By: Surjit Singh Flora
Doug Ford is absolutely brilliant! He removed tolls on two 400 series highways unfairly built by liberals, and he will build highway 413. He will also make many improvements to transit! He is absolutely awesome in helping the province. very high I wouldn’t vote against him.
Del Duca’s reputation has been tarnished by the terrible tenure of Kathleen Wynne. As for Andrea, Bob Ray isn’t that far out of our memory to change that history. Doug hasn’t been perfect, but he has handled COVID better than almost any other politician of note.
The epidemic has made his work more difficult than he expected.
In view of how decrepit the previous Liberal government had become with the same old, tired faces and how unpopular Kathleen Wynne was as Premier, it was anticipated that he would coast through his first term with ease.
The fact that Andrea Horwath is the leader of the New Democratic Party makes it impossible for her party to win the election and for her to become premier, despite the fact that I believe she is a more experienced politician.
In March came the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, a shocking and unexpected catastrophe that affected the lives of every Ontarian and that had the possibility—in the worst-case scenarios—of leaving a hundred thousand dead.
I was worried that Ford would mess up this crisis badly, so I was glad that he didn’t. On the one hand, Ford was able to plan and execute a wide range of programs; on the other hand, he was able to work with other levels of government in Canada (including Justin Trudeau’s Liberals, a pre-COVID-19 sparring partner) to achieve his goals. After all, it all translated to that Premier Ford has done a great job of speaking up for the interests of Ontarians.
This was not inevitable. Canada is a distinct nation from the United States, with different political processes, yet the United States is undeniably influential. Consider the neighbouring state of Michigan, which has a COVID-19 epidemic that is already worse than Ontario’s and where extraordinary stay-at-home orders may have been the only thing keeping Michigan’s disaster from reaching New York State’s. In one state, the actions that Ford led sparked major riots, with highly armed individuals storming the state government buildings. Ford was influenced by American populism, but he chose to fight against the worst parts of that populism so that they wouldn’t spread to Britain in a time of crisis.
Ford has proven himself to be a competent leader capable of responding effectively to real threats, notwithstanding the policy and other differences I have with him. A look to the south of the United States reveals that we cannot take anything like this for granted. But after all, he did save taxpayers money and reduce the size of the Toronto council to make things better. Polls show that 56% of Toronto citizens support right-sizing city council.
Also, those people complaining about his cuts, actually, Ford is paying for his tax cuts by cutting education and healthcare. You can’t cut taxes without cutting services, and you cannot increase services without increasing taxes unless, in both cases, you increase debt and deficit. A lot of voters don’t seem to understand this concept.
All this considered, it is not surprising that Doug Ford’s popularity has risen sharply in the past few months. He, like other Canadian premiers, has demonstrated his ability to deal with a very serious threat that appeared out of nowhere in an effective and scientifically sound manner. It is open to question whether this bump in popularity will last indefinitely, but I would not be surprised if popular memories of the last few months might carry him to a second term as premier with full power, even much better than the last one.
