By Rob Hurst
There are some notable lessons to be learned from Doug Ford’s stunning landslide last Thursday.
First, the Big Blue Machine is back. Doug Ford’s victory is reminiscent of the John Robarts majorities of the 1960s. Call it Big Blue 2.0.
Second, opposition parties proved to be lost and largely deaf to the rhythms and sounds of life in Ontario. For example, the NDP, Her Majesty’s loyal opposition, was clearly out of touch with its own base when car workers and construction trades voted in favor of Doug Ford. Andrea Horwath has been a great asset to Queen’s Park, but one felt sorry for her during her award speech, crying and waving the same old talking points we’ve heard for a decade.
Liberals are an even sadder case. They pretend to be Boy Scouts, but they have no leader, they walk through an Ontario forest without a compass or a map.
The Conservatives organized a political campaign master class. The most inspiring maneuver was the trap they set on the roads. Opposition parties were absorbed and crushed.
Doug Ford said he would build Highway 413 and repeated it every day. Elections in Ontario are won in the suburbs, the 905 horse-rich. If you live there, every morning and every evening you are fighting traffic and congestion.
Immediately opposing 413, the NDP and the Liberals indicated that they represented cyclists in the elite leafy neighborhoods of downtown The Annex and Moore Park. When these good people pour their second gin and tonic before dinner, the working men and women of the suburbs are not yet at home. Dinner has to wait.
It was a coup de grace. Campaign Manager Kory Teneycke bow. The ghosts of Dalton Camp and Norm Atkins, long-time conservative helmsmen, would be proud.
And from Thursday there are other lessons.
On the day of the Ontario election, the New York Times published an article on the Canadian political scene. The Times wrote that Canada is facing “deeper cultural wars” and that the “far right” is on the rise.
Wow! Wrong, at least in Ontario. Doug Ford drives his big old van down the main street. He had expelled the right wingers from his own party. They are now on the sidelines, humble and quiet and away from power or a megaphone. There is even diversity in the Conservative tent.
Are there any messages here for the federal Conservative leadership race? Is Pierre Poilievre, the “knight of populist anger” and what is perceived as a favorite, listening and learning?
It was interesting to see our own riding at Parry Sound-Muskoka. Conservatives were clearly frightened when the Liberals did not field a candidate. Was a group protest vote the only way to win in a conservative era? Both the Greens and the Conservatives played solid games, but the Conservatives did better. And they did so to the end, twisting the arms of reluctant local politicians. However, it was disappointing that an old Tory warhorse used insults to try to score points.
So, apparently, in Muskoka we will have train service again. Regular GO-Train service would be good. Newly elected MPP, Graydon Smith, promises two new hospitals. Will they offer cardiology, cancer, maternity, and orthopedics — key procedures for modern hospitals?
One of the most exciting promises is Doug Ford’s commitment to building an all-season road to the Ring of Fire — the precious metal deposits 500 miles north of Thunder Bay. Some say it could be Ontario’s Leduc # 1, the 1947 Alberta oil fountain that helped make Canada a rich nation.
There are some issues related to the election. Doug Ford avoided the media. There was no campaign bus to take the journalists. Many Conservative candidates refused to debate. The Conservatives had every right to campaign in this way. But they were hardly held accountable. The Queen’s Park press room is weak and ineffective and that will not work well in our province, especially if the Conservative super-majority takes a wrong step.
Perhaps the most important lesson may be about Doug Ford himself, which has not yet been explained. When Conservative Prime Ministers John Robarts and Bill Davis dominated Ontario politics in the 1960s and 1970s, they took on an additional role, both voluntarily and voluntarily. They became national statesmen. Conciliators. They supported a new Canadian Constitution and the Bill of Rights. They became advocates of nation-building.
It is an important role for any Prime Minister of Ontario. It’s a role available to Doug Ford if he decides to take on it.
Robert Hurst, the former president of CTV News, has reported on local, provincial and federal politics for 40 years.
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