A good salesman can sell any product. It’s a real skill. The only problem is, after you’ve bought the pitch, you could be stuck with a lousy product.
That’s the challenge with the one-issue campaign that Ontario PC leader Doug Ford is running. He wants four years to defend Ontario from tariffs and economic attacks by U.S. President Donald Trump. At his campaign kick-off Wednesday, Ford made an emphatic case as to why he’s the best person for that job.
No question there, but Ford and his team would like the election to be solely about choosing a champion. What people should be asking is what Ford intends to do with the mandate he wants.
He has said explicitly that voting for him gives approval for spending tens of billions of dollars on tariff-related stuff. So far, he’s been pretty vague about how that money might be spent, but he has promised a plan. Ford gave a few details of it at a speech Thursday morning. For those who consider themselves rational fiscal conservatives, it was far from reassuring.
Ford’s focus was on protecting auto workers, whose sector could be hard hit by Trump’s tariffs. Ford vowed to spend the billions of dollars his government has promised to subsidize electric-vehicle production even if the U.S. guts the EV market by reducing incentives, as Trump has said he will.
So the plan is to support jobs at taxpayer expense, even if there is insufficient demand for the product the workers are producing? That’s just a bad idea. How many more will follow?
Ford has talked about a new economic plan. The underlying idea should be to make Ontario less dependent on the U.S. Start by eliminating all interprovincial tariffs with Ontario leading the way by cancelling its own. Ontario’s big bet on the auto industry and EV production needs to be rethought: the sector is too vulnerable to the decisions of foreign-owned car companies and the whims of the American government.
Voters should ask why the provincial government would shoulder the cost of trade-related damage when that big-dollar, broad-based support is the responsibility of the federal government. Viewed from the perspective of Ontarians, why not let all Canadians help offset Ontario’s potentially disproportionate pain and leave the debt for doing it on the federal, not the provincial, books?
That said, one has to admire the skill with which Ford is selling his one issue.
His campaign launch speech was a forceful enunciation of his promise to protect Ontario workers, families and businesses from the effects of Trump’s punitive tariffs. Ford spoke in Windsor, with the Ambassador Bridge in the background as a symbol of Canada-U.S. economic co-operation. Canadian and Ontario flags flapped in the breeze behind him. The placard on his lectern said Protect Ontario. In two words, that’s Ford’s plan.
He needs to sell it hard to get the big majority he says he needs to implement his tariff-protection plan, whatever it turns out to be.
In an ordinary election, a party leader’s challenge is simple: win. In the extraordinary winter snap election that Ford has called, the bar is higher. Ford’s challenge is not just to win, which will be relatively easy, but to drum up real enthusiasm for the tariff battle he wants to fight.
Even a big victory at the polls will be hollow if turnout is low, and that’s a real threat in an election at this time of year when the outcome seems obvious. Ford needs people to believe that they’ve made a good choice, not that they had no choice. Anything less will diminish the power of the mandate he seeks.
There are early signs that Ford’s tariff focus is working politically. A new online poll Wednesday from Abacus Data shows that dealing with Trump’s tariffs is the fourth biggest issue for Ontario voters with 32 per cent considering it important. Just a week ago, a Leger poll found only five per cent concerned about the issue.
The Abacus poll also shows Ford’s personal approval rating has gone up over the last seven weeks with his positives outweighing negatives. Asked who would make the best premier, 42 per cent cited Ford versus 17 per cent for Liberal Bonnie Crombie and 13 per cent for the NDP’s Marit Stiles. The Abacus poll also found that only about one-quarter of people have an issue with the early election call.
So far, so good for Ford. His strategy is working and it has the not unintended bonus of diverting too much attention from his record, which is solid, but certainly not flawless.
Ford’s single-issue approach is good for the PCs. Voters will be the ones deciding whether it’s good for them, too.
National Post
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