvement of services? No.
Your child’s education. Smaller class sizes? No. Increases in extracurricular opportunities? No. Got your young ones into a stable, $10/day daycare? No. How about your teens, prepping for their tilt at post-secondary school life. All the programs in place to meet their career aspirations? No.
Have you been able to buy that dream house of yours, or any house for that matter, more than 6 years into a critical shortage that the Ford government pledged to address but used instead in an attempt to pave the Greenbelt which they assured Ontario voters they had no plans for back in 2018? Sorry, what was that? No. Buy a house? We can barely afford to rent. Still. With no hope in sight or, at least, until the parents die and bequeath their wealth. Fingers crossed!
And of course those homeless encampments are gone by now, yes? No. The unhoused living rough right on the streets? No. Foodbank use has surely dropped. No. No?
Has traffic congestion improved, your daily commute? No. How about your bus or subway ride? They’ve become quicker and easier, yes? No.
And on and on and on the list goes, on and on, a sad reflection of no and no and no.
Of course, Doug Ford will campaign on everything but any of these questions.
Already, he’s posing as Captain Canada, protector of the realm in the face of fang-bared aggression from the U.S., a role that is not even his to claim. Ignore all the things I haven’t done, he’s telling Ontario voters, and re-elect me for a position I have little authority to do anything about on my own. 
In calling this early election, the Doug Ford government is attempting to sweep all their mismanagement and corruption under the rug (and it is billions and billions of dollars in mismanagement and corruption), exploiting a genuine international crisis in its favour to do so.
Don’t let them.
Keep the campaign simple.
Keep it to one question.
Are you better off than you were in 2018?