Martin Regg Cohn speculates this morning that Doug Ford may not make it through his full mandate. Ford's alliance with his now departed chief of staff, Dean French, has caused discontent in his caucus:
Forced to fawn and fuss over the premier. Required to bow down before French. Hog tied by the Ford-French tag team. Made to witness them blunder and plunder.
A triumphal Ford set the tone early by lecturing his vanquished leadership rivals and fearful ministers that he owed them nothing. French followed up by admonishing mere MPPs that they owed Ford everything.
Ford's playbook was misguided from the start -- and the blunders it caused continue to drag Ford's popularity into the basement:
Ford won the leadership by promising Ontarians the moon — he’d save the planet and still save us money. He pledged $30 million to fight the “job-killing federal carbon tax,” but today we are all the poorer and dumber in the wake of a ruling by Ontario’s top court that found it completely constitutional.
Policy blunders are only part of this government’s problem. On autism, global warming, increased class sizes, welfare funding — the Tories embraced austerity without sanity, cutbacks without consideration.
But personality clashes proved even more debilitating. With Ford’s backing, French antagonized every potential ideological ally who failed to pledge personal fealty, leading to an exodus of professional staff and an influx of unqualified cronies.
Cabinet lost its collective voice. And caucus wrestled with its collective conscience.
French berated backbenchers for disloyalty or displeasing him. Still, Ford stuck by his man even as he bullied a female MPP to the point of tears in front of the premier and others in early June, as the Star reported. Another backbencher compared the climate to a KGB culture of reprisals and fear.
People can only take so much humiliation. Then they turn on their masters:
Ontario’s Tories have a way of waking up when power fades away. They dumped ex-leader Tim Hudak amid declining electability in 2014, and they pushed out Brown amid declining credibility in early 2018.
The more Ontarians lose faith in Ford, the faster they will turn on the Tories. How long until Ford’s ministers and MPPs give up on him, as they have his predecessors?
A very good question.
Image: blogTO
6 comments:
Yes, as Regg Cohn points out, the PCs are quick to turn on leaders in opposition, like Hudak, Brown and Tory.
But the appropriate comparator is Mike Harris, who took the Tories to power and wrote the Ford austerity playbook. The Tories stuck with Harris despite major scandals at Walkerton and Ipperwash, and widespread opposition to his agenda. And Harris was every bit as mean, ignorant and incompetent as Ford. I suspect Regg Cohn is doing a bit of wishful thinking.
Cap
I have the same feeling, Cap -- because the Fordians seem hell bent on repeating Harris' agenda.
With Harris, the Tory party died as the linatics took over the asylum. Now it's even worse. I doubt todays members are capable of seeing the problems or making a rational decision.
There's a genuine nastiness to these folks, rumley -- a deep seated need for revenge.
.. Dug Ford.. brother of Rob.. and a flawed & failed city councilman .. nothing more, nothing less .. no legend.. no heroics.. no 'right stuff' .. a walking talking slogan slinger.. huff puff .. boring shitheel .. More astonishing than Scheer's daily screetching .. ? Hard to call .. both Ford & Scheer so banal & vapid they defy gravity.. & resemble th Hindenberg... they're twin calamities.. disasters.. I hate to even describe them as Canadian.. it seems an insult to Canada to do so
Your reference to the Hindenberg is interesting, sal. Oh, the humanity!
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