By Ray Rivers
January 28th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
OPINION
Why is Doug Ford forcing Ontario into an unnecessary early election? We can understand that he fears the release of the RCMP investigation into misconduct over the Greenbelt fiasco. Withdrawing publicly protected lands from the Greenbelt in order for developer friends to enrich themselves has got to be some kind of corruption by anyone’s definition.
Can you read the body language?
Ford is in the best position to know whether he actually committed a crime. But calling this unnecessary election is a pretty good sign that he is worried. One could imagine that campaigning for re-election next year would be harder in the unlikely event that some judge actually put him behind bars.
Not that he has to worry. Israel’s Bibi Netanyahu has managed to avoid jail time since 2019 when he was indicted for breach of trust, accepting bribes, and fraud. Bibi is still Israel’s prime minister and is likely to stay in that job so long as the extreme right wing of Israeli politics want him there and out of jail.
Donald Trump, was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records in one trial and sexual assault and defamation in another. He was also on the order paper for inciting an insurrection which caused massive injury and death. Then there is illegally keeping classified documents and probably a lot of other crimes that may never see the light of day. But his popularity, unbelievably, soared with every criminality. He was re-elected with almost half of America cheering him on.
Rob Ford: the public loved him
Even Doug Ford’s brother Mayor Rob, escaped accountability for continually giving his index finger to our basic laws – using his cell phone while driving; drunk and disorderly conduct; and partaking of a highly illegal substance. But the public loved him and had he not been struck down by a horrible disease he would almost assuredly have been reelected with an even higher vote count.
It seems that in today’s world committing crimes makes you a more worthy politician. Mr. Trudeau broke a few ethics rules in his near decade as PM, but had he only had the sense to commit a real crime he might still be the Liberal leader heading into the 2025 election.
So Mr. Ford has nothing to fear from the upcoming release of the RCMP report on potential corruption. It might make him even more electable. However, calling a premature election ahead of that report may well turn out to be a huge miscalculation on his part.
Like Ford, former Liberal premier David Peterson had been extremely popular. Then he read the tea leaves – GST and US trade deal would lead to recession – and hastily called a way too early election. The public doesn’t mind that you’re a crook – just don’t make them come out and vote before they have to.
Most likely Ford is just running away from his near seven year record of incompetence as premier. Forget what happened in the pandemic, but today over 2 million people in this province still don’t have a family doctor. And yet Ford wasted over a billion dollars just to get booze into corner stores in time for this election. Oh, and then there are the gratuitous $200 cheques he is sending out – paying us with our own money.
Ford won his 2018 election largely on the promise of eliminating government deficits and reducing the debt. Yet, according to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation only Ford is to blame for Ontario’s surging debt. After being elected he actually increased 2018 spending to $162.5 billion and exploded the deficit to $11.7 billion, double what the Wynne government had projected for that year. And the deficit for this year is scheduled to hit almost $10 billion.
Donald Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records in one trial and sexual assault and defamation in another. He was also on the order paper for inciting an insurrection which caused massive injury and death.
His environmental record echos that of Donald Trump: shuttering renewable energy projects at great cost; killing Ontario’s emissions reduction trading system; fighting national carbon pricing; tearing out vehicle charging stations and removing chargers from the building code. Ontario is now on the path to reversing all the gains made by the Wynne government in reducing provincial carbon emissions from electricity production.
Calling a provincial election in the midst of a national crisis instigated by Mr. Trump’s tariff talk is not just inconvenient, it is a major distraction for this country’s ability to countering the Americans. And this election also comes in the midst of a federal Liberal leadership campaign and a federal election.
Mr. Ford’s election call is clearly one of desperation. He is hiding behind the tariff crisis and the federal election as cover, hoping in the confusion that the public doesn’t get a chance to see just how bad his governing record has been. But he is fooling nobody by cloaking himself in the Canadian flag and grabbing the limelight as the de facto spokesperson for the country.
In the end the voters will see through this charade, as they stand in line on a cold February day to take out their displeasure by voting ABF (anyone but Ford). Ford’s pretending to stand up for Canada may sound sincere – but in the end he is just another populist – mostly concerned about himself and staying in power. And then there is the RCMP inquiry.
Ray Rivers, a Gazette Contributing Editor, writes regularly applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat to his thinking. Rivers was once a candidate for provincial office in Burlington. He was the founder of the Burlington citizen committee on sustainability at a time when climate warming was a hotly debated subject. Ray has a post graduate degree in economics that he earned at the University of Ottawa. Tweet @rayzrivers
Background links:
RCMP Investigates – Booze Deal – Ford’s Debt –
And what is the status of the RCMP criminal investigation into the Greenbelt sell off of protected, environmentally sensitive lands. The news outlets said on the weekend it was going to be released on Tuesday. Haven’t heard a word.
Great summation Ray! This provincial election is completely unnecessary, and an exercise in political opportunism, self-interest and expediency. Ford thinks he needs a mandate to negotiate directly with Donald Trump. Even high school students know that international relations is a federal government responsibility.
Donald Trump is doing exactly what he promised to do when running for election and the majority of Americans voted him into office.
In Ontario the Premier has called a “snap election ” to yes get a mandate for the additional years that he has to deal with the fallout of the tariffs that are supposedly coming our way.
“Calling a provincial election in the midst of a national crisis instigated by Mr. Trump’s tariff talk is not just inconvenient, it is a major distraction for this country’s ability to countering the Americans. And this election also comes in the midst of a federal Liberal leadership campaign and a federal election.”
You fail to mention that the reason for the” need of a federal Liberal leadership campaign and a federal election falls “at the feet of Justin Trudeau.
The only reason the need of a Liberal leadership campaign/ election is happening now is because Justin could not step away when he should have. His actions forced Chrystia Freeland to resign from the cabinet.
As a result this has plunged Canada into this mess at the same time Donald Trump was elected as President of the United States and his campaign promise of trade tariffs with Canada.
If only the provincial liberals and the NDP would follow Preston Manning’s example and merge ….