Give Ontario’s New Democrats full marks for putting a key health issue — extending basic dental coverage to everyone — at the top of their election agenda.

If the Liberals try and steal the idea, as they hinted at in Monday’s throne speech, then fine. The more the merrier when it comes to a policy that would address a basic health need that has been neglected for decades.

If Doug Ford is serious about upholding the “progressive” part of the Progressive Conservative party he now leads, he could support extending dental care as well. We aren’t holding our breath on that one, though.

More public support for dental care is hardly a new or revolutionary concept. More than a decade ago, the Liberals promised to help low-income workers access basic care, leading to headlines like this one from the Star in September 2007: “Dental plan could aid 500,000.” Unfortunately, they backed off when the recession blew a hole in the province’s finances and never carried through.

Still, it was a good idea then, and it’s an even better one now. It’s bizarre that our health care system covers the whole body — but excludes the mouth and teeth. And basic dental care is no luxury. Untreated decay and infection can lead to serious illness, not to mention pain and emergency treatment that puts a heavy cost on health budgets.

The dental care proposal will be a key part of the NDP’s election platform. Over the weekend, leader Andrea Horwath gave a first look at some of what it will offer — including more money for health and long-term care, reversing the privatization of Hydro One, extending pharmacare and converting student loans into grants.

All this, they say, will be paid for by some combination of higher taxes on corporations and “the wealthiest” plus a larger budget deficit. Clearly, the NDP doesn’t plan to let the Liberals outflank them on the left, as happened in 2014 when Premier Kathleen Wynne pulled off a surprise majority victory.

As for the Liberals themselves, they also are planning to run on the left, building on the progressive measures they have brought in over the past year.

Monday’s throne speech, vague as it was, promises more money to reduce hospital wait times, expand home care to help seniors stay in their homes, mental health and addiction services, train more apprentices, and expand the OHIP+ pharmacare plan that now covers everyone under 25 “to include other parts of the population.” Details presumably to come next week in the provincial budget.

Which leaves Ford and the PCs. At this point, 80 days before the general election, they have both the greatest support in opinion polls and the least to say about what they would actually do if they win on June 7.

Ford says he’ll be presenting “five simple points” to voters — including lowering hospital waiting times; cutting hydro rates; reducing the cost and size of government; ending the cap-and-trade system; and revamping sex-education in schools. All this while saving $6 billion in costs every year through finding unspecified “efficiencies” and not laying anyone off.

It doesn’t add up, and the PCs owe it to voters to spell out how they intend to accomplish this governmental miracle.

This election is shaping up as a once-in-generation choice between fundamentally different directions for the province, and we deserve to know where the parties plan to take us — and how they intend to get there.

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