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Q+A — Is Doug Ford true-blue?
Meet Project Ontario, a “grassroots group” pushing the Tories to tack right. “It’s a group of small-c Ontario conservatives that came together with a shared frustration,” co-founder Matt Spoke said, describing a party that prizes polling over principal and survival over substance.
They see themselves as the conscience of the party. “Some argue, ‘Well, we can’t accomplish anything if we don’t get elected. Doug Ford is very good at getting elected,’” he said on a call. “And our retort is: Sure — but if we keep getting elected and never accomplish the things we actually believe in, then what’s the point of winning?”
Though they insist this isn’t a push to oust Mr. Premier — this isn’t the New Leaf Liberals, they say — Spoke says Team Ford is already feeling the heat. Back-channel pressure is mounting, he says, to keep people from associating with the group. Ford, himself, has described the right-wing think tank as “a bunch of radical rights.”
Recall: The Progressive Conservatives timed their upcoming convention for the same weekend as the federal convention — a quiet bid to keep the “crazies” at bay.
We caught up with Spoke to talk Project Ontario — what they want, why now and how Team Ford is reacting.
Here’s our conversation, edited for length and clarity:
Q+A — Is Doug Ford true-blue?
Meet Project Ontario, a “grassroots group” pushing the Tories to tack right. “It’s a group of small-c Ontario conservatives that came together with a shared frustration,” co-founder Matt Spoke said, describing a party that prizes polling over principal and survival over substance.
They see themselves as the conscience of the party. “Some argue, ‘Well, we can’t accomplish anything if we don’t get elected. Doug Ford is very good at getting elected,’” he said on a call. “And our retort is: Sure — but if we keep getting elected and never accomplish the things we actually believe in, then what’s the point of winning?”
Though they insist this isn’t a push to oust Mr. Premier — this isn’t the New Leaf Liberals, they say — Spoke says Team Ford is already feeling the heat. Back-channel pressure is mounting, he says, to keep people from associating with the group. Ford, himself, has described the right-wing think tank as “a bunch of radical rights.”
Recall: The Progressive Conservatives timed their upcoming convention for the same weekend as the federal convention — a quiet bid to keep the “crazies” at bay.
We caught up with Spoke to talk Project Ontario — what they want, why now and how Team Ford is reacting.
Here’s our conversation, edited for length and clarity:
Q+A — Is Doug Ford true-blue?
Meet Project Ontario, a “grassroots group” pushing the Tories to tack right. “It’s a group of small-c Ontario conservatives that came together with a shared frustration,” co-founder Matt Spoke said, describing a party that prizes polling over principal and survival over substance.
They see themselves as the conscience of the party. “Some argue, ‘Well, we can’t accomplish anything if we don’t get elected. Doug Ford is very good at getting elected,’” he said on a call. “And our retort is: Sure — but if we keep getting elected and never accomplish the things we actually believe in, then what’s the point of winning?”
Though they insist this isn’t a push to oust Mr. Premier — this isn’t the New Leaf Liberals, they say — Spoke says Team Ford is already feeling the heat. Back-channel pressure is mounting, he says, to keep people from associating with the group. Ford, himself, has described the right-wing think tank as “a bunch of radical rights.”
Recall: The Progressive Conservatives timed their upcoming convention for the same weekend as the federal convention — a quiet bid to keep the “crazies” at bay.
We caught up with Spoke to talk Project Ontario — what they want, why now and how Team Ford is reacting.
Here’s our conversation, edited for length and clarity:
First things first — what is Project Ontario?
“Project Ontario is not a formal organization. It’s a group of small-c Ontario conservatives that came together with a shared frustration: we’re not seeing the policy accomplishments we would have liked from a PC government, particularly after, call it, seven and a half years in office. It started with the basic premise that we should be writing down and putting into the public domain more of these policy prescriptions for the problems we believe are facing the province. It’s evolved a little since then, but ultimately, that’s what this is: a group of people with ideas who would like to see some of those ideas prioritized within government. That’s gathered some attention — both positive and negative. Positive in the sense that many people agree with us and want to participate and contribute; negative in the sense that we’ve been characterized as hostile or as attacking the current sitting government.”
What has this government not done that you’re unhappy about?
“I’d say the starting point for us is looking at major metrics that indicate whether things are getting better or worse in the province. That began with a view of our macroeconomic indicators. Is our GDP growth doing better or worse than our peers — both in Canada and in other competing Western jurisdictions? Is the cost of living going up or down? Is the cost of housing going up or down? Are healthcare wait times improving? Are outcomes in education improving?
So it starts with a kind of dashboard: ‘how would you measure the success of a government across major policy portfolios?’ And then, within those, we can start nitpicking at the particular policies we think have either been misprioritized or completely overloaded.
Take housing, for example. This government started with very strong rhetoric on housing policy reforms. In fact, in 2018, when they first came into government, they kicked things off with what we thought was a strong bill — Bill 108 — and a relatively empowered and effective Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs at the time. Since then, they’ve backpedaled on a lot of those commitments. You might remember they created the Housing Affordability Task Force. That task force produced a long list of recommendations, but the province hasn’t adopted the most meaningful ones. Housing is now worse — not only from a pricing perspective for the average homebuyer or renter, but also as a sector of the economy that employs people. All the headlines today are about how badly our housing industry is doing. I think this is a direct result of policy decisions — or, in many cases, inaction.
On another front, we saw a report this morning from a Montreal-based group that found Ontario is now the highest-spending province on corporate subsidies. That used to be Quebec. Effectively, this government’s economic policy has been to write big checks to preferred industries and companies, instead of pursuing broad-based tax reform that would make Ontario’s economy more competitive and help businesses succeed more broadly. We see policies that pick winners and losers, often based on which industries have the best connections — through the right lobbying firms tied into the Premier’s Office.
