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Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday April 20, 2018 

Wynne defends comparing Ford to Trump, says it’s not a campaign strategy

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is defending her comparison of Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford to U.S. President Donald Trump this week, saying she doesn’t think her remarks will undermine the province’s trade relationship with the U.S. in any way.

Wynne said comparing Ford to Trump is not a campaign strategy as Ontario heads to the polls on June 7th. She said she has been to the U.S. several times and has worked hard to secure trading deals for Ontario.

“I don’t know what Donald Trump’s reaction would or wouldn’t be. He may be fine with being compared with Doug Ford. That’s up to him and it’s up to Doug Ford. But what I have to do is I have to recognize behaviours for what they are, and name them.”

Wynne first compared Ford to Trump in remarks to a Toronto audience on Wednesday. “Doug Ford sounds like Donald Trump and that’s because he is like Donald Trump. He believes in ugly, vicious, a brand of politics that traffics in smears and lies. He will say anything about anyone at any time. Because just like Trump, it is all about him.”

Wynne told Metro Morning her comments were in response to a news release issued by Ford on Tuesday in which he suggested the premier would be in jail if she weren’t in politics.

Ford said: “If Kathleen Wynne tried to pull these kinds of shady tricks in private life, then there would be a few more Liberals joining David Livingston in jail.”

Livingston is a former Liberal aide who was recently sentenced to four months in jail for his role in the gas plants scandal when Dalton McGuinty was premier. (Source: CBC)