To the best of my knowledge, Ontario’s premier never publicly stated for whom he’d have voted if he’d had the chance to mark a ballot in the last American presidential election.
But let’s be real.
Is there any doubt in anyone’s mind that Doug Ford would have voted for Donald Trump, his fellow bombastic, populist conservative?
Back in his first term, during the days when Ford was far more revealing and free-wheeling with his comments, he never hesitated to profess his admiration for American-style conservatism in general and for the Republican president in particular.
Ford has also had a longstanding genuine affection for the United States, having established and run his family’s labels-and-tags business out of Chicago. The first-term Ford was also far more American in his style of leadership, frequently decrying socialism, employing a much harder U.S.-style partisan edge to his comments, and encouraging frat-boy behavior by his government’s staffers. That included things like shouting down reporters at news conferences and even having MPPs heckling while the lieutenant-governor read the speech from the throne. (That earned them a death stare from Elizabeth Dowdeswell, and they promptly cut out that crap.)
But, to his credit, the premier learned a few things quickly. First, as his popularity sank like a stone, he discovered Ontarians didn’t like the puerile frat-boy behavior, so he began to act in a more premier-like fashion. The public liked that.
Second, he learned that most Ontarians can’t stand Trump and that his continually praising the Trump style of governing wasn’t playing well at home. So he stopped doing that, too. And, again, the public noticed and approved.
But then something really nasty happened. Ford came to learn that Trump’s “America first” approach to everything didn’t include loopholes for Canadian politicians (such as Ford) who admired him. And, so, during the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak, when America wouldn’t share its surplus of personal protective equipment with its Ontario neighbours (despite Windsor, Ontario, nurses continuing to pull shifts in Detroit, Michigan), Ford seemed genuinely baffled and hurt.
Well, here we are again.
Trump isn’t even back in the Oval Office yet, and he’s already threatening to put 25 per cent tariffs on Ford’s province. For the past week, the premier has been trying to ingratiate himself with Trump by saying Canada should look to ditch Mexico and renew a bilateral trade agreement only with the Americans. Presumably, part of Ford’s thinking has been, if the president wants to diss the Mexicans, then perhaps we should jump aboard that bandwagon, too.
But it didn’t work. Trump the Tariff King continues to repeat his threat to levy tariffs on Ontario, the consequences of which could be terrible for our province’s economy, not to mention the value of our country’s dollar.
Ford has been nothing if not transparent in his disappointment with Trump. He went so far as to say on Tuesday that the tariff threats were “like a family member stabbing you right in the heart.” That was not hyperbole. Ford looked genuinely wounded.
It’s got to be a terrifying realization for Ford: his admiration for Trump will earn him absolutely no brownie points with the incoming administration.
It is a strange state of affairs in politics when Ford is on bad terms with his ideological soulmates — Trump and federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre — while getting along just fine with Canada’s Liberal prime minister and finance minister.
Ford and his team are going to spend the next seven weeks lobbying American politicians to stop the tariffs, as if their political lives depended on it. Because you know what?
They do.
And no one in Canada can be more heartbroken with the disregard the 47th president of the United States has shown his neighbours to the north than the 26th premier of Ontario.
Maybe, even though he may well have admired her less, Ford should have prayed a little harder for a Kamala Harris victory. She might not have been as simpatico with him as Trump. But I bet she wouldn’t be threatening to send Canada’s dollar to 50 cents U.S., as the next president is.
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