We started this by saying: ’What’s the dashboard of metrics? Is the province doing well or poorly on them? If it’s doing poorly, let’s diagnose why, and outline what we think could be done instead.’”
Do you think Doug Ford is an obstacle to advancing conservative values in this province? Is it that you’d like to see him gone, or is it that you want him to push more to the right?
“I don’t know that I’d frame it as wanting him to go ‘more to the right’ or ‘less to the right,’ because I don’t think all of these policies fall neatly on that spectrum. Even on housing policy, for example, we’ve seen pretty broad consensus across the political spectrum — there are nuanced differences between what an NDP platform might look like versus a Conservative platform, but generally you’ve seen agreement at all levels of government. We need to cut red tape, reduce taxes and fees, and allow developers to build so that we can increase supply. I don’t know that that’s inherently right-wing or left-wing.
I think what’s happening with Doug Ford is more about governing by public opinion polling — being highly sensitive to what the polling says, especially on issues that are contentious within certain demographics.
So no, I wouldn’t say the goal is to push him further right. The goal is to look at these problems and solve them. Is Doug Ford an impediment? Well, this isn’t an organized effort to push for a leadership race to replace him. Coincidentally, we became public around the same time as the New Leaf Liberals, and their outcome is clear now with Bonnie Crombie leaving the Liberal Party — but that’s not what this is.
I think Doug Ford can remain premier as long as he wants, based on current polling. But the reality is, one day he won’t be premier. Whenever that day comes — whether that’s a year from now because the Liberals or NDP get their act together, or 10 years from now because he decides he’s done — we need to be putting these ideas out there. The question is: what are the principles and ideas we want to be championing as a conservative movement in Ontario?
In a perfect world, this government would adopt those ideas right away. In a second scenario, maybe a future leadership candidate will adopt them in the post-Ford era. I won’t pretend to know the timeline.
You’ve been leading your emails with ’When conservatives lose their principles, Ontario loses its way.’ That makes me wonder: you’ve said this isn’t really about a turn to the right. Then what is it about?
“Well, it’s about knowing what those principles are and standing by them with conviction. If you take away the specific political context of Ontario and just ask a Canadian conservative — in most provinces, federally or provincially — ‘What do you stand for as a conservative? What do you believe?’ you’ll generally hear the same themes. Things like: we believe in the power of the free market. We believe in a competitive tax regime that allows businesses to improve productivity and grow the economy. We believe it’s the market — not the government — that grows prosperity. We believe parents should be at the center of education—not the teachers’ unions, not the public school boards. We believe healthcare should be reformed to allow for better outcomes and more choice.
These are the kinds of things most conservatives would agree are core principles. And if you’re not governing with those principles in mind — if you’re just governing based on issues management and putting out fires — it feels like flailing. It begs the question: What are you actually trying to accomplish as a government?
We’ve had this debate within our own broader conservative tent. Some argue, ’Well, we can’t accomplish anything if we don’t get elected. Doug Ford is very good at getting elected.’ And our retort is: Sure — but if we keep getting elected and never accomplish the things we actually believe in, then what’s the point of winning?”
But you said it’s not a push to get rid of Doug Ford. What we saw with the New Leaf Liberals was an organized push to get rid of Bonnie Crombie. And you’re saying this is not that. So then — what is it? How do you actually put pressure on Premier Ford and on the party apparatus to adopt the changes you want?
“I wouldn’t compare us to the New Leaf Liberals. In their case, the speculation, which I think has now been mostly confirmed, was that you had a leadership candidate behind the scenes organizing to shake things up and create a chance to run. In that case, Nate Erskine-Smith. And you had a very explicit set of demands: push for a leadership review, with the goal of forcing a race. They didn’t shy away from that.
What we’re doing is something else. The political landscape — provincially and federally — is shifting a lot right now. Looking two to five years ahead, we simply can’t predict what’s coming. We can’t predict who the next Liberal leader will be, or whether they’ll pose a real challenge to Doug Ford in an election. That could, for the first time in a long time, create a moment of weakness that makes the party question whether it’s time for renewal. That doesn’t necessarily have to come from people who dislike Ford — it’s just the natural cycle of politics.
So for us, the point is: we don’t think we’ll be the ones directly pressuring Ford to leave or to change course. What we do think we can do is help prep the stage for whoever comes next. Because if Ford left sooner than expected, there would be a massive scramble, and that vacuum could be filled by anyone. We want to make sure that whoever it is, there’s already a body of work — ideas, principles, policy prescriptions — ready to shape the conversation.
And frankly, another thing driving us is the lack of provincial think-tank infrastructure. Federally, you’ve got organizations like the Fraser Institute, C.D. Howe, Macdonald-Laurier — groups that churn out research, reports, critiques and recommendations. That doesn’t really exist at the provincial level. Here, what you mostly have is lobbyists. And those lobbyists, with the right clients and the right connections, end up shaping what the government prioritizes. That’s the reality.
So, I get the sense you’re in this for the long haul.
“Yeah, exactly. What that looks like is still to be determined. Naturally, these things take energy, time, and focus from people. So there’s still a question of what form it ultimately takes.
But I can say, speaking on behalf of many of the people contributing, there’s definitely an appetite to stay the course—as long as it takes to normalize these ideas, to shift the Overton window within the Ontario PC Party, and to get people inside the party apparatus asking: ’Why are we not listening to these types of ideas? Why are we boxing people like this out as opposed to inviting them in?’
What are you hearing as to how the Premier and those around him are reacting? How has the reaction been?
“I can’t speak to the Premier directly. I suspect a lot of this stuff is kept from him, just because it’s small stuff. But I know folks close to the Premier — whether in the leadership of the PC Party or in big, provincial-focused lobbying firms that have direct access to the Premier’s Office — we’ve heard directly from them that they’d like us to back down. Keep our criticism private. Bring this discussion within the party apparatus. Have this debate at a convention, as opposed to in the pages of a newspaper. That’s been some of the feedback.
