Doug Ford has big goals but cares about small stuff. It’s how he wins, colleagues say

Doug Ford is a man of things. Things he can see, things he can touch and most importantly, things he can build.

Big things matter to Ford. The Progressive Conservative leader is a self-proclaimed visionary who makes decisions with his gut. When he has swung and missed, like he did with opening up protected Greenbelt land that sparked public furor, he has apologized and walked it back.

Little things are important to him too. He will famously find out about a small problem and try to fix it.

Ford has bet big on building things. Early in the election campaign, he pledged an additional $22 billion in spending for infrastructure projects in the face of American tariffs. But that promise wasn’t contingent upon U.S. President Donald Trump imposing tariffs on Canadian goods.

It would bring his grand plan to build more highways, roads, jails, hospitals and a few vanity projects, including a redeveloped Ontario Place, to more than $200 billion.

That total does not include the controversial promise to build a massive traffic and transit tunnel under Highway 401.

Ford has ordered a feasibility study on the tunnel, but committed to building it regardless. He made the tunnel a priority in his party’s platform, but has not released how much it would cost. Experts have said it would be in the order of tens of millions of dollars, if not more.

The proposed tunnel is telling of Ford’s approach to getting a big thing done.

In late September, Ford held a press conference on a patch of grass with a jammed-up Highway 401 as the backdrop. The news caught much of Ford’s cabinet off guard, three ministers told The Canadian Press.

They were granted anonymity in order to speak freely about their boss without fear of repercussion.

“A heads-up would have been nice, so we could stress test it a bit internally,” one of them said about the tunnel announcement. “It hasn’t been an easy sell in regions outside the GTA.”

The province’s engineers — the literal builders of the thing — were also surprised by the news and sought more information from The Canadian Press that day.

The idea for the tunnel as a new initiative came together quickly, the ministers said, after it had been kicking around for a few years without much traction but then captured Ford’s imagination.

Ford is selling it as another way to tackle gridlock, which he says costs the province’s people and businesses $56 billion annually – $45 billion of that within the Greater Toronto Area.

Despite those gripes, the ministers said life is generally good under Ford’s leadership and they expect a big victory on election night. All three credit Ford’s success to his ability to connect with the average Joe and win over much of the massive construction industry.

Most of the polls have Ford well ahead of his rivals as he looks to cruise to a third straight majority government in Thursday’s snap election. He declined to be interviewed, and his campaign team also declined to offer anyone up for comment.

Ford’s lasting popularity is due to how he connects with people, said Laryssa Waler, who was the premier’s director of communications in the early days of his tenure.

“Nobody has more emotional intelligence than Doug Ford,” she said.

“It doesn’t matter if the problem is big or small, he will make you feel like you matter to him because you literally do matter to him.”

There is no problem too small for Ford. He freely gives his cell phone number out – even on live television – and spends a lot of his time, especially at night and on weekends, returning texts and calls.

Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati told a news conference earlier this month that Ford called him around Christmas with a plea for help.

“There’s a guy in Niagara Falls, he lives in a townhouse, he’s got a problem with rats,” Diodati recalled Ford telling him.

“I said, OK. He goes, ‘You think you can help out with it? Some issues going on there.’ I said, ‘Well, yeah, of course.’”

Ford then texted Diodati the man’s address.

“I said, ‘Can I ask how this came to you and why you’re dealing with it?’” Diodati said.

“He goes: ‘The guy texted me, so I phoned him. He filled me in and I’m filling you in.’”

It shows Ford is a man of action, Diodati said.

Early in the campaign, Ford apologized for being tardy on texts.

“I think the last time I checked I’m up to 2,643 messages on my phone, and I apologize, I can’t get back to everyone,” he said.

Waler believes the small stuff is Ford’s biggest strength. But caring as much as he does about the little things is also a weakness, she said.

“You can’t always help everybody and you have to make hard decisions and that’s personally very taxing on him,” Waler said.

Ford also doesn’t like to fire anyone, even in the fallout of the Greenbelt scandal. That attempt to open up the protected Greenbelt land to build 50,000 homes was met with a furious public and two legislative watchdogs who concluded the land selection process favoured certain developers over others.

