NO PLAN NEEDED

One of the stock stories about Doug Ford these days is that he has to produce a plan. The plan is the thing that’s supposed to help get him elected in Ontario in June. Kathleen Wynne, the premier, has a plan — a big, glorious, expensive plan to bring all sorts of lovely new free stuff to Ontarians because that’s what “progressive” governments do, constantly provide new free stuff. NDP Leader Andrea Horwath seems to have a plan of sorts — though after nine years on the job you wouldn’t think it would still be necessary to check.

But Ford hasn’t revealed his plan yet. His people say details will be made clear in due time. It’s going to be a concise plan, they say — just a few main points — and won’t be dropped on the public all in one go. Instead they’ll be unwrapped one juicy morsel at a time, hopefully to savour and enjoy.

It’s taken for granted, for some reason, that a comprehensive plan is essential to any hope of the Progressive Conservative leader dislodging the Liberals from power after 15 long years. It’s the roadmap to the future. How are we to judge Ford’s suitability unless he provides a detailed, step-by-step outline of the means by which he intends to rescue the province from its deep dive into debt and return it to the status it once enjoyed as a prosperous, peaceful place that can also pay its own way without having to hit up the bank for another loan every other payday?

That’s the storyline, anyway. Without a Plan, you can’t be The Man. Or so we’re told.

I’m not sure I buy it. Because, one: Politicians never stick to their plans. Two: No one believes the plan, because they know politicians never stick to them. Three: The plans are often impractical or unaffordable, which is why no one believes them and politicians don’t stick to them. Four: Plans offer bait for cranky opponents and pundits who want to pick away at every claim, assumption or aspiration they contain, as if anything short of perfection is unacceptable. Five: How is any one party, or individual, supposed to produce a magic blueprint to clean up every disaster perpetrated by their predecessor, given that serious disasters are often years in the making and resist easy solutions?

Which is not to say that seeking election on the basis of a plan doesn’t sometimes work. The last time Ontario’s Tories held office it was on vilified in some quarters for the perceived harshness of his methods, and the party has been nailed to opposition benches ever since. Chrétien’s Red Book became an embarrassment as one pledge after another was broken. Harper’s promise of accountability became a cruel joke, and his Senate reforms crashed on the sleazy shoals of the Mike Duffy affair. And Trudeau is well on his way to surpassing Chrétien’s record for most broken promises, if he hasn’t already passed it.

Perhaps most pointedly, Ford heads a party whose previous leader produced a glossy extravaganza of a plan, The People’s Guarantee, which sought to match rival parties in giveaways and mainly succeeded in upsetting significant factions of his own party. He is also facing a premier long tagged as the least popular in Canada, who has launched an effort to regain public favour slap together an extravagant cure-all will only condemn Ford to playing a game whose rules work against him. Rather than trying to outbid the Liberals, he’s better off taking advantage of the natural advantage he already enjoys, i.e. that he’s not Kathleen Wynne, the PCs aren’t the Liberals, and a Tory government would not continue down the dangerous and risky path to which Wynne has committed her party.

Ford could be better off defining himself by what he wouldn’t do, rather than match Liberal spending treats. As in, he won’t continue to pour subsidies into failed hydro policies that have hiked bills to painful levels for many Ontarians while rewarding executives with extravagant salaries. He won’t continue treating small businesses as cash cows with endless resources to finance social-engineering agendas. He won’t seek to dictate winners and losers based on the conceit that only government can ensure a free and fair society, or a successful business enterprise. He won’t prolong the crushing growth of bureaucratic oversight that smothers so much of the natural dynamism and inventiveness of a talented population. He won’t treat people like children who need an overbearing government to teach them how to behave.

All indications are that the people of Ontario want change, and the biggest change Ford could offer would be to stop trying to be all things to all people. Why continue to ape a practice in which people have lost faith? Competent management and a determined effort to do better at the responsibilities the government already holds would go a long way to halting the slow, steady erosion of vitality Ontarians can feel in their bones. You don’t need a fat plan with a glossy cover and lots of promises to get that message across.