Who's got Ontario's attention on the campaign trail?

Charged up on EVs

ABOVE THE FOLD

MOMENTS THAT CAPTURED ONTARIO’S ATTENTION — As the first week of the campaign comes to a close, one leader has managed to hold Ontarians’ interest: DOUG FORD.

For better or worse, the news of an early election appears to have roused peoples’ interest in him. Google searches for “doug ford” climbed majorly last week when Ford confirmed he would trigger an early election. Since then, Ford has remained relatively high on folks’ radar, according to Google Trends. Searches spiked again on January 29, the day of the writ.

As for his political rivals: They’re struggling to get as much traction, but people are more interested than they’ve been in recent months. Searches for Liberal Leader BONNIE CROMBIE and NDP Leader MARIT STILES ticked up this week, but Ford still managed to suck up all the oxygen.

Why it matters: Both Stiles and Crombie need to raise their profile if they want to make a dent in Ford’s high polling numbers. Such surveys suggest that people aren’t as familiar …