Ford’s promises are all about pacifying his traditional base

It’s not surprising that Doug Ford has renewed his promise to kill Ontario’s sex education curriculum if elected, nor is the timing a surprise. When he turfed social conservative Tania Granic Allen earlier this week, he riled up the far right wing of his party. And since he owes his election to them, he no doubt felt he had to do something to appease their anger.

But he’s not speaking for average Ontarians on the subject. A public-opinion poll by Forum Research states 49 per cent of respondents approve of the curriculum, while one third, 34 per cent, disapprove. Another 17 per cent had no opinion.

Ford’s rationale for killing the curriculum isn’t just faulty, it’s fake. He claims: “Parents were not consulted on sex education. I can guarantee it.” In fact, in the fall of 2014, the Ministry of Education surveyed approximately 4,000 parents, one for every elementary school in the province. Principals and parent councils chose the survey respondents from their school populations. The ministry also got input from 2,400 educators and in face-to-face sessions and consulted 700 students in 26 face-to-face regional consultations. They also got input from police, academics, Children’s Aid Societies, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, the Ontario Physical and Health Education Association, the Ontario Healthy Schools Coalition and the Institute for Catholic Education.

Thanks to this curriculum, kids are learning about the dangers and risks in sexting, online porn and exchanging personal information. And yes, they’re also learning anatomically correct names for body parts, and that heterosexual relationships are not the only kind.

In Ford’s world, all that will be gone. Is that really better for Ontario’s children?

Also this week, Ford promised to scrap Ontario’s math curriculum. Here, he is on somewhat more solid ground. Standardized test results show math scores and competency are going in the wrong direction, so it makes sense to overhaul the curriculum and change that trajectory. But what would Ford replace the “discovery math” curriculum with? Typically, he has no details about that. But this quote is telling: “Kids used to learn math by doing things like memorizing a multiplication table, and it worked.”

Ontario’s math curriculum is flawed and needs work. But is reaching back to the ’50s and ’60s the answer? It will be if Doug Ford is premier — back to the good old days. Perhaps he’ll also mandate that kids should walk three miles through snow up to their waistlines, since that’s what worked for grandma and grandpa.

Ford also promised to tie post-secondary funding to free speech on campus, another pet cause of social conservatives. Here, too, unlike the sex ed bogie man, a real problem exists. University campuses should be bastions of free speech, but they, like the rest of society, have become so polarized that is too often not the case. But is cutting off funding to offending schools really the answer?

Ford’s political brother, federal Conservative leader Andrew Scheer, promised the same thing during his leadership race. He has since found out why that approach is flawed. When a white nationalist group was refused a gathering permit at a Toronto university, Scheer said the decision was justifiable. But when an anti-abortion film showing was blocked at Ottawa campus, Conservatives were critical. That kind of subjectivity shows how Scheer’s promise is simplistic, and explains why he’s now backing away from it.

These three promises are more about speaking to Ford’s base than sound public policy. Chances are we can expect a lot more of that now that the election campaign is formally underway.