Living in Ontario, I'd say the to weaknesses of the Ford government have been competency and being a little too nakedly eager to please their donor base.
Of those two, the competency one is potentially a real problem. There's been so many episodes (some outlined in the article above) where they picked a thing that wasn't really a big priority, spent a bunch of resources on it and failed. Plus there are smaller but memorable things like the license plates they redesigned that couldn't be seen clearly at night and the anti-carbon tax stickers they mandated for gas pumps that woundn't stay stuck (and Ford owns a label company!). Time after time, they seem to screw things up in almost comedic fashion which doesn't paint a picture of capable leadership.
Throughout COVID, they tended to take a stance that was clearly not a great idea, only to reverse course once they realized that we were headed for disaster and/or that public opinion was strongly against it. That seemed to be true for everywhere except the Atlantic provinces, but it didn't leave a sense of capable leadership.
They also tended to come up with COVID restrictions that were friendly to companies big enough to have lobby firms and not as friendly to mom-and-pops. It was weird that you could almost always go shopping inside Costco, for example, but not a local store (curbside only). That's also true of the proposed new highway, which doesn't seem to make any sense from a planning point of view but may make some land that developer donors own a whole lot more valuable. It leaves this sense that Ford likes to 'do deals' with people who have access to him, leaving everyone else to their own devices.
In some lower profile areas (data governance, for example) there's been some signs of good work happening in the Ford government, but none of that stuff wins or loses elections.
Despite all of that, Ford has developed into a genuinely talented retail politician. He has the little guy persona down pat (despite inheriting a business and being reasonably wealthy). I don't think the government deserves to be reelected, based on their performance, but I aslo wouldn't count them out.
I've often thought, when watching Doug (and the late Rob), that what he is, mostly, is an adolescent. There are people for whom that stage of life was the most satisfying and they tend to not move on, in a real sense. They might look like a grown-up but their behaviour is `Happy Days'. It's unfortunate he's Premier but he owes that to his buddies and you can't let the guys down. His silly`gifts' ie beer for a buck, stickers, etc seem to be the result of BBQ talk, and, so, resonate with enough voters like himself. I expect this is the key to his success but it's a little insulting.
Doug has been a tire fire during the Gong Show for 4 years. There is literally no issue where he hasn't either been on the wrong side or dithered so long before acting that he made a bad situation worse(COVID being his prime failure). He has made Dalton look competent which seemed unimaginable when Ontario kicked Kathleen out; let's not pretend Doug was elected; Kathleen was turfed in accordance with Canadian political tradition.
That he is currently leading in the polls is simply beyond my comprehension. The last 4 years have made me wonder if Darwin was wrong and we've peaked and are now on a black diamond downslide.
We currently have a "New Blue" MPP. We're theoretically a toss-up currently, and Belinda will be tossed. She was little more than a screen door on a submarine...even before she was tossed from Doug's caucus. The only thing I'm certain of is that whomever we elect, they will have no plan for the future.
It is lamentable that the PCs are ahead. Nonetheless, I think it's partly a function of Ontarians' reluctance to support the NDP (it is unfair to keep on harping about "Rae Days", I know, but that may be part of it), as well as their less-than-enthusiastic embrace of Stephen Del Duca.
The vote split amongst the "anybody but Ford" crowd is a factor, as well.
Bob Rae spends his way through a recession; villain. Stephen Harper does the identical thing; genius. I will be voting strategically. None are good; Doug's an idiot.
Harris had a great term and remains the only politician in my lifetime who did what he said he would do. He cut fat. Sadly, in his next term, he cut meat, bone, tissue and organs; something our healthcare system still hasn't recovered from.
Correct on every count. The courageous call out of the blatantly self-serving license plate refund was particularly apropos, as was the necessary review of the Ford government's so-so record with regard to managing the Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite all that, Mr Ford's "aw shucks" rhetoric, coupled with his carefully cultivated "man of the people" image, has apparently convinced (far too) many voters that "he is their guy" and that "he has their backs".
