This month prime ministerial hopeful Mark Carney appeared on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, where for a few minutes it looked like the spirit of the Liberal party might rise from the dead.
After all, this was a man we were told was boring and irrelevant (a Trudeau facsimile in sensible socks, according to Pierre Poilievre). And yet there he was, up way past his bedtime, making cheeky jokes and landing them on late night TV.
In the Toronto Star’s estimation, Carney revealed “a side of himself” to Jon Stewart “he hasn’t shown to Canadians.”
The problem is that it doesn’t matter what side of himself Carney shows to Canadians if they can’t recognize him. According to recent polling by Abacus Data, 76 per cent of us can’t name the man when shown a picture of his face. It is hard to believe this number will change dramatically in several weeks; and certainly not in response to his less than stirring campaign announcement.
Meanwhile, as president-elect Donald Trump threatens a trade-war and the possible annexation of our nation, Canadians are doing what we always do in times of domestic and global crisis: tuning in en masse to the sage wisdom of American cable TV.
All of which is to say that if the Liberals are looking for their saviour on U.S. television they should change the channel from Comedy Central to Fox News where an Ontario man is doing his darndest to defend our sovereignty.
Whether one likes it not — and it seems many do like it — in recent weeks a blue-baseball cap wearing Ontario premier Doug Ford has become the most-high profile, prolific defender of Canada’s independence, more recognizable in this role to the average Canadian voter than the prime minister himself. Perhaps someday that’s what he’ll be.
Yes, I’m going to say it, and I hope you’ll stay with me:
Ontario Premier Doug Ford should enter the race to be the next leader of the federal Liberal party.
It’s so crazy it makes perfect sense.
Doug Ford is good at everything the Liberals are not: making inroads with and uniting working-class people of disparate backgrounds; backslapping with enough macho bluster to tango with Trump; projecting a populism far more seasoned and battle tested than Pierre Poilievre’s; and possessing an actual public profile. It’s worth noting that a YouTube video of Premier Ford baking cherry cheesecake during the pandemic has more than three times as many views as Chrystia Freeland has Instagram followers.
But perhaps most importantly, Premier Ford is also good at things the Liberals are good at. For example, he is very good at spending money.
Indeed, under his leadership, Ontario has seen some of the highest government spending years in history. Apparently, this hasn’t gone unnoticed by the federal Liberals who late last year introduced a perk suspiciously similar to Ford’s $200 cheque handout scheme.
In a November piece mocking the Trudeau government’s own cheque giveaway scheme, writer Scott Stinson called the policy “Fordian.”
In other words, he’s already done the time. He may as well do the crime.
It’s not as though crossing over to the Liberal party would permanently tank his favourability ratings, when it seems that nothing can.
Whether they want to be or not, people are endeared to him.
Recently I was watching local news with a friend of mine — a card carrying Liberal party member. Premier Ford had just been in a car accident, when he emerged on TV unscathed. “I’m ok,” he said, tapping his forehead. “This head’s like limestone. Hard as a rock.”
My friend turned to me, defeated. “I can’t help it,” she said. “I like him.”
In the end, public embrace of Ford’s U.S. cable circuit doesn’t merely point to an appreciation of his unpolished folksy style, which his political rivals mock endlessly even though it is arguably the core reason that he is in power, and they are not.
No, people are having warm and fuzzy feelings about Premier Ford because he is the real-world embodiment of the notion that the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
As the wannabe autocrat south of the border quips about absorbing us, our majority party in Ottawa is consumed with an internal leadership contest that will yield no winners. Meanwhile, the public can’t see whatever backroom machinations are in play by senior Liberals to save us from Trump’s worst instincts. What the public can see is what’s in front of them.
You may dislike Ford’s politics, but in a moment of surreal, destabilizing uncertainty, there he is. The only guy wearing Canada’s rebuttal on his head: we are not for sale.
Some races are won by a hair. This one could be won by a hat.
Emma Teitel is a Senior Consultant at Navigator Limited. She was previously a member of the Toronto Star’s editorial board and a Star opinion columnist with a focus on city issues.