A Toronto city councillor asked city staff to look into cancelling the Progressive Conservatives’ annual FordFest event, internal communications suggest, and raised concerns about a public park being used for political campaigning.
FordFest is an annual barbecue and festival organized by Premier Doug Ford, which was held in Thomson Memorial Park in Scarborough this year.
The event has a Ford tradition that stretches back to Rob Ford’s days at city hall and was originally held at the family home in Etobicoke.
In recent years, the Progressive Conservatives have moved its location to reach different audiences across the province or to coincide with local byelection races.
Internal communications from City of Toronto bylaw staff, a councillor and other civil servants sent to Global News show the annual celebration has taken increasing time for city hall to help organize.
A trove of messages shows staff worried about partisan promotion on public grounds in 2023, leading to a short-lived effort by Coun. Dianne Saxe to scrap the event this year.
“In my view, Doug Ford should have to follow the same rules as everyone else,” Saxe wrote in a statement sent to Global News.
“My constituents raised a fair concern that he appeared to be using a city facility paid for by city taxpayers for his partisan political purposes, which is illegal. I did my job and raised that concern with city staff. By law, the final decision was up to them.”
The same messages reveal a last-minute realization from city staff that protesters planned to mass at the event, prompting an urgent police response in the midst of trying to manage the FIFA World Cup.
Councillor moves to try to cancel FordFest
On June 4, 2026, a resident emailed Mayor Olivia Chow and Coun. Saxe’s offices asking them to “prevent the misuse of our community space.”
In their email, the resident pointed to a report from Global News.
The story revealed that the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party was asking government chiefs of staff to invite friendly stakeholders to FordFest, while also instructing their political staff to turn up and volunteer.
The resident questioned how an event run by a political party could fit the city’s non-partisan guidelines.
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“The Ford Fest event scheduled for later this month should not be allowed to use its planned location in Scarborough’s Thomson Park,” they wrote in an email.
“Despite any suggestion that it is a non-partisan event, it clearly serves to promote Ford and his party.”
A few hours later, Saxe forwarded the email to a director in the city’s Parks and Recreation Division requesting a cancellation.
“Hi … can we stop this please?” she wrote on June 4.
The attempts to cancel the event were quickly shut down by Toronto’s parks and recreation department, with staff telling the councillor that the event was reviewed and met the guidelines for a park permit.
“While the event is associated with Premier Ford, the City cannot deny a permit based on the political views of an organizer or attendees,” a department director wrote to Coun. Saxe.
Staff worried about partisan activities in 2023
Despite the insistence that the event proceed, city staff appeared to have their own reservations about its neutrality.
Days after the Ontario PC Party filed a permit application for a “festival” at Thompson Memorial Park in Scarborough to “bring the community together and celebrate the start of summer,” city staff began flagging concerns about the event.
“FordFest is ramping up and I wanted to ensure the event is well aware they need to remain politically neutral as per election year policies for all levels of government when using a City asset,” a general supervisor with the parks and recreation department said in an email.
The senior staffer pointed to the 2023 Ford Fest, also held in Thompson Memorial Park, and suggested the party may have violated city rules about non-partisan activity in public spaces.
“Everyone is wearing Team Ontario shirts and Ford Nation flags which may be a way of getting around things..?” the staffer said in the email.
Adding to the frustration, the event was used by former Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders to hold a news conference “without notice or authorization” in apparent violation of park rules.
“Thomson Park is booked today by Premier Ford to host Fordfest,” a senior parks and recreation department staffer wrote in June 2023.
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“He has announced publicly his endorsement for Mark Saunders and it appears Mark is now holding a press conference on site. We have not authorized this and under Election policies my understanding is — this isn’t allowed.”
Staff, at the time, contacted the city’s corporate management department looking for guidance and were told that if the party were to promote a municipal candidate, the act would like be a “breach of the Municipal Elections Act.”
Ahead of this year’s Ford Fest, staff internally expressed a desire to “avoid this scenario once again” by reminding the PC Party of their obligations to keep the event non-partisan and even created media talking points if the issue was raised by journalists.
“Should the PC Party choose to promote a municipal candidate or to distribute campaign materials on or in City facilities, this could be a violation of the Municipal Elections Act,” internal emails show.
Last-minute scramble to deal with protesters
Two days before the event was officially set to take place, staff encountered a fresh worry.
“The police just called me on this Ford Fest event,” one staffer wrote on the morning of June 17, 2026. “Three thousand protesters coming to this event on Friday… Just a heads up for whoever is on site at the park on Friday. Could be chaos.”
City staff had worried earlier in the planning process that police resources would be “extremely limited” when FordFest was scheduled to take place, with Toronto also hosting its first-ever World Cup matches over the same period.
The day before the event, concerns about how it could unfold appeared to intensify.
“We have been advised by the FordFest coordinator protesters are threatening to park buses in the Thomson parking lot this evening,” another official wrote.
A few hours later, staff were juggling a request from FordFest’s organizers to “monitor/restrict protesters from holding parking spaces” at the park.
The emails show city staff told the Progressive Conservative Party they couldn’t stop protesters from using amenities, including parking, at a public park.
When the FordFest event kicked off, with large numbers of Ontario Provincial Police and Toronto police officers in attendance, protesters weren’t limited in where they went.
Roughly 850 public service workers, representing 4,000 workers in the vulnerable services sector who have been on strike for four weeks, planned to disrupt the event by making their purple shirts with the words “worth fighting for” visible to the premier.
Dozens of police officers, including a heavily armed Toronto Police Service unit, the Toronto Police Service Mounted Unit, public order office and a phalanx of OPP officers, flooded the park and formed a protective ring around the main stage where Ford was to speak.
Despite the fortress, a stream of purple-clad protesters strolled past the PC party registration area and crowded the area in front of the main stage armed with flags and whistles ready to upstage the premier.
Moments later, the family-friendly barbecue was upended by an anti-government protest.
After Ford was introduced by Scarborough MPP David Smith, protesters drowned out the premier with a chorus of chants that continued throughout Ford’s speech.
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