Doug Ford: When Bitter Reality Bites

It didn't take long for Doug Ford to show his total lack of class, and what kind of Premier he will be.

For only minutes after he was declared the winner, he burst onto the stage to soak up the sweaty cheers of his fanatical supporters, stick his orange face into the TV cameras.

And in the manner of some kind of Deep South Baptist preacher proclaim that the Cons had taken Ontario back. 



"Together we made history. We have taken back Ontario, we have delivered a government that is for the people."

"A new day has dawned in Ontario — a day of opportunity, a day of prosperity and a day of growth."

Without waiting for Andrea Horwath and Kathleen Wynne to address their supporters first, as is the tradition.

While the Ford Nation also showed us who they are by booing when Ford mentioned Wynne's name.



As well as what we can expect from them. i.e. nothing but rage and ignorance.

But here's the ironic part. It will be a wild ride.  

Mr. Ford’s plans are sketchy, his temperament volatile. He is the wildest of wild cards. When he was right-hand man to his brother at Toronto city hall, he often out-Robbed Rob in his blustering and bullying. Nothing in his shallow, sloganeering performance during this election campaign suggests he has changed. 

Now, he is about to become premier of the country’s most-populous province. Premier Doug Ford. Let those words sink in for a bit. This promises to be a crazy ride.

But the Ford Nation will be riding the rails with the rest of us...



And they stand to be among Dougie's first victims.

The little people who were looking forward to the minimum wage being raised to $15 an hour in January.

The sick people who didn't realize that Ford's plan to reform medicare, included making them pay for their hospital beds and their food.



For reality will bite quickly.

His “Plan for the People” is a paper-thin compendium of headline promises with no accounting of how they’ll be paid for or what trade-offs (i.e. cuts) will have to be made. That will only become apparent once the new Ford government gets to grips with the province’s finances and starts to put together its first budget.

And nobody should be surprised by what will almost certainly happen next.

We won’t be surprised if they pull the oldest trick in the book and declare that (surprise!) the financial situation is worse than they imagined and they can’t possibly do all the things they promised on the campaign trail. Nor will we be amazed if (or rather when) it turns out that Ford discovers that he must squeeze services and cut jobs to help pay for everything has promised.

So not only will his followers suffer like so many others, they will also be bitterly disappointed.

As for me, I made my feelings clear on Twitter last night...



Doug Ford is not, and will NEVER be my Premier.

And just like I fought his sinister puppeteer Stephen Harper every day for ten years.





I will join with others to fight Ford and his corrupt gang for as long as it takes to defeat them.

And the best news?

We are still more than them.

The PCs have won their majority with just over 40 per cent of the votes cast. That’s perfectly legitimate, and not even unusual, under our voting system. 

But it’s also true that some 58 per cent of voters chose more progressive options — NDP, Liberal and Green. There was no big swing to the right among Ontario voters, and the PCs will quickly go astray if they mistake their electoral victory for a mandate to make sweeping, ideologically motivated changes.

And all eight of the downtown ridings, the beating heart of Ontario where I live, went orange. 

So all you see here and more will remain a progressive bastion, with a proud slogan..



Never Ford.

Until the day he is defeated. 

Or sent to the place where he truly belongs...