Thanks to Ford, Trudeau now has the election villain he needs

Before he moved to override the court because it blocked his will, Doug Ford first went to court to try to impose his will.

Barely a month after taking office, the Ontario premier went to the Ontario Court of Appeal to challenge Justin Trudeau’s right to impose a carbon price on the province.

It was not only unfair and unethical, his Attorney General Caroline Mulroney said, but it was also — wait for it — “unconstitutional.”

Just over a month later the warmth and respect for that Constitution had disappeared as Ford invoked the notwithstanding clause to override an Ontario Superior Court decision which blocked his attempt to make radical cuts to Toronto city council.

An Ontario premier who trumpets the primacy of the legislative majority over the rule of law is using the courts to challenge the Trudeau government and its national parliamentary majority.

Both Ford and Trudeau cobbled together majorities on the soft sand of our first-past-the-post electoral system. Trudeau won a national majority with 39.5 per cent of the popular vote; Ford won an Ontario majority with 40.5 per cent.

Ford will not respect the mandate from a federal government, but says his 2.3 million voters demand he steamroll over a court decision he didn’t like.

Another difference — Trudeau at least campaigned on climate change and national commitments, if not his right to impose pricing on provinces — while Ford did not campaign on a plan to slice and dice local democracy in the country’s largest city.

The Ontario premier has done many things this week. He has reawakened a long dormant interest in our Constitution and sparked debate over the power of cities and the use of courts to thwart legislative initiatives.

But most importantly he has opened a debate on the rule of law versus a truculent strain of populism and Trudeau’s Liberals will gladly take this opening.

To be certain, Liberals have a litany of challenges, including unkept promises, ethical challenges and a penchant for symbolism over substance.

But it can campaign against villains.

Should a renewed NAFTA blow up, Trudeau can campaign against Donald Trump, portraying himself as the leader who stood up to the bully to the south. It is an open question as to whether that would be enough if punitive tariffs were acting as a wrecking ball to the Canadian economy.

But it’s almost certain Trudeau will ramp up his support of the Charter and the primacy of the judicial system as he campaigns against Ford.

Trudeau largely held his fire while others — Brian Mulroney, Bob Rae, Bill Davis among the most notable names — raised alarm bells about Ford’s use of the notwithstanding clause.

The prime minister doesn’t need another fight with a province right now. But his government knows there is no point in ever trying to cosy up to Ford, so it will likely bide its time and let the chaos play out in Ontario before ramping up the virtue message, a tactic that drives his opponents crazy but has so far served Trudeau well.

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer needs to tread carefully. He has acknowledged Ford has the legal right to use the clause, so far nothing more.

Federal Conservatives need Ford, but they cannot overplay their hand by embracing the most egregious gambits of Ontario’s disruptor-in-chief.

Scheer seeks to offer Canadians a non-threatening, stable home next year.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh will rightly go to bat for the Charter but, again, the danger for him is he will cede his voice to Trudeau.

This battle was foreshadowed by a Progressive Conservative insider who told the Toronto Star’s Robert Benzie that Ford’s muscular response to the Ontario court compared favourably to Trudeau’s timid response to a Federal Court ruling that halted the expansion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline.

But Benzie’s source didn’t understand the Constitution. He or she said Trudeau could have invoked the notwithstanding clause to get his pipeline expansion underway and chose not to go that route.

He couldn’t.

But the prime minister did reject any “legislative tricks” to speed approval of the pipeline, no matter how much woe the court caused him.

At least Trudeau is respecting the rule of law. There is much to be said for that.