Ontario PCs to increase number of seats needed for official party status

The Ontario Progressive Conservative government will introduce legislation this week that will increase the threshold needed for official party status.

The new threshold — to be laid out in the fall economic statement later this week — will be 10 per cent of the house, or 12 seats, up from the current eight.

The move seems to take aim at the Liberal party, which is currently just one seat shy of official party status.

The Ford government house leader Todd Smith says the PCs are simply echoing the sentiments of the people and denies it is an attempt to stymie the Liberals.

“The people spoke loud and clear on election day (and) they decided to reduce the size of the liberal caucus to below official party status,” he said. “The voters are never wrong and we’re just taking this step to make it really clear going forward that this is the level you need to achieve.”

Interim Liberal leader John Fraser says its not fair to the more than one million Ontarians that voted for his party.

“The Premier’s job is not to divide,” he said. “His job is to bring people together and what they’re doing now is dividing people.”

Slipping below the threshold meant the Liberals lost funds for research, staff salaries and other purposes and can only operate in the legislature in a limited fashion.

The Liberals have asked the government to grant them some accommodations, including funding, similar to what New Democrats received when they failed to achieve party status in 2003.

“It’s thwarting democracy and it’s also what bullies do,” Fraser said.

With files from the Canadian Press