Ford’s approach outlasts other Tories
Kenny, O’Toole political history as Ontario premier holds strong
Doug Ford learned the pandemic lessons Jason Kenney failed to heed.
Ontario Progressive Conservative insiders say that’s why Ford is on track to keep his job after the June 2 election, while the Alberta premier lost his on Wednesday night.
“You want to know why he’s gone and Ford is still standing?” a senior Ontario Tory confided Thursday, a day after Kenney resigned despite narrowly winning a United Conservative Party leadership review.
“Jason listened to the right-wingers and we fired them,” the official said, speaking confidentially in order to discuss internal deliberations.
Indeed, Ford defenestrated MPP Belinda Karahalios (Cambridge) from the Tory caucus on July 21, 2020 one hour after she voted against the government’s pandemic emergency legislation.
Karahalios, who felt the bill was an overreach of government power, is now seeking re-election under the banner of the breakaway New Blue Party.
On Jan. 15, 2021, Ford ejected Roman Baber from the PC caucus less than two hours after the York Centre MPP published an open letter opposing the government’s COVID-19 lockdown measures.
Baber, now a federal Conservative leadership candidate, touts his removal over a matter of principle as a badge of honour.
Last Aug. 19 — days after issuing an edict that all PC candidates must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 — Ford turfed veteran MPP Rick Nicholls (Chatham-Kent-Leamington) for refusing to get his shots.
Nicholls, a social conservative, is trying to retain his seat as a member of the Ontario Party, a rightwing splinter party led by ex-Tory MP Derek Sloan.
Then MPP Lindsey Park (Durham) quit the Tories last Oct. 22 after the party claimed she had “misrepresented her vaccination status,” a charge she disputed. Park maintained she had a medical reason for not getting inoculated.
Finally, on Jan. 4, MPP Christina Mitas (Scarborough Centre), the only Tory caucus member who remained unvaccinated due a medical exemption, announced she wouldn’t run again.
Ford’s unequivocal “rejection of the injection will lead to ejection” stance was a marked contrast to that Erin O’Toole, who couldn’t even say how many of his candidates were vaccinated when he led the Conservatives.
O’Toole was dogged by the issue during last summer’s federal election campaign, and was finally driven from his party’s leadership on Feb. 2 after losing the confidence of his caucus.
In October 2020, O’Toole had praised Kenney’s laissez-faire management of the pandemic while suggesting Ford’s approach was too restrictive.
The irony that both men are now political history was not lost on Ontario Tories on the morning after the Albertan’s flame-out.
“Who’s got a job now?” a second PC source noted wryly.
Another top Tory pointed out that “Jason, O’Toole, Pierre, they all politicized COVID and it didn’t help them.”
That was a reference to current federal Tory leadership front-runner Pierre Poilievre, who championed the so-called “Freedom Convoy” protests in February.
The third Tory said Ford “erred on the side of caution” — after a few well-publicized problems last year — while Kenney was torn apart by sects in his divided party and Poilievre is providing fodder for future Liberal attack ads.
“Ford stands out among all (the other) Conservative politicians who … listened too closely to the right-wing factions in their (parties) and it cost them,” the insider added.
A high-ranking PC insider said Kenney’s ill-fated proclamation that last year’s would be the “best summer ever” because the pandemic had waned was foolish.
“The Alberta public wanted to follow the protocols,” said the source, pointing to polling that suggested Albertans’ attitudes toward COVID-19 restrictions and vaccinations were not that different from those in Ontario.
“But Kenney is arrogant. He didn’t learn his lesson after each (COVID-19) wave. We did. When we made mistakes, we learned from them. That’s why we have a reopening plan and why we’re following that plan. The ‘best summer ever’ was stupid.”
While the Alberta premier, who had merged the former provincial Progressive Conservative and Wild Rose parties into the United Conservative Party, was trying to appease right-wingers internally, Ford shunned them — but only after getting burned.
“The premier got rid of senior cabinet ministers and political advisers who were giving him bad advice and listened more closely to the (chief medical officer of health) and the data,” the third Tory said, referring to last June’s cabinet shuffle.