He’s not Trump and he’s not his brother

Comment matter. The same polls show deep unease with, if not opposition to, Ford among the voters: a Forum poll released after the vote showed 48 per cent of Ontarians disapprove of him, confirming an earlier Angus Reid poll. The same percentage said they would be less likely to vote for the Conservatives with him as their leader.

That suspicion/antipathy is well deserved. In his years on Toronto city council, and in particular during the long circus his brother Rob made of the mayor’s office, Ford acquired a reputation for erratic judgment, divisive rhetoric, dodgy ethics and a casual approach to the truth — most notoriously, attacking the integrity of the police over investigations involving his brother.

There is, too, the business of his alleged involvement in the drug trade as a young man: a minor matter, perhaps, were it not for how significant a player he is alleged to have been.

That said, there’s no denying that Ford appeals to a good many voters, for the very reasons others find him intolerable. It is one part well-worn shtick, one part genuine identification with that section of the electorate who feel profoundly alienated from the prevailing culture and condescended to by its guardians. It is in this sense, and in their many personal similarities, that the comparisons with Donald Trump are valid. Certainly the Liberals and NDP can be counted upon to repeat them at every turn.

But Ford is not Trump, nor is he his brother. He is not troubled by the same demons as the latter, nor is he so completely outside the norms of personal and political behaviour as the former. He ran a largely conventional, fairly disciplined campaign for leader. If vague on policy — another trait he shares with Trump — his populism is of a more familiar kind, bashing Liberals, taxes and “elites,” rather than other races.

He did, however, pitch hard for the social-conservative vote, not only vowing to rewrite the province’s sexual education curriculum, but plunging into the abortion question, albeit only to the extent of suggesting teenagers be required first to obtain their parents’ permission. Again, it is possible the other parties may bring this up from time to time.

So: Is he likely to help or harm his party’s chances? The answer, of course, is yes. Ford is by far the riskier choice than Elliott, but with some upsides as well as downsides. If he is likely to repel Liberal-Conservative switchers in the big cities, he may well attract some NDP voters, suburbanites and northerners.

Of course, when people are as determined to get rid of a government as many Ontarians seem determined to get rid of Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals, it may not matter who the opposition leader is — up to a point. I suspect a lot of people will vote Conservative if Ford gives them any excuse to: if he can reassure them that he is not Trump, not Rob, and not his former self. The question is, will he? Doug Ford, the new leader of the PC Party of Ontario, leaves the PC Party offices Monday after a brief visit to the legislature in Queen’s Park in Toronto.