Stratford residents participate in Ontario-wide protest against Premier Doug Ford

Liam Carter’s sign addresses several concerns, including cuts to OSAP, defunding healthcare and privatization. Carter was one of many protestors at Stratford Hall on March 28.

A group of protestors of all ages addressed a variety of concerns marching around Stratford City Hall on a snowy Saturday morning.

The Fight Ford protest outside of city hall on March 28 was part of a province-wide Fight Ford protest that addressed the disapproval of Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his government’s actions and plans. Some passing by the protest honked their horns in solidarity or praised the movement when walking by.

Protestors carried a variety of signs addressing concerns over the cuts to the OSAP program, as well as health care privatization, environmental concerns and Bill 5, also known as the Protect Ontario by Unleashing Our Economy Act.

Bill 5 allows the government to move forward with projects without restrictions like existing laws. The bill has received a lot of criticism for its potential environmental impact.

"There's only an hour; we could spend two hours talking about Ford because he's done so much to annoy the people,” said Jane Marie Mitchell, who was in attendance. “These legacy projects he wants to do and put all this money into, there's people here for healthcare, the corruption that's in the government and now he wants these (Freedom of Information requests) to not be accessible, going backwards not just from the time that that policy is made … It's hard to find something good to say about Ford. Just everything he does – he's not protecting the environment, he's not protecting the conservative jobs; there's a lot." 

In addition to Stratford, protesters held demonstrations in municipalities all across Ontario such as London, Windsor, Barrie, Toronto and Ottawa.