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New Democratic Leader Marit Stiles promised to build 60,000 supportive housing units to deal with homeless encampments which would mean untold billions in new construction expenditures.

Bonnie Crombie vowed to double Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) payments, which could cost an additional $6 billion within two years.

“With President Trump continuing to threaten tariffs that would skyrocket costs for hard-working families, it’s never been more important to protect people’s wallets by putting more money back into their pockets,” Ford said Wednesday at a Highway 407 maintenance yard.

Only tolls on the 43-kilometre provincially operated portion of Highway 407 — from Brock Road in Pickering east to Highway 35/115 north of Clarington — will be scrapped. It’s a move that will cost the treasury $72 million annually.

The PC leader admitted tolls will remain on the privately operated 108-kilometre section of Highway 407 from the Queen Elizabeth Way in Burlington to Brock Road.

His big-ticket pledge comes as he scrambled to change the channel after he was caught Monday on a hot mic saying that he “100 per cent” wanted Donald Trump to win the American presidency last November.

“There’s Trump 1.0 and then there was Trump 2.0,” a defensive said Ford Wednesday when pressed on how he could have wanted Trump to win the election after the president had cut off personal protective equipment imports to Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic, among other transgressions.

His Monday misstep has rocked the snap provincial election that the PC leader has insisted is a referendum on who could best deal with Trump’s threatened 25 per cent tariffs against Canada.

Rattled by the controversy, Ford’s campaign is now limiting media questions and more tightly controlling access to the leader.

He’s complained journalists “are obsessed with” his surprise admission to Tory candidates Christine Hogarth and David Piccini and several firefighters that he had hoped the Republican Trump would beat Democrat Kamala Harris last November.

In an embarrassing moment of candour at his Etobicoke campaign office Monday, he said: “On election day, was I happy this guy won? One hundred per cent I was. Then the guy pulled out the knife and f—-ing yanked it in me.”

The Liberals immediately launched a new attack ad using the clip and the New Democrats mocked him for the blunder.

Ford’s promise to remove the tolls follows months of pressure from opposition parties who complained the Tories ignored obvious and immediate solutions to ease gridlock in the Greater º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøand Hamilton Area — particularly on the heavily congested Highway 401.

Then came his contentious proposal last September to build a tunnel under Highway 401, possibly from the Pearson International Airport area east to Scarborough.

The scheme, which would pose major engineering and cost challenges and take years to build, was derided by rival parties as a distraction from quicker fixes for gridlock, such as removing tolls for trucks on Highway 407 to lure commercial traffic away from Highway 401.

Without providing a price tag, the NDP has promised to eventually make all of Highway 407 toll-free for motorists.

In Toronto, where about 1,000 homeless people camp in tents in city parks, Stiles blamed the Tories for failing on housing.

The NDP leader told the Star’s Martin Regg Cohn at º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøMetropolitan University’s Democracy Forum that encampments are Ford’s legacy after seven years in power.

“It is shocking. I live in the city of Toronto, but I get to travel everywhere — every town, every city, every community, has an encampment,” said Stiles, adding the NDP would build 60,000 new supportive housing units for people in encampments or staying in homeless shelters and upload such services from cash-strapped municipalities.

“Homelessness is a pandemic in the province of Ontario,” she said.

In Hamilton, Crombie pledged to double ODSP payments to the most vulnerable in Ontario.

“People with disabilities are dying in this province because Doug Ford has neglected to provide the basics. Keeping people healthy starts with getting them the basics,” she said, noting nearly 500,000 people rely on the payments that are currently a maximum of $1,368 a month.

The Liberal leader said the fact poverty is so visible and widespread in an indictment of the Tories’ time in power.

“Every community ... is seeing encampments. I don’t remember seeing them eight years ago or nine years ago or 10 years ago. This is a failure of Doug Ford’s Ontario,” she said.