The other feedback we’ve heard, secondhand, is that a lot of people who would otherwise want to join us, contribute to us, or participate in events we’re hosting are being told in no uncertain terms by their clients, their bosses, or their contacts in government that if they associate with what we’re doing, it will cost them. For example, if you’re a lobbyist with a particular client on a particular file, and you’re seen to be participating in Project Ontario, maybe all of a sudden your file gets deprioritized. We’ve heard that from more than a few people.
From people in government?
“No, from people we’ve reached out to—people we’ve invited to contribute or attend our events. They’ve said, ‘Hey, I really like what you guys are doing, but I got a call from my client, who was told in no uncertain terms by somebody in government that they don’t like what we’re up to.’ Again, to a certain extent this is hearsay, but we’ve heard it frequently enough that we know there are people close to the Premier who are discouraging others from associating with us.”
Finally, I want to get your reaction to what some well-placed Tories have been saying about this project. One said sarcastically: “[it’s] Conservatives who’ve decided that all the electoral success we’ve had over the last ten years federally needs to be imported to Ontario.” Another added: “There are people who have never accepted that it is the job of a political party to win elections.” Thoughts?
“Well, to that first comment, I think what’s happened federally is a little bit relevant. For one, we’ve seen three federal Conservative leaders over that decade — all with very different approaches, very different priorities, and frankly, very different mistakes. Whether you go back to Andrew Scheer, Erin O’Toole, or, in the most recent election, Pierre Poilievre, I don’t think there’s one way to characterize that era. To me, it feels like three very distinct eras under three very distinct leaders.
So, you know, it’s easy to criticize the lack of federal success. It’s also easy to dismiss the very unique political talent that was Justin Trudeau. There is no Justin Trudeau sitting in the ranks of the Ontario Liberal Party, right? So my response would be that we have benefited provincially from a disorganized and weak opposition for a number of years, whereas that was not the case federally. Federally, we had a very strong, organized, and popular opponent in the Liberal Party of Canada under Justin Trudeau, and more recently under Mark Carney. The political context is very different. So I’m not sure I buy that argument.
Now, to the second comment — we’ve heard this one a lot, the idea that the job of political parties is simply to win elections. I’ll say this: broadly speaking, we’re not naive. Many of us have been directly involved in political campaigns and organizing. We know you need to win elections. But we don’t think it stops there. What’s the point of winning if you don’t have an agenda, a set of policies, or a set of principles you intend to reflect while governing? Winning for the sake of winning — and popularity for the sake of popularity — does not improve the lives of Ontarians. We hear all the time: How can you criticize Doug Ford? He’s sitting at 53% in the polls, or 48%, depending on the poll. My response is: Yes, but our GDP growth is weaker than every other province, our healthcare wait times are getting worse, not better, and our housing prices and housing completions are the worst in the country. You can be as popular as you want, but if those fundamental metrics aren’t improving, popularity is irrelevant. That’s the weakness in that line of thinking. And eventually, this catches up to a political party. People feel the challenges of their daily lives.
The way I’d frame it is this: political leaders are not elected to follow public opinion polling. They’re elected to set public opinion in the direction of solutions. Strong leadership means changing people’s opinions, not just following them.
To me, it’s weak leadership to just say, ‘We’ll do what people want.’ Strong leadership is saying, ‘Here are the solutions,’ and then convincing people they’re the right path. That’s what we don’t see from this government.”
A message from Next Campaign:
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— T-14 days until the House is back.
— The Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs will meet at 10 a.m. tomorrow to swap out ex-PC MPP Chris Scott with PC MPP Steve Pinsonneault. A closed session will begin at 10:15 a.m.
— Here’s what’s up on the fundraising trail this week:
Recall: The Tories’ $1,500-a-ticket Leader’s Dinner — once “problematic” for the Ford government — is set for Wednesday, November 19 in Toronto. Registration will close on Sunday, November 16. Get your ticket.
Also happening this week:
Save the date: Premier Ford will speak at the Empire Club on Tuesday, October 14, followed by a sit-down with Ben Mulroney. RSVP.
— Fall fun: Fall Festival is back on Saturday, October 18. “From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., visitors of all ages can enjoy live performances, tours, crafts, activities and more.”
— Know a seventh or eighth grader? Applications to become a Legislative Page are open until November 15.
— Digging in: Ex-PC Chris Scott — charged with assault and assault with a weapon — says he’s taking “a short leave from partisan and non-essential public appearances” but doesn’t plan to give up his seat.
What he’s saying: “I... remain fully committed to serving the people of Sault Ste. Marie as I was elected to do,” he said in a Thursday statement.
On the charges: “I have retained counsel to represent me. I have trust and confidence in the criminal justice system. While the case is before the Court, it is inappropriate to comment further about the charges. Out of respect for everyone involved — especially my children — I ask that my family’s privacy be respected through this process.”
The reaction: Sault Ste. Marie’s mayor says Scott should quit.
“A leave of absence is unacceptable for our community, given the enormity of the challenges we face that fall directly within the purview of the provincial government,” Matthew Shoemaker said. “While the courts can and will determine legal guilt, the economic and social realities in our community require a representative whose personal scandals do not take precedence over local needs.”
According to the Sault Star, His Worship’s plan is “simply to step around Scott.”
Meanwhile, the Ontario Federation of Labour says it’s “done waiting.” “It is time for him to step aside so Sault Ste. Marie has an MPP who is ready to lead and won’t cause further harm to the community, or shame to the position they hold,” president Laura Walton wrote.