I can't remember good government in this province for decades. But to pretend that Ford is the first or only politicians to buy your votes with your own money is fatuous.
Like Cheshire Cats, members of the conservative base smile appreciatively and knowingly at Ford's electoral shenanigans.
The federal government aggressively pursues expensive resolutions to pandemics and social imbalances. Ford then takes his share of the federal largesse and drains the treasury by paying for votes willy-nilly.
My spouse and I are not the least bit needy but we just received four licence-refund cheques for vehicles that we owned over the last two years. What a disgusting waste of resources. It makes me nauseous.
Martin instead of complaining about receiving a refund because you aren't the least bit needy, tell us how you were able to help the food bank or Ukrainian refugees or the cancer fun with the money that was returned to you.
My kids have already told me that won't be happening...mostly because of the state of the world we're leaving them.
I don't know why it's different. Doug is literally throwing our own money at us when the books are so bad that it feels offensive. Does he think we're so stupid that we can't see how blatant it is? Most politicians bribe through new programs or some form of goodie. This is literal fiscal insanity, at a time when people are finally paying attention. Just one more colossal Ford failure.
What a particularly jejeune comment from you, dan mcco! Aside from ‘cancer fun’, we DO support your suggested causes and many more. But that’s not the point. Needy people don’t have cars and therefore get zilch from this bizarre election-driven refund binge.
He could save another 100k or so by not paying the transport minister’s salary who signed over her authority to unelected Metrolinx apparatchiks. Better yet, he could sell the movie rights to his “BLD”housing plan to Disney and they could turn it into a blockbuster fairytale. Has there ever been a more self serving document written in Canada?
Ford's conservatives are ahead in the polls, which would indicate Ontarians like something about them. Ford didn't do to badly and on par with most of the other premiers when it came to covid. Especially in relation to the failure of the federal government to do anything right. Disliking him is not a good bases for an election evaluation.
Ford was utterly useless on COVID ignoring the advice of his experts for several weeks as each wave approached making bad situations far worse than they needed to be.
The federal government's response during the first months of 2020 was lamentable, as was its previous decision, in late 2018, to basically administer the coup de grace to what at one time was a world-leading public health information network.
However, we cannot ignore the fact that the feds did eventually secure access to more than one hundred million doses of mRNA and other vaccines.
Mr Ford's response was mostly on-par, as you suggest. That doesn't mean that his government got everything right. That much seems clear from the current surge of infections.
You said..."basically, administer the coup de grace to what at one time was a world-leading public health information network." I'm not sure what you are talking about. Please, more info.
Sorry about that; I was referring to what was called the Global Public Health Information Network (GPHIN), which was established pre-SARS (mid-1990s) to take advantage of big data analysis of information flows on the Internet.
More specifically, the system was meant to provide analysis of search words, trends in online posts and other so-called open source intelligence, including hospital bulletins and news media reports, all to achieve early detection of emerging health threats. The beauty in the concept was its capability to get around the all-too-frequent reflex on the part of state officials world-wide to hide "uncomplimentary" information, such as [reports of] serious disease outbreaks.
The system was praised by the WHO and public health experts in many countries as a model worthy of emulation.
Unfortunately, senior bureaucrats at Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada reportedly "grew weary" of funding GPHIN, which they deemed to be "too international" in its focus. (This is a longstanding problem in parochial Canada, where too many people, especially in Ottawa, have trouble seeing past the back fence).
They also imposed a requirement in late 2018 that required analysts to first seek approval before issuing global alerts (again, typical of official Ottawa, where senior bureaucrats differ little from their counterparts in other states, whether democratic or autocratic, in that they LOVE to indulge in "message control").
Just in time to make sure we were completely in the dark about the early indicators of Covid-19 outbreak in China.
The Globe and Mail published reports about this in 2020, drawing in part on official internal reviews. One particularly important point made in that line of reporting suggested that "the government" (in other words, senior public servants) failed to understand "the significance of pandemic surveillance, and its role in national security."