The RCMP also has an ongoing criminal investigation into the Greenbelt dealings, though Ford has said he has not been interviewed and has nothing to hide. He stood by then-housing minister Steve Clark and his chief of staff, Ryan Amato. Both eventually resigned in the fallout of the scandal.

Last June, Ford welcomed Clark back to his inner circle as government house leader, and in the fall, made him his parliamentary assistant.

“He hates to hurt people,” Waler said.

Ford is not a typical conservative; he flies right up the centre, Waler said, and “governs in a way that he thinks is practical.” He has spent more than any previous premier, she said, but will not raise taxes. He believes a robust economy will pay for Ontario’s needs.

And with chaos in Ottawa amid Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s resignation and the race for a new federal Liberal leader, Ford stepped in as leader of “Team Canada,” visiting Washington, D.C., during the campaign and taking to U.S. airwaves to speak out against Trump’s tariff threats.

Unlike most politicians, Ford has no fear of backtracking, said Monte McNaughton, the province’s former labour minister.

Ford promised publicly to never touch the Greenbelt, then was caught on video behind closed doors in the early days of his premiership promising developers he would, in fact, open it up.

In a leaders’ debate last week, Ford summed up the Greenbelt situation thusly: “I think I was pretty clear. I said I was, and then I wasn’t, and then I went ahead and did it. But in saying that, I apologized to the people.”

Critics and opposition leaders say the Greenbelt scandal is typical Ford: rewarding insiders and only reversing course after getting caught.

Yet the apology and reversal strategy has worked, McNaughton said.

“When people look at Doug Ford, they see themselves in him in a lot of ways and making mistakes from time to time is one of them, and we all do it,” McNaughton said.

In 2019, McNaughton and Ford devised a plan to woo the working class in an effort to create a “conservative blue-collar coalition.”

Ford has trumpeted the construction and skilled trades and poured billions toward them through training programs. That effort is paying off with the conservatives turning several union-backed NDP strongholds blue in 2022, a trend McNaughton believes will hold this week.

Nearly every day of the campaign, various construction and trade unions have endorsed Ford. He says he wants to help them build things.

Ford, 60, was born and raised in “the great state of Etobicoke,” as he likes to say, referring to the west Toronto borough that became part of the city in the late 1990s.

He often welcomes politicians and dignitaries to the solarium in his home, which used to belong to his parents. He does not drink alcohol, but has a soft spot for chocolate milk, green tea and Diet Coke. He buys his suits at Moores and gets his hair cut at Walmart.

In the chamber at Queen’s Park, Ford sits directly across from New Democrat Sol Mamakwa, the legislature’s only member from a First Nation. The pair have a good relationship — Ford has tried to get Mamakwa to cross the aisle “about five or six times,” Mamakwa said.

About a year ago, Mamakwa had been pushing then long-term care minister Stan Cho for a new nursing home in Sioux Lookout. One day, Ford sidled up to Mamakwa, leaned over and whispered in his ear.

“You know how we’re going to pay for that long-term care facility?” Mamakwa remembered Ford asking. “We’re going to need to open those mines up north.”

More big things to build.

The NDP MPP said he forgot about that interaction until he was touring a health centre in Sioux Lookout and one of the staffers suggested Mamakwa become a conservative to get more accomplished for First Nation people.

So he told her that story.

“Does that mean we have to give up our land?” the staffer asked.

Mamakwa didn’t answer.

Ford has long envisioned an end-to-end manufacturing chain for electric vehicles within Ontario, from mining the minerals needed for batteries in the north to refining them in places like Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury, to battery assembly in southern Ontario.

Ford was up north last weekend pitching his vision, which includes declaring the mineral-rich Ring of Fire an area of “strategic importance for Ontario’s economy and security.” He is pushing the federal government to drop or significantly reduce the red tape surrounding mining project approvals.

The Ford government has signed deals with several First Nations in the area, which are leading environmental assessments for three planned roads connecting the mine to the provincial highway system.

But he has not yet persuaded all First Nations to get on board.

“It’s not his land to give away,” Mamakwa said.

And with Trump threatening to annex Canada to make it the 51st state, Mamakwa has a message for Ford.

“Somebody is trying to colonize you from the other side,” he said. “Well, welcome to the club.”