Recall: The Soo was a toss-up in the February election, where the NDP went all-in to boost Lisa Vezeau-Allen. A by-election, some say, could give Marit Stiles a shot at growing her 27-member bench. (It’d be a much-needed win for Stiles post-68 per cent leadership review).
— More on Project Ontario: “A generation of young, smart, right-leaning activists is talking about the change they feel is needed in Ontario,” Robert Benzie wrote.
Chris Selley added: “If there’s a ‘bunch of yahoos’ in Ontario politics, it’s certainly not Project Ontario.”
From the Gardiner Museum, Graeme Gordon said: “They see the premier as reactive with no ideological moorings. They added that a stagnant economy and an increase in government handouts have led to a culture of ‘zero-sum’ politics, where, instead of a growth mindset, lobbying for government money has become the normalized pattern of behaviour.”
— What’s the threshold to get a ticket from Toronto’s speed camera program? Mahdis Habibinia digs in. “According to a source with direct knowledge of the ticketing process, the threshold for a ticket using a Toronto speed camera is never less than 11 km/h over the posted limit.”
— Bureaucracy be damned: “Ford government labour ministers have selected groups to receive hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars for worker-training programs against the advice of civil servants who’d evaluated their funding applications, Ontario’s auditor general has found.” More from The Trillium.
— Blame game: “Ottawa Public Health says it’s being forced to close a supervised consumption site in the city’s ByWard Market area because Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones hasn’t given her permission for it to remain open.” Catch up from Canadian Press.
— “A woman from Guelph, Ont. has lost tens of thousands of dollars to a scam that claimed Ontario Premier Doug Ford was launching a new cryptocurrency.” CP24 has more.
— Charged: “A former union branch representative with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) is facing charges in connection with allegedly misappropriating more than $100,000 in union funds, police say. Mark Babcook, the former branch president of OPSEU Local 228, was charged with fraud over $5,000 and possession of property obtained by crime.” Read on from CBC.
The Ford government was quick to pounce. “... I would like to understand which steps OPSEU is taking to ensure that the bargaining process remains above reproach and free from distraction,” wrote Treasury Board president Caroline Mulroney.
The union says it took action. “New local elections are scheduled for this month,” they said. “The local will have a new bank account with updated signing authorities and oversight protocols, including safeguards to prevent any one individual from having sole access to, or control of, local funds.”
— Brad Bradford says he’s running to be Toronto’s next mayor. Watch.
Recall: “Internal polling by Abacus... found Bradford as best-positioned to take on Chow.” Catch up.
— Education workers hit the lawn this weekend, urging action on what they describe as a crisis in schools. Watch.
— If you blinked: The Ford government’s draft regulation outlining how Special Economic Zones will be designated is now out.
— On the #onpoli podcast, Marit Stiles spoke about her leadership review. “We’ve had three of our top people resign in light of the results and I think it’s time for change,” the NDP leader said. “They thought it was too.” Catch up.
— Is Doug Ford laying a trap for his political opponents by banning photo radar? Martin Regg Cohn thinks so.
— It’s been 5,077 days since work began on the Eglinton Crosstown. “For the public, they just want the trains running; they are fed up with finger pointing,” Brian Lilley says
— Susan Delacourt argues the road ahead for Mark Carney won’t be an easy one.
— John Michael McGrath says a climate plan is within Ford’s reach — if he wants it.
— “If the Liberals choose to remain a sideshow, relying on a small circle of insiders, they should prepare for another decade in political purgatory,” Sharan Kaur writes.
— A new poll by Abacus found Pierre Poilievre’s Tories up by one point over Mark Carney’s Liberals. “Among those certain to vote, the Liberals edge ahead with 43 per cent, a 2-point lead over the Conservatives,” wrote David Colletto, “suggesting turnout advantage might still matter.”
Political moves, career milestones, sightings? Send ‘em in.
— OOTD: Bobbi Ann Brady got a fashion appreciation post. To which Aislinn Clancy replied: “I prefer her as a cow girl.”
— The Travis Dhanraj-Karman Wong podcast — “Can’t Be Censored” — is taking heat on X.
— Henley Strategies is growing. Sydney Pothakos and Joanna Bailey have joined the Toronto-based shop, which is hiring. “They’ve already hit the ground running and are supporting clients with expert public affairs and communications advice,” CEO Laryssa Waler wrote.
Pothakos, the ex-policy advisor to Todd McCarthy, was the Tories’ candidate in University-Rosedale. Bailey worked for Matheson Constructors, and earlier, the Greater Toronto Airports Authority.
— Vaughan mayor (and ex-Liberal leader) Steven Del Duca and his wife, Utilia, celebrated their 20-year anniversary.
— Jamil Jivani is hosting a “Restore the North” tour. First up: University of Guelph, UTM and Toronto Metropolitan University.
— Episode 1 of The Premier Files is out, feat. Bob Rae.
— Doly Begum voiced support for the Global Sumud Flotilla.
Thank you for reading POLICORNER. Got thoughts on Project Ontario — good, bad or yahoo? How are you gearing up for the fall session? Hit reply and you’ll stay anonymous. We’re back in your inbox on Monday, October 20.
Q+A — Is Doug Ford true-blue?
Meet Project Ontario, a “grassroots group” pushing the Tories to tack right. “It’s a group of small-c Ontario conservatives that came together with a shared frustration,” co-founder Matt Spoke said, describing a party that prizes polling over principal and survival over substance.
They see themselves as the conscience of the party. “Some argue, ‘Well, we can’t accomplish anything if we don’t get elected. Doug Ford is very good at getting elected,’” he said on a call. “And our retort is: Sure — but if we keep getting elected and never accomplish the things we actually believe in, then what’s the point of winning?”
