Doug Ford and the Missing Campaign Platform

I watched last night's Ontario election debate, and when it was over I couldn't decide who had won it, Kathleen Wynne or Andrea Horwath.

I thought both Wynne and Horwath put in strong performances, especially when they attacked Doug Ford instead of each other.

Although I would give Wynne a slight edge for the dignified defence of her record in office, and subtract a point from Horwath for interrupting her opponents again and again which I found annoying.

But nothing was as annoying as Ford's performance.



For not only was his dog and pony show a running joke. Nothing he said could be taken seriously when he still doesn't have a costed campaign platform.  

Mr. Ford, who presented himself as the most fiscally prudent of the three leaders, faced a barrage of questions over his party’s failure to present a fully costed platform yet, despite the first votes already being cast at advanced polls.

The Tories have promised a 20-per-cent cut to the second-lowest income-tax bracket, an end to the province’s cap-and-trade system, and a 10-cent-per-litre cut to the gasoline tax. However the party has not explained how it would pay for the tax cuts, which are expected to cost several billion dollars annually.

And one of my favourite moments in the debate was when he attacked an accounting error in the NDP platform, and had Horwath come back at him like this.

“We don’t make mistakes in our budget,” Mr. Ford said. “Do you have one?” asked Ms. Horwath. “People started voting yesterday Mr. Ford. Where is your platform? Where is your respect for the people now when they are already at the polls and you haven’t provided them with any information?” she asked.

And I can only hope that the NDP and the Liberals can keep drawing attention to Ford's missing campaign platform like Horwath did again this morning.



For there is no more important issue than that missing campaign platform, for obvious reasons.

If Ford is allowed to get away with it, and he wins the election, he would be free to say or do anything he wants.



Free to leave Ontario in ruins, and the rest of Canada struggling to keep from sliding into what could be a brutal recession.

For the fact is that Dougie can blow hot air out of every orifice, and make all kinds of wild promises. 

But he cannot fill in what must by now be a $10 billion dollar hole in his invisible campaign platform, without raising taxes, and without laying off anyone, as he claims he can.

And the day that truth is revealed it will blow his campaign apart...



So the NDP and the Liberals should focus on turning up the heat on Ford instead of fighting each other.

They should demand that he produce a campaign platform before the election, so that it can be fact checked to death.

While of course also repeating this message over and over again.

Beware of the Con artist.

Beware of Doug...