Shortly after he was elected leader of the Ontario PC Party, Doug Ford announced he would abandon Patrick Brown’s “People’s Guarantee” platform and focus instead on a slimmed-down handful of key priorities. Some of Brown’s policies may live on in Ford’s platform, he said, but an 80-page document was too much.
The National Post quoted an unnamed Ford confidant explaining “He’s more of a five-big-things kind of guy than a laundry list of a thousand commitments.”
It was a smart decision.
This is an election about change – people are fed up with this government. In fact, the bulk of Ontario’s working class population is fed up with politics as usual. Their standard of living has not improved under successive Liberal governments – nor under previous Progressive Conservative or NDP governments. They’re tired of the same-old, same-old system of political insiders benefiting while everyone else pays. They want something radically new. Doug Ford is an appealing disruptor.
This is not an election about policy. Ford is right, he needs to stick to a core mantra of, at most, a handful of clear objectives that are widely agreeable and not just easy-to-understand – they must be impossible to misunderstand. Fewer is better. One or two is ideal.
It worked for Ford’s brother, Rob, when he was running for mayor of Toronto in 2010. No matter what the question, Rob Ford’s answer was always the same: “Respect for taxpayers, stop the gravy train, subways, subways, subways.” Everyone hated the gravy train. Everyone wanted more respect. Everyone wanted faster transit – which, in Toronto, meant subways. Almost everybody agreed with him. Opponents mocked him for being repetitive, but everyone who heard Rob Ford speak – for a minute or an hour – understood what he wanted to do.
I defy you to tell me what Doug Ford will do.
Two months after promising to pare down his campaign platform to five(ish) key priorities, Doug Ford continues to blather on about a different topic every day. He frequently makes up policy on the fly, then backtracks a few hours or days later: the green belt, retail sales of marijuana, immigration priorities, rent controls…
So far, Doug Ford’s five priorities are: Respect for taxpayers. Bring back jobs. End Cap & Trade. No Carbon Tax. Cancel the 2019 minimum wage hike. Eliminate income taxes for minimum wage earners. Cut income taxes for the Middle Class. Cut corporate income taxes. Reduce red tape. End Jobs & Prosperity Fund for businesses. Free Dental Care for low-income seniors. Add 15-30,000 new Long-Term Care beds. Reduce healthcare wait times. Improve mental healthcare. End “hallway medicine.” Lower Hydro rates. Fire Hydro One fat cats. Stop paying others to take our surplus power. Outside Audit of Ontario’s finances. Also, an Independent Commission to investigate the same thing. Resource Sharing for Ontario’s North. Billions for an LRT in Ottawa. Subways in Toronto. Whatever London wants. Overhaul the sex-ed curriculum. Math too. Fund 75% of family childcare expenses. Tie university funding to free speech. Eliminate rent controls. Keep rent controls. Build in the Greenbelt. Protect the Greenbelt. Serve Ontarians first. Welcome more immigrants. Sell pot in private stores. Sell pot only in existing LCBO stores.
Which of these priorities are Doug’s “five priorities?” Nobody knows.
That’s a big problem for the PC Party.
They started this race with a commanding lead and the prospect of forming a massive majority government. Ford’s lack of clarity and mushy ideas have whittled that support down. Unless Ford finds his “Gravy Train,” picks one or two key messages and develops the discipline to stick to them, his support will continue to lose support and he could well achieve the impossible: he could lose this election.
Mark Towhey is a trusted advisor to business and political leaders, host of #TheBestShowEver on NEWSTALK1010 Sundays in Toronto, author of “Mayor Rob Ford: Uncontrollable” and a dynamic keynote speaker. Twitter: @towhey FaceBook: Mark Towhey
