WHISSELL: Doug Ford's political capital is running out — and his mistakes are catching up with him

Watching his latest costly mistake, it’s hard to believe Doug Ford is still the Premier of Ontario. Despite being barely tolerated by his voter base, however, Doug Ford is still living off the fumes of political capital from the 2018 wipeout of the Wynne Liberals. But the last of that accelerant will soon be burned up. In the meantime, Ford is running short on excuses for the parade of unforced errors committed by his government. Trouble lies ahead, and he’s lucky he got out of Queen’s Park two days early for the summer break.I’m not sure Ford has ever had to work very hard to achieve anything either, which makes me doubt his ability to face the serious challenges — including from within his own party — coming in the fall. Ford’s past reveals he’s often been handed success on a silver platter instead of having to work for it. Election campaigns against the Wynne Liberals and their subsequent facsimiles were, to be frank, a joke. Ontario’s NDP hasn’t represented even a remote threat to form government since Bob Rae’s fluke in the early 90s.Doug Ford remains Premier largely by default.Doug worked at his family’s business for many years before finally turning to politics like his late brother Rob, the former Mayor of Toronto. While Doug claims he’ll always be a conservative, he’s demonstrated little authentic conservatism during his almost eight years as premier..Many conservatives label him a “liberal in disguise.” It was social conservatives who were the first to clearly see through him. His habit of flip-flopping was exposed shortly after 2018, when he promised that, if elected, he’d remove Kathleen Wynne’s woke curriculum from Ontario public schools. That never happened, of course. Now, approaching eight years under his premiership, fiscal conservatives have become disillusioned with him too. Problems, including ballooning debt, the Ontario Skills Development Fund scandal, and Ford’s recent decision to buy and then sheepishly return a private jet, have all contributed to his voter base asking if he’s even trying anymore.Ford makes the type of monstrous mistakes you’d only expect from the truly incompetent or from someone thoroughly detached from the electorate. He’s generally indecisive when under pressure, like during the pandemic, when he tried to take his cues from the Trudeau Liberals and impose draconian lockdowns. As late as April 16, 2021, for example, during the so-called “third wave” of COVID-19, he suddenly decided to give police the power to arbitrarily detain citizens, and he closed playgrounds across Ontario. Following backlash over the next 24 hours, however, he rescinded those orders.What Ford exemplifies is the inability of many politicians today to adapt to the complex demands of governance. Ford is essentially an automaton who finds it difficult to conduct independent thought on political topics. Without opinion polls for input on a subject, “Ford-bot” is at risk of committing yet another catastrophic error. He governs through trial and error, in fact, seeing if he can get away with what he wants to do. When it’s too much, and his approval ratings either anecdotally or officially show a drop, he immediately publicly apologizes and removes his hand from the provincial cookie jar.For example, consider when he authorized the use of Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) cameras throughout Ontario. He allowed ASE cameras in sensitive areas like Ontario school zones beginning in 2019, despite limited data supporting their effectiveness at reducing speeding. But what a cash cow they were, generating tens of millions of dollars in revenue for municipalities. They eventually created a very negative reaction from Ontario taxpayers. Ford then banned ASE cameras in November 2025, admitting that they were nothing but a “cash grab.”.The problem with Ford’s sort of governance-by-polling is that it’s vulnerable to gaffes anytime his government makes sudden or rash decisions, especially those done without consultation in a more holistic fashion. But even that vulnerability doesn’t fully explain the absolute howler of buying a private jet. What’s going on with Ontario’s Premier?It seems to be a kind of entitlement that slips in after years in power, perhaps while relying too heavily on expired political capital. But entitlement has set in. When Ford’s caucus chair, PC MPP Will Bouma, called him out for buying the jet, Ford immediately stripped him of his position as chair.The deeper problem for Ford is that, although he frequently claims to operate government “for the people,” his recent policy changes are authoritarian.His attendance in parliament is spotty at best. He claims to be out doing things for the people of Ontario to explain his frequent absences and late arrivals, but that can hardly be the reason he cut the last two sessions of parliament short. He rewrote Ontario law to circumvent a legal battle over Ontario’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) and the use of personal cellphones by his caucus members for government business. He doesn’t want to be accountable or transparent.And there are signs he’s out of political capital.In May, Abacus data revealed that Ford is not immune to big drops in his popularity. The luxury jet purchase and return saw his party’s approval rating drop to parity with the Ontario Liberals, a party with just 14 seats and without an official leader. Ford’s habitually low personal approval rating and even the PCs low ratings might be survivable, but does anyone remember what happened when Justin Trudeau’s “trusted” cabinet members began turning against him? Will Bouma’s demotion signal the beginning of the end for Doug Ford? You can follow the escapades of Doug Ford and Ontario’s related ups and downs as reported by Jeremy Borg at the Western Standard, linked here.

WHISSELL: Doug Ford's political capital is running out — and his mistakes are catching up with him

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