Liberal leadership hopefuls talk taxes, affordability and Doug Ford in final debate

TORONTO — Ontario Liberal leadership hopefuls on Wednesday pitched themselves as the antidote to Premier Doug Ford in a final debate before voting begins.

There was little disagreement among them, though several took different tacks on taxes.

Navdeep Bains, Stephanie Bowman, Lee Fairclough and Dylan Marando all took pains to say they were serious politicians at a serious time, in contrast to Ford’s folksy, bombastic demeanour.

The four agreed on many of the issues moderator Steve Paikin threw at them, from education and health-care reforms to rebuilding the third-place Liberal party from the ground up.

Where they differed was whether they would raise taxes.

Fairclough, one of two Liberal caucus members running for leader — the other being Bowman — said she would bring about tax reform after Paikin asked all four candidates whether they would raise taxes as a way to eliminate annual budget deficits.

“Not necessarily a tax increase, but changing the way we think about taxes, both at the municipal level and at the provincial level,” said Fairclough, the longtime hospital executive elected last year in Etobicoke-Lakeshore.

She said she’d run a detailed value-for-money audit across the provincial government with an eye on eradicating waste, examine how the Harmonized Sales Tax is being used and how best to build a better tax base for starving municipalities.

Marando, a longtime political staffer for former prime minister Justin Trudeau and premiers Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne, said he would do away with personal income taxes for young workers earning less than $50,000 and cut small business taxes.

“I don’t have a plan to increase taxes, but if push comes to shove, I wouldn’t mind increasing taxes on big businesses,” he said. “I’m pretty sure the big banks and the big telcos and big tech have some spare change in the couch cushions.”

Bowman, a chartered accountant and former Bank of Canada board member, was adamant that raising taxes at this time would be problematic.

“People are struggling,” Bowman said. “We need to actually be thinking about how we give more money back in a responsible way so that people can have some relief from the cost-of-living pressures.”

Bains, a former cabinet member in Trudeau’s government before leaving for the private sector in 2021, agreed.

“We’re in an affordability crisis,” he said. “We know there’s mismanagement, we know there is corruption, and we know this government is not highlighting and focusing on the priorities that will give us the greatest return on investment, which is education and health care.”

Voting for Liberal party members is to begin Nov. 9 and run until Nov. 20.

The next leader is set to be announced Nov. 21.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2026.

Liam Casey, The Canadian Press