In my view, the demise of GPHIN was actually a "whole-of-Canadian-society" failure (though obviously the senior public servants--who are hardly ever held to account for their screw-ups--were the main culprits).
Thank you AC. Bits are familiar but overall I don't think I had a clue. Like the song, "you don't know what you've got til it's gone". I'll read the link, tomorrow.
Is this just laziness on the part of the Line Editors?
Andrew I can't believe you use as a reference the "social justice reporter for the Star" who just took quotes from other SJ advocates. Is the government lying about the extra $2.9 Billion is says it secured?
Why do you complain about the $1 Billion returned to Ontarian but you don't worry about the cost of daycare or the $2.9 B the government claims to have negotiated from the Federal coffers?
Why is it Ford's fault that Toronto's council voted themselves more money and more staff?
If you get more from your rebate than you pay in carbon taxes, you must walk to work and grown your own food in the backyard.
Did the cancellation of renewable energy contracts (which were outrageous when they were signed which you ignore) result in net savings?
CEO's stock options were granted when he was hired.
Andrew it says you "crafted strategic communications materials and advice for local candidates and central campaigns, during elections for all three orders of government." I guess we can guess for which parties.
Living in Ontario, I'd say the to weaknesses of the Ford government have been competency and being a little too nakedly eager to please their donor base.
Of those two, the competency one is potentially a real problem. There's been so many episodes (some outlined in the article above) where they picked a thing that wasn't really a big priority, spent a bunch of resources on it and failed. Plus there are smaller but memorable things like the license plates they redesigned that couldn't be seen clearly at night and the anti-carbon tax stickers they mandated for gas pumps that woundn't stay stuck (and Ford owns a label company!). Time after time, they seem to screw things up in almost comedic fashion which doesn't paint a picture of capable leadership.
Throughout COVID, they tended to take a stance that was clearly not a great idea, only to reverse course once they realized that we were headed for disaster and/or that public opinion was strongly against it. That seemed to be true for everywhere except the Atlantic provinces, but it didn't leave a sense of capable leadership.
They also tended to come up with COVID restrictions that were friendly to companies big enough to have lobby firms and not as friendly to mom-and-pops. It was weird that you could almost always go shopping inside Costco, for example, but not a local store (curbside only). That's also true of the proposed new highway, which doesn't seem to make any sense from a planning point of view but may make some land that developer donors own a whole lot more valuable. It leaves this sense that Ford likes to 'do deals' with people who have access to him, leaving everyone else to their own devices.
In some lower profile areas (data governance, for example) there's been some signs of good work happening in the Ford government, but none of that stuff wins or loses elections.
Despite all of that, Ford has developed into a genuinely talented retail politician. He has the little guy persona down pat (despite inheriting a business and being reasonably wealthy). I don't think the government deserves to be reelected, based on their performance, but I aslo wouldn't count them out.
I've often thought, when watching Doug (and the late Rob), that what he is, mostly, is an adolescent. There are people for whom that stage of life was the most satisfying and they tend to not move on, in a real sense. They might look like a grown-up but their behaviour is `Happy Days'. It's unfortunate he's Premier but he owes that to his buddies and you can't let the guys down. His silly`gifts' ie beer for a buck, stickers, etc seem to be the result of BBQ talk, and, so, resonate with enough voters like himself. I expect this is the key to his success but it's a little insulting.
Doug has been a tire fire during the Gong Show for 4 years. There is literally no issue where he hasn't either been on the wrong side or dithered so long before acting that he made a bad situation worse(COVID being his prime failure). He has made Dalton look competent which seemed unimaginable when Ontario kicked Kathleen out; let's not pretend Doug was elected; Kathleen was turfed in accordance with Canadian political tradition.
That he is currently leading in the polls is simply beyond my comprehension. The last 4 years have made me wonder if Darwin was wrong and we've peaked and are now on a black diamond downslide.
