Ontarians need a leader who isn’t easily flummoxed, who knows government money belongs to taxpayers
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Rather surprisingly, it appears that people actually watched the Ontario election leaders debate on Monday evening. It was curious to see that the CPAC YouTube video alone had 23,000 views, to say nothing of the other simulcasts of the four party leaders squaring off.
Maybe it was the fact that much of the province was snowed in on Family Day, leaving voters stuck at home instead of at family dinners. Or maybe, with just over a week until this campaign is over, people decided to tune in to see what this debate was all about.
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What they saw was in some respects no different than the political debates people have become accustomed to watching where candidates talk over each other, argue about seemingly negligible details and fail to distinguish themselves from any one else at the podium.
This mostly applied though to the opposition leaders — NDP Leader Marit Stiles, Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie and Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner. The three of them had a frantic manner about them as they yelled over each other to land attacks against incumbent Premier and Ontario PC Leader Doug Ford.
It was Ford who was the stand-out figure on the broadcast, as he remained cool as a cucumber throughout the 90 minute event. Ford was sharp with quick responses and answered every question sent his way. When he was challenged on flip-flopping on expanding areas of the greenbelt available for development, he simply agreed that he’d done that and said he was apologetic about it.
On the other issues that the opposition attempted to hammer him on — such as the redevelopment of Ontario Place and the expansion of highways, including tunnels — Ford stood firm on his positions.
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The other leaders never managed to flummox him. Yet the experience clearly flummoxed and frustrated them.
Crombie, who the Liberals had placed great expectations on at the outset of the campaign, was surprisingly the worst performer of the group. She came across as petty by regularly shouting “Doug, Doug, Doug” and calling things she opposed “dumb.” When she said, “I don’t want my grandchildren living in Doug Ford’s Ontario,” it rang as over-the-top and hollow.
What voters saw was exactly what the Ontario PCs clearly wanted to portray: A stable leader in Doug Ford in comparison to less polished and experienced leaders who just aren’t worth risking a vote on during these times of turbulence.
This is quite remarkable given how it wasn’t too long ago that, when he was a Toronto city councilor and even early during his time as leader, Ford was viewed as a more rough and tumble figure who was something of a bull in the china shop. He’s now the steady hand on the tiller of what has become Ontario’s natural governing party.
Ford has largely done this through focusing on economic issues above all else. And it was the economy that formed the crux of the two main talking points Ford successfully drove home during the debate.
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The first was that Ontario can’t have stable healthcare, education and other services if it doesn’t have a vibrant economy. After making this point, Ford then said the other leaders just weren’t the ones to be trusted with the economy. It’s here where the voters surely nodded along with him.
When Stiles and Crombie pointed out that health care in Ontario is in shambles, they were entirely right and, for a few moments, the viewers would have been on their side. But then Ford would calmly respond by acknowledging the problem and saying that’s why he needs to keep focused on economic growth, to fund health-care improvements.
The other key differentiating point Ford made multiple times was the philosophical difference to taxation. When the other leaders would go on about spending, Ford would point out that they believe the money is theirs whereas he believes it’s the peoples’ money, to be taken at a minimum and, on some occasions, returned to the taxpayers.
Earlier on during the campaign, I wrote a column arguing that as long the Trump tariffs were taking up all of the oxygen in the room, the ball was fully in Ford’s court when it came to dominating election chatter. But once that issue cooled off a bit, as it’s now done, there would be opportunity for the other leaders to gain traction on more traditional political issues.
The leaders debate has proven though that even when matters like health care are front and centre, Ford is still very much in command.
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