This is definitely not a complete picture of Doug Ford and what he has done in Ontario since taking office in 2018. There was a burst in the beginning and we covered what we could for our overall audience.
Let's be clear on one key question we've been getting. Essentially, the question is "why do you hate Doug Ford so much?"
Christine Elliott, in a normal system, would have won the party's leadership race. Elliott would have represented the Progressive Conservatives in the 2018 election, an election the party would have won. Same if Patrick Brown was the leader, provided we didn't know the allegations against him.
We likely would have enough to criticize about Elliott's time as premier going into the 2022 election. The answer to the above question is "Doug Ford's leadership style." One can be critical of a party's stance on issues. Leadership matters, especially during a pandemic. Who is in charge matters.
Ford reduced inspections on long-term care homes before the pandemic. Maybe Elliott would have done that as well. Maybe not.
Ford led with bullying, faux populism, take the credit and reflect any blame. Revenge is not leadership, no matter what party is doing so. They created a false news channel to portray the premier in an ideal light.
The leadership style during the pandemic was particularly troublesome, always behind on key issues. Waiting is one thing but the instincts turned out often to be the complete opposite of what was needed. Elliott likely would have been more forceful when decisions needed to be made.
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These film-related stories reflect Ford's government style. Ontario isn't the only Canadian province to shift over to using British Columbia ratings.
Brian Pallister and the Progressive Conservatives in Manitoba dissolved the Manitoba Film Classification Board in 2018. Ford and his government abolished the Ontario Film Review Board in 2019.
Did Pallister and Ford do this out of concern for people in their province? Save money? Decrease jobs? We don't know.
We would argue that the haphazard Canadian approach to film ratings is problematic. Outsourcing ratings to British Columbia led to job losses and was lazy leadership.
Doug Ford Government in Ontario proposes to do away with film ratings
Doug Ford Government axes Ontario Film Authority
This may not seem fair to mention Doug Ford's late brother, Rob Ford. They aren't that far apart in substance but differences in style. Rob came across as more sincere than Doug ever has. Imagine how difficult those words were to type.
You can choose to click on this link or bypass it for the rest of the article.
Our look back at former Toronto mayor Rob Ford
Voters don't get to pick the leaders of the parties in the Canadian system. Voters don't even get to pick the systems for how they get elected.
The conservatives have had some close races with flawed systems in recent years. Maxime Bernier came really close to defeating Andrew Scheer for the federal conservative race.
CBC News on the Ford-Elliott leadership race in 2018:
But according to a copy of the final ballot results obtained by CBC News, Elliott had more individual members behind her by the final ballot.
Following the elimination of Tanya Granic Allen and Caroline Mulroney after the first and second rounds of the preferential ballot, Elliott had 32,202 votes to 30,041 votes for Ford, giving her an edge in the popular vote of 51.7 per cent to 48.3 per cent for Ford.
Elliott also had more votes in 64 ridings, with Ford having the edge in the other 60.
But the PC leadership was not decided by either the popular vote or the number of ridings supporting a candidate. Instead, it came down to points (what the party called electoral votes).
The Ontario election is June 2. Do your research and get out and vote.
2022 Ontario election preview
Doug Ford will be the new premier of Ontario
2022 Canadian politics preview
Canadian politics coverage on CanadianCrossing.com
CanadianCrossing.com Ontario coverage
As we've noted throughout the career of covering politics, large turnout makes politicians nervous in a healthy way for democracy.
photo credit: Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario
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