NIAGARA FALLS, ONT.—The honeymoon is over for corporate welfare in Ontario, Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford said Monday on his way to visit a packaging firm that got millions in federal aid.

It’s not fair that some companies get grants or loans from taxpayers while others don’t, Ford told reporters on a swing through wine country in the June 7 election campaign.

The day was aimed at wooing voters from New Democrat MPP Wayne Gates in the sprawling riding of Niagara Falls and Jim Bradley, a veteran Liberal MPP and former cabinet minister in neighbouring St. Catharines.

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“Instead of picking winners and losers we’re going to lower business taxes for everyone, we’re going to stabilize business hydro rates, we’re going to cut red tape and we’re going to bring good jobs back home,” Ford said on a hotel terrace overlooking the horseshoe falls.

Parked three storeys below was a panel van with LED lights advertising one of his key themes, “Ontario is open for business,” but with the morning sunlight behind it the day’s signature campaign visual was hard to see and photograph.

The businessman and former Toronto city councillor took the message to a lunchtime meet-and-greet with supporters at Scorecard Harry’s, a sports bar in nearby Port Dalhousie on Lake Ontario.

Wearing a “Make Ontario Great Again” baseball hat made by a friend, local resident Craig Bowman said he likes Ford’s focus on improving the business climate.

“He’s believable and he’s honest,” said Bowman. “He’s like Trump. What he says, he’s gonna do.”

Inside the bar, retiree Nancy Haskell said “he appears to be a down-to-earth type of person and I think that’s what we need … someone who can see what the common person is going through.

“It’s time we sort of rattled the chain.”

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Across the street, a lawn sign for St. Catharines PC candidate Sandie Bellows was taped over with a hand-painted sheet reading “anyone but Ford” but was lying face down in the grass by the time his tour bus left the scene.

Ford also slammed Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government for selling surplus electricity to neighbouring jurisdictions at a loss and said Ontario companies should be able to benefit from that cheap hydro, although he did not explain how rate structures would be altered to accomplish that.

“If we’re going to give incentives to anyone, we’re going to give incentives to the companies here in Ontario . . . rather than benefitting our U.S. neighbours, our U.S. companies, that are taking your jobs.”

Ford has promised to cut corporate income taxes to 10.5 per cent from 11.5 per cent.

In Cambridge, Ont., Wynne said Ford’s opposition to government aid to businesses is “ridiculous.”

“One of the reasons Ontario’s unemployment rate is the lowest it’s been in 20 years is because we have worked with . . . businesses to make sure we retain and attract jobs.”

At Queen’s Park, the Conservatives have long sounded the alarm on grants and loans, saying the process for deciding who gets what is not transparent. Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk found the Liberal government gave $2.3 billion in grants and loans to 374 companies between 2004 and 2015, with 80 per cent of that money going to firms “invited to apply” by the government.

Ford also visited Stanpac, a packaging company in Smithville, Ont., which got $4.5 million in federal aid toward a $46-million expansion that created 50 jobs.

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Conservative officials said Ford scheduled a stop at Stanpac because the company has opened another plant in Texas, where hydro rates are lower.

At an evening rally, Ford spoke to a standing-room only crowd of more than 300 people, getting his biggest cheers for a promise to repeal the sex-ed curriculum.

When Ford spoke of a controversial severance deal for Hydro One executives that he accused Wynne of failing to stop, one man in the audience shouted “lock her up!” Ford paused briefly and chuckled before moving on with his speech.

The phrase was a frequent taunt of Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton by Trump supporters in the 2016 U.S. election campaign.

With files from Robert Benzie

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