I live in an electorate in which a blue-painted post would be elected.
We currently have a "New Blue" MPP. We're theoretically a toss-up currently, and Belinda will be tossed. She was little more than a screen door on a submarine...even before she was tossed from Doug's caucus. The only thing I'm certain of is that whomever we elect, they will have no plan for the future.
It is lamentable that the PCs are ahead. Nonetheless, I think it's partly a function of Ontarians' reluctance to support the NDP (it is unfair to keep on harping about "Rae Days", I know, but that may be part of it), as well as their less-than-enthusiastic embrace of Stephen Del Duca.
The vote split amongst the "anybody but Ford" crowd is a factor, as well.
Bob Rae spends his way through a recession; villain. Stephen Harper does the identical thing; genius. I will be voting strategically. None are good; Doug's an idiot.
It is interesting you mention "Rae Days". I haven't heard that in awhile though one still hears about how Harris ruined this and that.
Harris had a great term and remains the only politician in my lifetime who did what he said he would do. He cut fat. Sadly, in his next term, he cut meat, bone, tissue and organs; something our healthcare system still hasn't recovered from.
Can't get the heart to go red so `replying' instead. The guy was vicious.
Like Homer Simpson, Doug Ford can't get his brain much past the buck-a-beer for Ontario campaign.
Correct on every count. The courageous call out of the blatantly self-serving license plate refund was particularly apropos, as was the necessary review of the Ford government's so-so record with regard to managing the Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite all that, Mr Ford's "aw shucks" rhetoric, coupled with his carefully cultivated "man of the people" image, has apparently convinced (far too) many voters that "he is their guy" and that "he has their backs".
We get the governments we deserve, it seems.
If we had ranked ballots we might get the government we deserve. FPTP is a horse race. The most deserving horse doesn't always win.
I'm all for finding a better way.
I can't remember good government in this province for decades. But to pretend that Ford is the first or only politicians to buy your votes with your own money is fatuous.
The vacuum of leadership in Canadian politics at all levels is massive
Like Cheshire Cats, members of the conservative base smile appreciatively and knowingly at Ford's electoral shenanigans.
The federal government aggressively pursues expensive resolutions to pandemics and social imbalances. Ford then takes his share of the federal largesse and drains the treasury by paying for votes willy-nilly.
My spouse and I are not the least bit needy but we just received four licence-refund cheques for vehicles that we owned over the last two years. What a disgusting waste of resources. It makes me nauseous.
Martin instead of complaining about receiving a refund because you aren't the least bit needy, tell us how you were able to help the food bank or Ukrainian refugees or the cancer fun with the money that was returned to you.
Maybe I should just donate it back to the province that is $350 billion in debt....
You can't because it's your grandchildren obligation to pay it back. Let the recessions begin!
My kids have already told me that won't be happening...mostly because of the state of the world we're leaving them.
I don't know why it's different. Doug is literally throwing our own money at us when the books are so bad that it feels offensive. Does he think we're so stupid that we can't see how blatant it is? Most politicians bribe through new programs or some form of goodie. This is literal fiscal insanity, at a time when people are finally paying attention. Just one more colossal Ford failure.
I simply do not understand the appeal of a Ford in any branch of gov.
And I see there's another one - a nephew who changed his name to `Ford'. His first Fordian political move.
I think it's Brand Recognition.
What a particularly jejeune comment from you, dan mcco! Aside from ‘cancer fun’, we DO support your suggested causes and many more. But that’s not the point. Needy people don’t have cars and therefore get zilch from this bizarre election-driven refund binge.
Maybe needy people who live with access to decent transit don't have cars.
He could save another 100k or so by not paying the transport minister’s salary who signed over her authority to unelected Metrolinx apparatchiks. Better yet, he could sell the movie rights to his “BLD”housing plan to Disney and they could turn it into a blockbuster fairytale. Has there ever been a more self serving document written in Canada?
