Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday May 29, 2019
Doug Ford’s ‘government that listens’ is hearing the polls
Premier Doug Ford wants you to believe that his decision to postpone municipal budget cuts had absolutely nothing to do with successive polls showing a sharp drop in voter support for his party.
October 23, 2008
Ford insists he made his about-face because he heard loudly and clearly from mayors across the province
“They need more time,” he told a news conference Monday. “We’re a government that listens.”
There’s no doubt the mayors’ argument resonated at Queen’s Park, simply because it was rather reasonable: that it was completely unfair for the province to cut municipal funding for 2019 when cities were already part-way through their budgets for the year.
The sustained public-relations offensive from Toronto Mayor John Tory can’t help but have contributed to Ford’s polling numbers. The man who beat Ford in the 2014 mayoral race was also beating Ford in the realm of public opinion over budget 2019.
Tory’s tactics to keep the story alive included distributing leaflets to voters in PC-held ridings, gathering signatures on a petition and holding a news conference at a city-run daycare.
Tory’s conservative credentials as a former PC leader meant that Ford could not dismiss his critique as mere ideology. (CBC)