Though they insist this isn’t a push to oust Mr. Premier — this isn’t the New Leaf Liberals, they say — Spoke says Team Ford is already feeling the heat. Back-channel pressure is mounting, he says, to keep people from associating with the group. Ford, himself, has described the right-wing think tank as “a bunch of radical rights.”
Recall: The Progressive Conservatives timed their upcoming convention for the same weekend as the federal convention — a quiet bid to keep the “crazies” at bay.
We caught up with Spoke to talk Project Ontario — what they want, why now and how Team Ford is reacting.
Here’s our conversation, edited for length and clarity:
First things first — what is Project Ontario?
“Project Ontario is not a formal organization. It’s a group of small-c Ontario conservatives that came together with a shared frustration: we’re not seeing the policy accomplishments we would have liked from a PC government, particularly after, call it, seven and a half years in office. It started with the basic premise that we should be writing down and putting into the public domain more of these policy prescriptions for the problems we believe are facing the province. It’s evolved a little since then, but ultimately, that’s what this is: a group of people with ideas who would like to see some of those ideas prioritized within government. That’s gathered some attention — both positive and negative. Positive in the sense that many people agree with us and want to participate and contribute; negative in the sense that we’ve been characterized as hostile or as attacking the current sitting government.”
What has this government not done that you’re unhappy about?
“I’d say the starting point for us is looking at major metrics that indicate whether things are getting better or worse in the province. That began with a view of our macroeconomic indicators. Is our GDP growth doing better or worse than our peers — both in Canada and in other competing Western jurisdictions? Is the cost of living going up or down? Is the cost of housing going up or down? Are healthcare wait times improving? Are outcomes in education improving?
So it starts with a kind of dashboard: ‘how would you measure the success of a government across major policy portfolios?’ And then, within those, we can start nitpicking at the particular policies we think have either been misprioritized or completely overloaded.
Take housing, for example. This government started with very strong rhetoric on housing policy reforms. In fact, in 2018, when they first came into government, they kicked things off with what we thought was a strong bill — Bill 108 — and a relatively empowered and effective Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs at the time. Since then, they’ve backpedaled on a lot of those commitments. You might remember they created the Housing Affordability Task Force. That task force produced a long list of recommendations, but the province hasn’t adopted the most meaningful ones. Housing is now worse — not only from a pricing perspective for the average homebuyer or renter, but also as a sector of the economy that employs people. All the headlines today are about how badly our housing industry is doing. I think this is a direct result of policy decisions — or, in many cases, inaction.
On another front, we saw a report this morning from a Montreal-based group that found Ontario is now the highest-spending province on corporate subsidies. That used to be Quebec. Effectively, this government’s economic policy has been to write big checks to preferred industries and companies, instead of pursuing broad-based tax reform that would make Ontario’s economy more competitive and help businesses succeed more broadly. We see policies that pick winners and losers, often based on which industries have the best connections — through the right lobbying firms tied into the Premier’s Office.
We started this by saying: ’What’s the dashboard of metrics? Is the province doing well or poorly on them? If it’s doing poorly, let’s diagnose why, and outline what we think could be done instead.’”
Do you think Doug Ford is an obstacle to advancing conservative values in this province? Is it that you’d like to see him gone, or is it that you want him to push more to the right?
“I don’t know that I’d frame it as wanting him to go ‘more to the right’ or ‘less to the right,’ because I don’t think all of these policies fall neatly on that spectrum. Even on housing policy, for example, we’ve seen pretty broad consensus across the political spectrum — there are nuanced differences between what an NDP platform might look like versus a Conservative platform, but generally you’ve seen agreement at all levels of government. We need to cut red tape, reduce taxes and fees, and allow developers to build so that we can increase supply. I don’t know that that’s inherently right-wing or left-wing.
I think what’s happening with Doug Ford is more about governing by public opinion polling — being highly sensitive to what the polling says, especially on issues that are contentious within certain demographics.
So no, I wouldn’t say the goal is to push him further right. The goal is to look at these problems and solve them. Is Doug Ford an impediment? Well, this isn’t an organized effort to push for a leadership race to replace him. Coincidentally, we became public around the same time as the New Leaf Liberals, and their outcome is clear now with Bonnie Crombie leaving the Liberal Party — but that’s not what this is.
I think Doug Ford can remain premier as long as he wants, based on current polling. But the reality is, one day he won’t be premier. Whenever that day comes — whether that’s a year from now because the Liberals or NDP get their act together, or 10 years from now because he decides he’s done — we need to be putting these ideas out there. The question is: what are the principles and ideas we want to be championing as a conservative movement in Ontario?
In a perfect world, this government would adopt those ideas right away. In a second scenario, maybe a future leadership candidate will adopt them in the post-Ford era. I won’t pretend to know the timeline.
You’ve been leading your emails with ’When conservatives lose their principles, Ontario loses its way.’ That makes me wonder: you’ve said this isn’t really about a turn to the right. Then what is it about?
“Well, it’s about knowing what those principles are and standing by them with conviction. If you take away the specific political context of Ontario and just ask a Canadian conservative — in most provinces, federally or provincially — ‘What do you stand for as a conservative? What do you believe?’ you’ll generally hear the same themes. Things like: we believe in the power of the free market. We believe in a competitive tax regime that allows businesses to improve productivity and grow the economy. We believe it’s the market — not the government — that grows prosperity. We believe parents should be at the center of education—not the teachers’ unions, not the public school boards. We believe healthcare should be reformed to allow for better outcomes and more choice.
These are the kinds of things most conservatives would agree are core principles. And if you’re not governing with those principles in mind — if you’re just governing based on issues management and putting out fires — it feels like flailing. It begs the question: What are you actually trying to accomplish as a government?
We’ve had this debate within our own broader conservative tent. Some argue, ’Well, we can’t accomplish anything if we don’t get elected. Doug Ford is very good at getting elected.’ And our retort is: Sure — but if we keep getting elected and never accomplish the things we actually believe in, then what’s the point of winning?”
