HITTING THE ROAD: Doug Ford eager to take on Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne
‘As my dad said ... you aren’t getting any sales in the office’
Ontario’s newlyelected Opposition leader is vowing to spend much of the next three months on the road campaigning for a spring election, saying his party is focused on forming a government so it can find efficiencies and shape up the province’s finances. Doug Ford, who narrowly won the Progressive Conservative leadership late Saturday, laid out his plans to topple the governing Liberals during an unannounced first visit to the province’s legislature on Monday, where he met with his new staff. “I have to be out there nonstop,” Ford said. “As my dad always said, in business, you aren’t getting sales in the office. You’ve got to get sales outside. We’re going to be out on the road. You won’t see me in here too often.” Ford said he will leave much of the work in the legislature to the party’s now former interim leader, Vic Fedeli. “I just look forward to getting in here and moving forward,” Ford said. “Our focus is going to be on straightening out the finances of this province.” Ford, who met with rival Christine Elliott Sunday night, said they were putting the heated competition behind them. “We’re going to move forward as a cohesive group,” he said of the party that has been plagued by infighting in recent weeks. “I talked to numerous MPPs, endless candidates. We’re all excited.” Ford also said he spoke with Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne on Monday, saying he had great respect for her. “She’s a great campaigner, a great debater. I never underestimate her,” he said. “But she’s never debated Doug Ford before and I can’t wait.” Ford, who has curried favour with social conservatives and vowed to wrest power from political elites, also said Monday that he would review the Liberal government’s sex-education curriculum, but denied he wanted to debate access to abortion in the legislature, despite raising questions about the matter last week. “(Abortion) is not on the top of my priority list,” he said. “We’re going to reduce hydro rates, start attracting great-paying jobs and business.” Wynne said voters will have a “stark” choice in June. “Mr. Ford and I disagree on a lot of things,” she said Monday morning. “I think what we are putting forward as a platform is very, very different than what any of the Conservatives were putting forward, which is cutting and removing supports from people.” Wynne said Ford’s selection as Tory leader won’t change how her party plans for the spring vote. “I need to focus on what it is that people are saying to me in terms of what they need,” she said. Western University political science professor Cristine de Clercy said New Democrats and the Liberals “both have to worry about losing key voters to Mr. Ford because they’re attracted to his populism regardless of his ideology.” Barry Kay, a political science professor at Wilfrid Laurier University, said comparisons between Ford and U.S. President Donald Trump, who also embraced populism, are inevitable, if not entirely accurate. “Obviously, there are parallels. We’re talking about somebody who shoots from the hip. Somebody who speaks frequently before he thinks. Somebody who clearly feels comfortable in the role of street fighter.” Ford’s top challenge will be to stay on message, Kay said. “The question is can Ford hold (the Tories’) lead in the polls. I think Elliott would have. I think he’s more accident prone.”