Ontario Votes 2025: Tariffs, health care and education top of mind for candidates running in Windsor-Tecumseh

There are multiple candidates in the Windsor-Tecumseh riding who are vying for your vote in the 2025 provincial election on Thursday. 

Ahead of the election on Thursday, CBC News reached out to candidates running in the Windsor-Tecumseh riding and asked them the same questions. 

Here's who's running, in alphabetical order:

(Incumbent) Andrew Dowie - PC Party of Ontario

Andrew Dowie is running for re-election in Windsor-Tecumseh.

He agreed to an interview with CBC News, but it was cancelled. After repeated attempts to reschedule, Dowie declined to participate in an interview but did offer to provide written responses to questions.

CBC declined to accept a written response in lieu of an interview because the other candidates were not offered that opportunity.

Dowie was first elected as MPP in the riding in 2022 after spending several years as a councillor for the Town of Tecumseh. 

On his Facebook page, Dowie has said he plans to protect his riding from U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threats and said the Banwell/E.C. Row and Lauzon/401 interchanges are top priorities for his party's government if re-elected. 

Kyle Ford - Communist Party

Kyle Ford lives in Amherstburg and works as a mould maker in Oldcastle. 

Ford says healthcare, housing and tariffs are the big priority items for him. 

"l am running to give working class people in Tecumseh, in Windsor, a voice in Parliament that has been lacking for pretty much the history of Parliament," he said. 

"A lot of what we see that goes on in Parliament, especially provincial Parliament, especially under Doug Ford, has been voices for corporate policies, for businesses, for landlords, for people who are trading in millions of dollars and there's been very little that I've heard that actually works to support the material conditions of working people." 

When it comes to healthcare, he says there needs to be more funding to hire more doctors and nurses, barriers need to be lower for international trained medical professionals to enter the system and eye care, hearing and dental should be covered for people. 

On housing, Ford says his party is proposing rent caps and rent controls between tenants so that the price can't change when someone new moves in. He says they want to add up to 200,000 social housing and geared to income housing, along with 500,000 affordable housing units and 15,000 transitional housing units. 

Steven Gifford - Ontario Party 

Steven Gifford lives with his family near the Windsor and LaSalle border. This is his second time running for MPP in Windsor-Tecumseh for the Ontario Party.

"Time and time again, we see that the policies and plans that our politicians put in place that are supposed to be for our benefit somehow almost always end up ruining, destroying or degrading our community even more," he said about why he's chosen to run. 

Gifford says his priorities, if elected, are healthcare and education. 

He says he believes that curriculum in schools, specifically around DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) and the 2SLGBTQ+ community, is taking away from subjects like civics, math and English. He'd like to see schools focus on those areas instead. 

He says he also wants to see changes to the health care system, noting that people are waiting too long to get the care they need. 

"Our health care system, even though we put so [many] taxpayer dollars into it, has not just not improved over the years, but it's degrading," he said. "Our healthcare workers are stretched to their limits." 

Gemma Grey-Hall - Ontario NDP

Born and raised in Kingston, Ont., Gemma Grey-Hall moved to Windsor after university. 

Grey-Hall has worked in areas including advertising, pharmaceutical sales and in the nonprofit and public sectors. She currently works at the University of Windsor as a fundraiser in the faculty of science. 

Grey-Hall ran for MPP in Windsor-Tecumseh in 2022 and to be a Windsor city councillor in 2018 and 2022. 

"I think it's important that we have leaders that are standing up for what people need," said Grey-Hall about why she's running again. 

"I realize that the issues that I was facing with my family and my elderly parents were being faced by a lot of people within the community: I was worried about safety, I was worried about traffic, I was worried about access to health care and family doctors and education."

She says the issues that matter most to her include the threat of tariffs from the United States, the overstretched and under-resourced health care system and education. 

She also supports giving schools more funding to tackle poor infrastructure and boost special education services. 

Connor Logan - Liberal Party of Ontario

Connor Logan, who is from Aurora, Ont., moved to the city to study political science at the University of Windsor. He's worked with Liberal MP Irek Kusmierczyk's office. 

This is his first time running for provincial office. 

The issues that matter most to him include housing, education and healthcare. 

Logan says he wants to ensure the new Windsor-Essex hospital gets built.

"We would want to get that built so that people can be in rooms in the hospitals [and] can be seen quickly and can be helped by a nurse, doctor," he said. 

He also wants to invest more funding in schools to ensure that programs aren't being cut and says that the Liberals will cut "taxes that were imposed by previous governments, to help save $170,000 on a home." 

Sophia Sevo - New Blue Party 

CBC News did not connect with Sophia Sevo. 

According to Sevo's profile on the New Blue Party website, she is a first-generation Canadian and was born and raised in Windsor-Tecumseh. She is described as having spent many years as a gymnastics program coordinator and coach for the City of Windsor. 

Sevo says she wanted to get into politics after seeing her mom's experience with the healthcare system. 

She wants to focus on improving healthcare, adding that there's a lack of accountability and attention paid to patient rights in the current system. 

Roxanne Tellier - Green Party of Ontario

Roxanne Tellier moved to Windsor three years ago and lives in Walkerville with her husband. This is her first time running for political office. 

Tellier is on the City of Windsor's age friendly advisory group, writes for a dog rescue magazine and has a small pet supply business. 

She says the issues that matter most to her include homelessness and housing.

"We want to figure out some sort of way where people can have a better chance of getting a safe place to live. Housing is a human right," she said, adding that the Green Party's plan looks to bring millions of new homes and allow fourplexes and sixplexes to be built. 

"Use of food banks is soaring. As I often say, people I know who work full time jobs, who have to go to the food bank to supplement because they can't feed their kids, that's wrong."