But you said it’s not a push to get rid of Doug Ford. What we saw with the New Leaf Liberals was an organized push to get rid of Bonnie Crombie. And you’re saying this is not that. So then — what is it? How do you actually put pressure on Premier Ford and on the party apparatus to adopt the changes you want?
“I wouldn’t compare us to the New Leaf Liberals. In their case, the speculation, which I think has now been mostly confirmed, was that you had a leadership candidate behind the scenes organizing to shake things up and create a chance to run. In that case, Nate Erskine-Smith. And you had a very explicit set of demands: push for a leadership review, with the goal of forcing a race. They didn’t shy away from that.
What we’re doing is something else. The political landscape — provincially and federally — is shifting a lot right now. Looking two to five years ahead, we simply can’t predict what’s coming. We can’t predict who the next Liberal leader will be, or whether they’ll pose a real challenge to Doug Ford in an election. That could, for the first time in a long time, create a moment of weakness that makes the party question whether it’s time for renewal. That doesn’t necessarily have to come from people who dislike Ford — it’s just the natural cycle of politics.
So for us, the point is: we don’t think we’ll be the ones directly pressuring Ford to leave or to change course. What we do think we can do is help prep the stage for whoever comes next. Because if Ford left sooner than expected, there would be a massive scramble, and that vacuum could be filled by anyone. We want to make sure that whoever it is, there’s already a body of work — ideas, principles, policy prescriptions — ready to shape the conversation.
And frankly, another thing driving us is the lack of provincial think-tank infrastructure. Federally, you’ve got organizations like the Fraser Institute, C.D. Howe, Macdonald-Laurier — groups that churn out research, reports, critiques and recommendations. That doesn’t really exist at the provincial level. Here, what you mostly have is lobbyists. And those lobbyists, with the right clients and the right connections, end up shaping what the government prioritizes. That’s the reality.
So, I get the sense you’re in this for the long haul.
“Yeah, exactly. What that looks like is still to be determined. Naturally, these things take energy, time, and focus from people. So there’s still a question of what form it ultimately takes.
But I can say, speaking on behalf of many of the people contributing, there’s definitely an appetite to stay the course—as long as it takes to normalize these ideas, to shift the Overton window within the Ontario PC Party, and to get people inside the party apparatus asking: ’Why are we not listening to these types of ideas? Why are we boxing people like this out as opposed to inviting them in?’
What are you hearing as to how the Premier and those around him are reacting? How has the reaction been?
“I can’t speak to the Premier directly. I suspect a lot of this stuff is kept from him, just because it’s small stuff. But I know folks close to the Premier — whether in the leadership of the PC Party or in big, provincial-focused lobbying firms that have direct access to the Premier’s Office — we’ve heard directly from them that they’d like us to back down. Keep our criticism private. Bring this discussion within the party apparatus. Have this debate at a convention, as opposed to in the pages of a newspaper. That’s been some of the feedback.
The other feedback we’ve heard, secondhand, is that a lot of people who would otherwise want to join us, contribute to us, or participate in events we’re hosting are being told in no uncertain terms by their clients, their bosses, or their contacts in government that if they associate with what we’re doing, it will cost them. For example, if you’re a lobbyist with a particular client on a particular file, and you’re seen to be participating in Project Ontario, maybe all of a sudden your file gets deprioritized. We’ve heard that from more than a few people.
From people in government?
“No, from people we’ve reached out to—people we’ve invited to contribute or attend our events. They’ve said, ‘Hey, I really like what you guys are doing, but I got a call from my client, who was told in no uncertain terms by somebody in government that they don’t like what we’re up to.’ Again, to a certain extent this is hearsay, but we’ve heard it frequently enough that we know there are people close to the Premier who are discouraging others from associating with us.”
Finally, I want to get your reaction to what some well-placed Tories have been saying about this project. One said sarcastically: “[it’s] Conservatives who’ve decided that all the electoral success we’ve had over the last ten years federally needs to be imported to Ontario.” Another added: “There are people who have never accepted that it is the job of a political party to win elections.” Thoughts?
“Well, to that first comment, I think what’s happened federally is a little bit relevant. For one, we’ve seen three federal Conservative leaders over that decade — all with very different approaches, very different priorities, and frankly, very different mistakes. Whether you go back to Andrew Scheer, Erin O’Toole, or, in the most recent election, Pierre Poilievre, I don’t think there’s one way to characterize that era. To me, it feels like three very distinct eras under three very distinct leaders.
So, you know, it’s easy to criticize the lack of federal success. It’s also easy to dismiss the very unique political talent that was Justin Trudeau. There is no Justin Trudeau sitting in the ranks of the Ontario Liberal Party, right? So my response would be that we have benefited provincially from a disorganized and weak opposition for a number of years, whereas that was not the case federally. Federally, we had a very strong, organized, and popular opponent in the Liberal Party of Canada under Justin Trudeau, and more recently under Mark Carney. The political context is very different. So I’m not sure I buy that argument.
Now, to the second comment — we’ve heard this one a lot, the idea that the job of political parties is simply to win elections. I’ll say this: broadly speaking, we’re not naive. Many of us have been directly involved in political campaigns and organizing. We know you need to win elections. But we don’t think it stops there. What’s the point of winning if you don’t have an agenda, a set of policies, or a set of principles you intend to reflect while governing? Winning for the sake of winning — and popularity for the sake of popularity — does not improve the lives of Ontarians. We hear all the time: How can you criticize Doug Ford? He’s sitting at 53% in the polls, or 48%, depending on the poll. My response is: Yes, but our GDP growth is weaker than every other province, our healthcare wait times are getting worse, not better, and our housing prices and housing completions are the worst in the country. You can be as popular as you want, but if those fundamental metrics aren’t improving, popularity is irrelevant. That’s the weakness in that line of thinking. And eventually, this catches up to a political party. People feel the challenges of their daily lives.