Ford's conservatives are ahead in the polls, which would indicate Ontarians like something about them. Ford didn't do to badly and on par with most of the other premiers when it came to covid. Especially in relation to the failure of the federal government to do anything right. Disliking him is not a good bases for an election evaluation.
Ford was utterly useless on COVID ignoring the advice of his experts for several weeks as each wave approached making bad situations far worse than they needed to be.
The federal government's response during the first months of 2020 was lamentable, as was its previous decision, in late 2018, to basically administer the coup de grace to what at one time was a world-leading public health information network.
However, we cannot ignore the fact that the feds did eventually secure access to more than one hundred million doses of mRNA and other vaccines.
Mr Ford's response was mostly on-par, as you suggest. That doesn't mean that his government got everything right. That much seems clear from the current surge of infections.
You said..."basically, administer the coup de grace to what at one time was a world-leading public health information network." I'm not sure what you are talking about. Please, more info.
Sorry about that; I was referring to what was called the Global Public Health Information Network (GPHIN), which was established pre-SARS (mid-1990s) to take advantage of big data analysis of information flows on the Internet.
More specifically, the system was meant to provide analysis of search words, trends in online posts and other so-called open source intelligence, including hospital bulletins and news media reports, all to achieve early detection of emerging health threats. The beauty in the concept was its capability to get around the all-too-frequent reflex on the part of state officials world-wide to hide "uncomplimentary" information, such as [reports of] serious disease outbreaks.
The system was praised by the WHO and public health experts in many countries as a model worthy of emulation.
Unfortunately, senior bureaucrats at Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada reportedly "grew weary" of funding GPHIN, which they deemed to be "too international" in its focus. (This is a longstanding problem in parochial Canada, where too many people, especially in Ottawa, have trouble seeing past the back fence).
They also imposed a requirement in late 2018 that required analysts to first seek approval before issuing global alerts (again, typical of official Ottawa, where senior bureaucrats differ little from their counterparts in other states, whether democratic or autocratic, in that they LOVE to indulge in "message control").
Just in time to make sure we were completely in the dark about the early indicators of Covid-19 outbreak in China.
The Globe and Mail published reports about this in 2020, drawing in part on official internal reviews. One particularly important point made in that line of reporting suggested that "the government" (in other words, senior public servants) failed to understand "the significance of pandemic surveillance, and its role in national security."
In my view, the demise of GPHIN was actually a "whole-of-Canadian-society" failure (though obviously the senior public servants--who are hardly ever held to account for their screw-ups--were the main culprits).
C.f.: Grant Robertson, The Explainer, What happened with Canada’s pandemic alert system? The GPHIN controversy explained, The Globe and Mail, Published 5 October 2020, Updated 14 September 2021, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-what-happened-with-canadas-pandemic-alert-system-the-gphin/
Thank you AC. Bits are familiar but overall I don't think I had a clue. Like the song, "you don't know what you've got til it's gone". I'll read the link, tomorrow.
Is this just laziness on the part of the Line Editors?
Andrew I can't believe you use as a reference the "social justice reporter for the Star" who just took quotes from other SJ advocates. Is the government lying about the extra $2.9 Billion is says it secured?
Why do you complain about the $1 Billion returned to Ontarian but you don't worry about the cost of daycare or the $2.9 B the government claims to have negotiated from the Federal coffers?
Why is it Ford's fault that Toronto's council voted themselves more money and more staff?
If you get more from your rebate than you pay in carbon taxes, you must walk to work and grown your own food in the backyard.
Did the cancellation of renewable energy contracts (which were outrageous when they were signed which you ignore) result in net savings?
CEO's stock options were granted when he was hired.
Andrew it says you "crafted strategic communications materials and advice for local candidates and central campaigns, during elections for all three orders of government." I guess we can guess for which parties.
BUT... who's the alternative? I won't vote NDP. I lived thru Bob Rae. The liberals were far, far worse.
Were in a Boss Hog situation. Doug may be bad, but he's the best of the worst.
Now I know what a bug looking at a windshield feels like.