The current Progressive Conservative government of Doug Ford did not experience a honeymoon period.
The first day after being sworn in, it seemed, the anti-DoFo daggers were out, and the campaign started to condemn him on all fronts before we knew anything about what he was going to do.
We are seeing that even more now with a series of recent polls — one from a union — about how bad Ontarians apparently feel about Doug Ford.
The polls certainly leave one with the impression that Ontario had just made the worst decision of its life, not including Bob Rae’s NDP, and will never vote PC again.
Sound familiar?
I had the opportunity to ask the premier about the perceived “mad on” everyone has for him.
I found his response anything but combative, selfish, uncaring or any other word often used on social media to paint him as a bully.
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The premier compared the government to a family budget. It’s simple, he said: we have to do things better with less. That doesn’t mean the way the last government did it for 15 years — uncontrolled, while they tried to fend off the NDP.
For the Ontario government, that way of doing things was unsustainable.
The most infamous example was Kathleen Wynne’s electricity file, which was punted to the next generation to pay off when interest rates will no doubt be higher.
Ford reiterated in a soft, steady tone that he said he was going to find efficiencies, shrink government and do things differently while listening to voters.
No doubt there have been fumbles, such as with the autism file.
However, if Ontario voters wanted the status quo, they wouldn’t have relegated the Liberals to third place, nor would they have stripped them of official party status.
And if voters wanted a more left-leaning or socialist version of what Wynne was offering, they would have given the majority to Andrea Horwath and the NDP.
But they didn’t.
So it seems odd that so many have changed their minds so quickly. What do they really want?
Or are the groups that were most likely to benefit from what Kathleen Wynne was selling during the Hail Mary days of her election campaign doing a better job of selling their message than Doug Ford is doing selling his?
The premier agreed his party could do a better job getting its message out beyond the base.
If you don’t tell your story, others will do it for you. And the loudest often wins.
Scott Thompson is the host of The Scott Thompson Show on Global News Radio 900 CHML.
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