Ford revs up party base in Conservative stronghold

On the first day of the 2018 provincial election campaign, Doug Ford waded into Renfrew County on Wednesday to rally his base while reassuring uncommitted voters he’s ready to be the next premier of Ontario.

With the writ dropping after midnight, the Progressive Conservative leader chose to make Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke — a Tory stronghold both federally and provincially — one of his first stops as he embarks on an endeavour to convince voters over the next 30 days to return his party to government after 15 years in the political wilderness.

Accompanied by Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke MPP John Yakabuski and Nepean-Carleton MPP Lisa MacLeod, Ford entered the Renfrew Armouries to thunderous applause from an estimated 1,000 supporters.

Polls suggest Ford, a former Toronto city councillor, is well-positioned to become the next premier and he spent most of his 17-minute address attacking the record of the person he hopes to succeed: Kathleen Wynne.

Microphone in hand, Ford declined to use a podium and immediately fired up supporters with shots at the Liberal premier and her predecessor, Dalton McGuinty, criticizing their financial management, which he said has left Ontarians $346 million in debt.

“We have seen over 15 years how Kathleen Wynne has destroyed this province,” said Ford, eliciting a chorus of boos from the audience. “We have the largest sub-national debt in the entire world, but finally the party with the taxpayers’ money is over on June 7.”

As he’s done many times before, the PC leader promised to axe the board of directors of Hydro One and oust chief executive Mayo Schmidt, who was paid $6.2 million in total compensation last year. Ford repeated his pledge to scrap Ontario’s cap-and-trade system and reject a carbon tax.

“It is the worst tax you can put on the people, not just in Ontario but across Canada,” Ford said. “That carbon tax is gone. It’s done.”

Ford also reiterated other campaign planks the party has announced so far, such as radically changing the province’s education system, including repealing the sex-education and math curricula and policing free speech on university campuses.

Ford said it was time to reform the tests conducted by the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) and introduce improved standardized testing. He promised, if elected premier, to fully consult parents about what he called a more age-appropriate sex-ed curriculum. And he told supporters to expect to see their taxes cut, while his government would work to generate more manufacturing jobs.

“We believe we work for the people,” he said. “You can spend your money a lot wiser than the government can spend it. We are now a have-not province but we will once again be the engine of Canada.”

Ford further committed to providing 30,000 more long-term care beds, spending $1.9 billion over 10 years to address housing and mental health, and to reduce taxes on small and medium-sized businesses to make the province more competitive. He expressed empathy for those Ontarians making minimum wage, pledging they will pay no taxes on their income. schase@postmedia.com