“It’s a defining moment in Ontario politics. A hurt opposition heads back into battle, vowing to take the fight to the government in a new way. That change is what the NDP MPPs say they want. It’s the direction in which the leader (Marit Stiles)says she wants to head.”
News from Ontario’s NDP Official Opposition Party
Posted September 25th, 2025 on Niagara At Large
Niagara Falls, Ontario – Ontario NDP leader Marit Stiles has vowed to make the changes necessary to win after a leadership review vote expressed (last weekend’s Niagara Falls, Ontario) convention delegates’ disappointment with the party’s recent campaign.
From Stiles’ words on stage, the MPP’s hallway comments, and the convention delegates’ actions, there can be no doubt about the change wanted: a party that can defeat and replace Doug Ford, then fix the messes he’s created or ignored.
Stiles will be building a new senior staff team charged with cutting a new path.
A campaign conceding key battlegrounds can never win
The last NDP campaign had problems. The moat important was strategy. There was one issue. Voters wanted to hear who could best position Ontario against Trump’s threats.
But that battleground was conceded to the PCs after the first week. After that, the NDP campaign served up platform pieces with little or no thematic connection to voters’ top concern.
A party can’t win when it takes itself out of the fight.
Coming out of recent Niagara Falls party convention, Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles charts what she and her party hope will be a new, winning path.
Just before last weekend’s convention, a move hinted at a strategic shift. Stiles and her MPPs recently moved job creation to a top priority, suggesting an intent to return to the battleground of people’s most important concerns. The party’s communications now focus on creating jobs, building homes and fixing healthcare.
Post-convention, Stiles is now overt about the need to change to win, and that means adopting the right strategy for the circumstance the NDP is in.
The NDP cannot win until PC support is eroded
Some New Democrats may be tempted to look at the polls, and, on finding the issues voters rate them best, move to centre the party around them. That could be a good strategy in some other times. But it would be a mistake now.
The NDP needs to campaign against the PCs’ strengths, not on their own, at least until that PC strength is degraded.
Even though voters rate Ford’s performance poor or very poor in many areas, all polls show his PCs in mid-40s or higher. It is impossible to defeat the PCs at that level of support. The first priority is to bring down that support level.
There are some key legs that hold up PC support. Research needs to specifically identify those supports, but some public polling suggests they include Ford’s relationship with Ottawa, tariff response, jobs and economy, and perhaps energy.
Whatever the research finds, the NDP needs to kick-out the legs under PC support to make this government’s polling numbers fall. Only then is there a chance to replace them.
A strategy that focuses attack on the PCs’ areas of strength probably means the party must focus on issues outside NDP MPPs’ usual comfort zones, ones that are not their personal projects, and ones on which voters today probably don’t give the NDP top ratings. It also means developing a paired strategy to make sure those who do the kicking are those rewarded with increased voter support.
And there are big communications challenges. The NDP needs to pierce Ford’s “wall of noise” or “flood the zone” tactics so the NDP’s challenge will get heard.
So it’s a defining moment in Ontario politics. A hurt opposition heads back into battle, vowing to take the fight to the government in a new way. That change is what the NDP MPPs say they want. It’s the direction in which the leader says she wants to head.
That’s the goal the delegates ordered up. Accomplishing that mission requires new senior staff team capable of both planning it out and keeping everyone’s eyes on the prize.
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