The way I’d frame it is this: political leaders are not elected to follow public opinion polling. They’re elected to set public opinion in the direction of solutions. Strong leadership means changing people’s opinions, not just following them.
To me, it’s weak leadership to just say, ‘We’ll do what people want.’ Strong leadership is saying, ‘Here are the solutions,’ and then convincing people they’re the right path. That’s what we don’t see from this government.”
A message from Next Campaign:
— T-14 days until the House is back.
— The Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs will meet at 10 a.m. tomorrow to swap out ex-PC MPP Chris Scott with PC MPP Steve Pinsonneault. A closed session will begin at 10:15 a.m.
— Here’s what’s up on the fundraising trail this week:
Recall: The Tories’ $1,500-a-ticket Leader’s Dinner — once “problematic” for the Ford government — is set for Wednesday, November 19 in Toronto. Registration will close on Sunday, November 16. Get your ticket.
Also happening this week:
Save the date: Premier Ford will speak at the Empire Club on Tuesday, October 14, followed by a sit-down with Ben Mulroney. RSVP.
— Fall fun: Fall Festival is back on Saturday, October 18. “From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., visitors of all ages can enjoy live performances, tours, crafts, activities and more.”
— Know a seventh or eighth grader? Applications to become a Legislative Page are open until November 15.
— Digging in: Ex-PC Chris Scott — charged with assault and assault with a weapon — says he’s taking “a short leave from partisan and non-essential public appearances” but doesn’t plan to give up his seat.
What he’s saying: “I... remain fully committed to serving the people of Sault Ste. Marie as I was elected to do,” he said in a Thursday statement.
On the charges: “I have retained counsel to represent me. I have trust and confidence in the criminal justice system. While the case is before the Court, it is inappropriate to comment further about the charges. Out of respect for everyone involved — especially my children — I ask that my family’s privacy be respected through this process.”
The reaction: Sault Ste. Marie’s mayor says Scott should quit.
“A leave of absence is unacceptable for our community, given the enormity of the challenges we face that fall directly within the purview of the provincial government,” Matthew Shoemaker said. “While the courts can and will determine legal guilt, the economic and social realities in our community require a representative whose personal scandals do not take precedence over local needs.”
According to the Sault Star, His Worship’s plan is “simply to step around Scott.”
Meanwhile, the Ontario Federation of Labour says it’s “done waiting.” “It is time for him to step aside so Sault Ste. Marie has an MPP who is ready to lead and won’t cause further harm to the community, or shame to the position they hold,” president Laura Walton wrote.
Recall: The Soo was a toss-up in the February election, where the NDP went all-in to boost Lisa Vezeau-Allen. A by-election, some say, could give Marit Stiles a shot at growing her 27-member bench. (It’d be a much-needed win for Stiles post-68 per cent leadership review).
— More on Project Ontario: “A generation of young, smart, right-leaning activists is talking about the change they feel is needed in Ontario,” Robert Benzie wrote.
Chris Selley added: “If there’s a ‘bunch of yahoos’ in Ontario politics, it’s certainly not Project Ontario.”
From the Gardiner Museum, Graeme Gordon said: “They see the premier as reactive with no ideological moorings. They added that a stagnant economy and an increase in government handouts have led to a culture of ‘zero-sum’ politics, where, instead of a growth mindset, lobbying for government money has become the normalized pattern of behaviour.”
— What’s the threshold to get a ticket from Toronto’s speed camera program? Mahdis Habibinia digs in. “According to a source with direct knowledge of the ticketing process, the threshold for a ticket using a Toronto speed camera is never less than 11 km/h over the posted limit.”
— Bureaucracy be damned: “Ford government labour ministers have selected groups to receive hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars for worker-training programs against the advice of civil servants who’d evaluated their funding applications, Ontario’s auditor general has found.” More from The Trillium.
— Blame game: “Ottawa Public Health says it’s being forced to close a supervised consumption site in the city’s ByWard Market area because Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones hasn’t given her permission for it to remain open.” Catch up from Canadian Press.
— “A woman from Guelph, Ont. has lost tens of thousands of dollars to a scam that claimed Ontario Premier Doug Ford was launching a new cryptocurrency.” CP24 has more.
— Charged: “A former union branch representative with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) is facing charges in connection with allegedly misappropriating more than $100,000 in union funds, police say. Mark Babcook, the former branch president of OPSEU Local 228, was charged with fraud over $5,000 and possession of property obtained by crime.” Read on from CBC.
The Ford government was quick to pounce. “... I would like to understand which steps OPSEU is taking to ensure that the bargaining process remains above reproach and free from distraction,” wrote Treasury Board president Caroline Mulroney.
The union says it took action. “New local elections are scheduled for this month,” they said. “The local will have a new bank account with updated signing authorities and oversight protocols, including safeguards to prevent any one individual from having sole access to, or control of, local funds.”
— Brad Bradford says he’s running to be Toronto’s next mayor. Watch.
Recall: “Internal polling by Abacus... found Bradford as best-positioned to take on Chow.” Catch up.
— Education workers hit the lawn this weekend, urging action on what they describe as a crisis in schools. Watch.
— If you blinked: The Ford government’s draft regulation outlining how Special Economic Zones will be designated is now out.
— On the #onpoli podcast, Marit Stiles spoke about her leadership review. “We’ve had three of our top people resign in light of the results and I think it’s time for change,” the NDP leader said. “They thought it was too.” Catch up.
— Is Doug Ford laying a trap for his political opponents by banning photo radar? Martin Regg Cohn thinks so.
