Is Doug Ford Trying to Destroy his Popularity?

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is currently the second most popular premier in Canada, and it’s not a low bar seeing as the current most popular premier John Horgan felt he had so much public support he declared an election, which he said he would not, and won a massive majority government out of it. 

Ford on the other hand already has a majority government, but his actions seem to indicate he wants out of it. 

Since COVID-19 has been a threat ramping down quite significantly Ford seems to not have taken notice and continues to push hard for more lockdowns, more unchecked power, and more party loyalty.

This whole saga of Ford seemingly trying to ruin his own base of support started with him pushing for the passage of Bill 195 which would allow the Ford government to extend emergency orders for a month at a time for up to two years. 

Allowing the Ontario government to have unchecked power to push lockdowns further and further out was opposed by many Ontarians including former PC MPP Belinda Karahalios who was removed from the PC caucus for voting against the bill, again in spite of a Ford promise to always allow free votes on everything but the budget. 

Belinda Karahalios and her husband Jim Karahalios have now started a conservative alternative political party called the New Blue Party of Ontario, which can further damage Ford’s popularity in the long run.

After all that now in spite of all advice from Ontario doctors, the WHO, his own MPPs, and infectious disease experts from the Great Barrington Declaration, Ford has once again begun using his Bill 195 powers to implement tough lockdowns in major cities all around Ontario.

Ontario’s real GDP fell by 2% in the first quarter of 2020 and 12.3% in the second, many businesses are barely keeping open hoping for the economy to be allowed to go back to normal any time soon. Instead of helping those business owners, Ford instead wants to play into the media’s narrative that we would be in grave danger without mass lockdowns and mandatory mask wearing in spite of a flat death rate while cases spike.

Now Ford is even announcing that on November 5 the government will be tabling a new budget with a $38.5 billion deficit to deal with the economic impacts of COVID-19. So not only are businesses not allowed to open and instead probably will have to take welfare from the government to avoid bankruptcy, but Ford seems to have completely dropped his commitment to economic conservatism using the pandemic as an excuse to sink into the old Wynne Liberals spending habits. 

Although Ford is currently still the second most popular premier that should be expected to drop fast over the next several months as he moves too leftward and pro-lockdown for Conservative voters and not left enough for most Liberal and NDP voters.