The writ has dropped
The provincial election campaign is now officially under way.
Lieutenant-Governor Elizabeth Dowdeswell has dissolved the legislature and set June 2nd as Election Day.
Conservative leader Doug Ford says Ontarians will have a clear choice to make, either to go backwards, or choose prosperity.
NDP leader Andrea Horwath insists her party is still the best choice for what she calls “job number one” defeating the Conservatives.
A poll released by CTV shows 36.9 per cent of decided voters will support the Conservatives, while 30.4 per cent will back the Liberals.
The New Democrats sit at 23.7 per cent support.
Only nine per cent of those surveyed have yet to make up their minds.
Ontario election early voting
Elections Ontario is urging voters to cast their ballots early, as it tries to keep down the crowds
at polling stations on Election Day.
There will be ten days of advance voting, up from five, and the agency has a new on-line application process for mail-in ballots.
On Election Day, there will be physical distancing at polling stations, plexiglass screens, and hand sanitizer and face masks available for those who want them.
Evacuation continues
Efforts continue today to evacuate more civilians from the devastated port city of Mariupol.
Ukrainian officials say about 150 civilians made it out of the sprawling steel plant that’s the last bastion of resistance.
Russian forces are said to be using tanks and artillery today, to crush the remaining resistance at the plant, where some two-thousand Ukrainian soldiers remain in place.
U-N officials are trying to open evacuation corridors for the remaining 100-thousand civilians still living in the city.
Meantime, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he may be willing to put the country’s neutral status to a national referendum.
Sanctions possible
The European Union is proposing a ban on all Russian oil imports.
The importation of crude oil would end within six months, while refined products, such as gasoline and diesel, would be halted by the end of the year.
Extensions would be granted to Hungary and Romania, which are extremely depended on Russian
energy.
Officials admit it will be tough to get all 27 E-U members to agree.
Russia provides about 25 per cent of the group’s oil needs.
Biden wades in on Roe versus Wade
U-S President Joe Biden says, if it comes to pass, the draft Supreme Court ruling overturning a woman’s right to an abortion will affect a wide range of rights across the country.
The leaked ruling, which has been confirmed as authentic, would reverse the 1979 “Roe versus Wade” decision.
Biden says the rationale in the draft would mean that all decisions about peoples’ private lives, who they marry, or how they raise their children, would be affected.
Chief Justice John Roberts says the draft is just one of several .and does not represent the final opinion of the high court.
Their ruling is expected to be released by the end of June.
