Ford playing perilous game

Premier Doug Ford clearly believes he’s the smartest, toughest politician at Queen’s Park.

You can sense that as you watch him slash the size of Toronto city council without any outside consultation, play nice with extremists and order up a “select committee” to dig up dirt on former premier Kathleen Wynne, one of his most hated political opponents.

But Ford may not be as smart as he thinks. Indeed, despite what he believes, he is playing a perilous game of get-tough politics that thrills his Ford Nation base, but could easily backfire on him. Over the past few days, Ford has been involved in a series of events that raise serious questions about his leadership and political smarts.

The first occurred when he initially refused to distance himself from Faith Goldy, a fringe Toronto mayoral candidate who has appeared on white nationalist websites. Goldy had her photo taken with Ford over the weekend at Ford Fest, the premier’s annual free party for his followers.

Asked Monday to renounce Goldy, Ford refused to answer directly. Instead, like Trump did when he wouldn’t denounce the white supremacists who took part in a deadly confrontation last year in Virginia, he waffled. On Tuesday he made a stronger statement, saying he has “zero tolerance for any hate speech.” But he still didn’t criticize Goldy.

The second event came during the same Ford Fest, when his fans started chanting “lock her up” in reference to Wynne. The chant takes its cue from the chant that Donald Trump’s fans used against Hillary Clinton. Ford didn’t start the chant at his family barbecue, but he sure didn’t do anything to cut it off either. On both occasions, Ford essentially gave cover to the bigoted and misogynistic beliefs on display at his own barbecue. It’s difficult to conceive of any other Ontario premier taking such a casual attitude. A true leader should have stood up against hatred and intolerance.

The third event was Ford’s decision to create a “select committee” dominated by Tory MPPs to look into how the provincial budget deficit grew under Wynne. The Tories claim the deficit is $8.3 billion higher than what the Liberals claimed. Ford said the Liberals “lied” about the size of the deficit, calling it “quite possibly the worst political cover-up in Ontario’s history.”

Such bellicose rhetoric is typical of Ford, but he has hit a new low by launching this full-blown witch hunt into Wynne’s handling of the budget. That’s especially true given that the commission set up by Ford over the summer to look into the Liberals’ handling of Ontario’s finances found no scandals. Still, Ford wants the committee to “call witnesses” and “gather evidence,” much like U.S. congressional committees do in their televised hearings that often do little but embarrass their targets and destroy reputations.

What Ford doesn’t understand is that he may rue the day that he let bigotry and intolerance take hold within the Progressive Conservative party. By providing cover for bigots, by pursuing his own personal vendettas, Ford is setting the province up for four years of turmoil. It’s no wonder voters are fed up with politicians — and it will be no wonder if they are tired of Ford’s self-indulgent antics when the next election rolls around.

Ford is setting the province up for four years of turmoil