Doug Ford was reportedly “sulking” because he didn’t grab the 90 to 100 seats he was hoping from the Ontario election. It’s telling that the premier whose victory was unquestionable would be ticked because he didn’t get absolute electoral supremacy.
He’s a rich man whose house is never quite big enough.
Blame it on Trump. Maybe if Ford had just kept his mic off and hadn’t reiterated how happy he was after Trump won the U.S. election, he might have maintained his likeable average-guy routine.
But that mic slip-up says a lot about his ideological bent: admiring dictatorial leaders, breaking down government, chipping away at public services that have taken generations to create, leaving the sick untended, houses unbuilt and homeless people on the street.
The cost of cuts
Ford pledged $18 billion in spending just to shore things up for businesses and workers if they’re hurt by U.S. tariffs. He promises to cut business taxes and make it easier for developers to get projects started. He says the province will pay the company that owns Highway 407 to cut tolls.
Speaking of highways, Ontario has two more on the way, and maybe even a tunnel under the 401 (let’s hope that’s a joke). Ford has promised to put $50 billion toward new hospitals, and says he’ll keep criminals behind bars with new mandatory minimum sentences.
Where’s the money for all of this coming from, with a government projecting a net debt of $429 billion by the end of the fiscal year?
There is of course no mention of tax increases. Ford would lose his base.
So, what public goods and services will he be throwing into the smelter, liquidating for a bit of cash?
Ford’s latest cabinet shuffle moves his reliable but scrappy fixer, Paul Calandra, to the Ministry of Education. That does not bode well for school boards across the province looking at budget deficits for the 2025-26 school year. Since the Tories were first elected in 2018, per-pupil funding across the province has declined by $1,500, according to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
The Ford government also hasn’t come close to solving the crisis of hallway health care, and there are 48,000 seniors on the waiting list to get into long-term care homes.
Kneecapping the competition
Ford managed to make one last use of Bill 307, The Protecting Elections and Defend- ing Democracy Act. The Act limited third party election advertising to $600,000 during the year prior to a scheduled election. That put a collar on organizations like unions. Much of the Act was found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in March, after the election.
Meanwhile, the Tories have always thrived on individual donations. For instance, “opportunities” to chat with Tory MPPs often come with a price tag, with The Trillium reporting on events costing from $1,250 to more than $3,000 per person. The PCs raised around double the total raised by the Liberals and NDP combined this election cycle.
Friends in high places
Ford’s PCs seem to work under a buddy-system of government patronage.
The party’s first vice-president, StrategyCorp boss Chris Loreto, personally lobbied to allow the Arch Corporation to explore the long-term care market in Ontario. Kory Teneycke, Ford’s campaign director for the past three elections and co-founder of lobby group Rubicon Strategy, helped KWG Resources link up with the premier as it explored chromite deposits in his much-touted Ring of Fire in northern Ontario.
Yes, Ford is eager to get to work extracting minerals from the Ring of Fire, despite serious questions about environmental assessments and Indigenous land rights.
The real eye-opener in the election though was the sinking of the NDP. They only lost four seats and that’s better than pollsters predicted, but they only got 18.6 per cent of the vote.
The Liberals got nearly 30 per cent. After seven years, Liberals are back to official party status in Ontario.
The NDP, Liberals and Greens combined got 53 per cent of the vote but only 41 percent of the seats. The basic problem of first-past-the-post elections is at work again.
As much as Ontarians are worried about tariffs, we need to be prepared to organize at both local and provincial levels against threats coming from within our borders, too.
This article appeared in the 2025 April/May issue.