— It’s been 5,077 days since work began on the Eglinton Crosstown. “For the public, they just want the trains running; they are fed up with finger pointing,” Brian Lilley says
— Susan Delacourt argues the road ahead for Mark Carney won’t be an easy one.
— John Michael McGrath says a climate plan is within Ford’s reach — if he wants it.
— “If the Liberals choose to remain a sideshow, relying on a small circle of insiders, they should prepare for another decade in political purgatory,” Sharan Kaur writes.
— A new poll by Abacus found Pierre Poilievre’s Tories up by one point over Mark Carney’s Liberals. “Among those certain to vote, the Liberals edge ahead with 43 per cent, a 2-point lead over the Conservatives,” wrote David Colletto, “suggesting turnout advantage might still matter.”
Political moves, career milestones, sightings? Send ‘em in.
— OOTD: Bobbi Ann Brady got a fashion appreciation post. To which Aislinn Clancy replied: “I prefer her as a cow girl.”
— The Travis Dhanraj-Karman Wong podcast — “Can’t Be Censored” — is taking heat on X.
— Henley Strategies is growing. Sydney Pothakos and Joanna Bailey have joined the Toronto-based shop, which is hiring. “They’ve already hit the ground running and are supporting clients with expert public affairs and communications advice,” CEO Laryssa Waler wrote.
Pothakos, the ex-policy advisor to Todd McCarthy, was the Tories’ candidate in University-Rosedale. Bailey worked for Matheson Constructors, and earlier, the Greater Toronto Airports Authority.
— Vaughan mayor (and ex-Liberal leader) Steven Del Duca and his wife, Utilia, celebrated their 20-year anniversary.
— Jamil Jivani is hosting a “Restore the North” tour. First up: University of Guelph, UTM and Toronto Metropolitan University.
— Episode 1 of The Premier Files is out, feat. Bob Rae.
— Doly Begum voiced support for the Global Sumud Flotilla.
Thank you for reading POLICORNER. Got thoughts on Project Ontario — good, bad or yahoo? How are you gearing up for the fall session? Hit reply and you’ll stay anonymous. We’re back in your inbox on Monday, October 20.
Q+A — Is Doug Ford true-blue?
Meet Project Ontario, a “grassroots group” pushing the Tories to tack right. “It’s a group of small-c Ontario conservatives that came together with a shared frustration,” co-founder Matt Spoke said, describing a party that prizes polling over principal and survival over substance.
They see themselves as the conscience of the party. “Some argue, ‘Well, we can’t accomplish anything if we don’t get elected. Doug Ford is very good at getting elected,’” he said on a call. “And our retort is: Sure — but if we keep getting elected and never accomplish the things we actually believe in, then what’s the point of winning?”
Though they insist this isn’t a push to oust Mr. Premier — this isn’t the New Leaf Liberals, they say — Spoke says Team Ford is already feeling the heat. Back-channel pressure is mounting, he says, to keep people from associating with the group. Ford, himself, has described the right-wing think tank as “a bunch of radical rights.”
Recall: The Progressive Conservatives timed their upcoming convention for the same weekend as the federal convention — a quiet bid to keep the “crazies” at bay.
We caught up with Spoke to talk Project Ontario — what they want, why now and how Team Ford is reacting.
Here’s our conversation, edited for length and clarity:
First things first — what is Project Ontario?
“Project Ontario is not a formal organization. It’s a group of small-c Ontario conservatives that came together with a shared frustration: we’re not seeing the policy accomplishments we would have liked from a PC government, particularly after, call it, seven and a half years in office. It started with the basic premise that we should be writing down and putting into the public domain more of these policy prescriptions for the problems we believe are facing the province. It’s evolved a little since then, but ultimately, that’s what this is: a group of people with ideas who would like to see some of those ideas prioritized within government. That’s gathered some attention — both positive and negative. Positive in the sense that many people agree with us and want to participate and contribute; negative in the sense that we’ve been characterized as hostile or as attacking the current sitting government.”
What has this government not done that you’re unhappy about?
“I’d say the starting point for us is looking at major metrics that indicate whether things are getting better or worse in the province. That began with a view of our macroeconomic indicators. Is our GDP growth doing better or worse than our peers — both in Canada and in other competing Western jurisdictions? Is the cost of living going up or down? Is the cost of housing going up or down? Are healthcare wait times improving? Are outcomes in education improving?
So it starts with a kind of dashboard: ‘how would you measure the success of a government across major policy portfolios?’ And then, within those, we can start nitpicking at the particular policies we think have either been misprioritized or completely overloaded.
Take housing, for example. This government started with very strong rhetoric on housing policy reforms. In fact, in 2018, when they first came into government, they kicked things off with what we thought was a strong bill — Bill 108 — and a relatively empowered and effective Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs at the time. Since then, they’ve backpedaled on a lot of those commitments. You might remember they created the Housing Affordability Task Force. That task force produced a long list of recommendations, but the province hasn’t adopted the most meaningful ones. Housing is now worse — not only from a pricing perspective for the average homebuyer or renter, but also as a sector of the economy that employs people. All the headlines today are about how badly our housing industry is doing. I think this is a direct result of policy decisions — or, in many cases, inaction.
On another front, we saw a report this morning from a Montreal-based group that found Ontario is now the highest-spending province on corporate subsidies. That used to be Quebec. Effectively, this government’s economic policy has been to write big checks to preferred industries and companies, instead of pursuing broad-based tax reform that would make Ontario’s economy more competitive and help businesses succeed more broadly. We see policies that pick winners and losers, often based on which industries have the best connections — through the right lobbying firms tied into the Premier’s Office.
We started this by saying: ’What’s the dashboard of metrics? Is the province doing well or poorly on them? If it’s doing poorly, let’s diagnose why, and outline what we think could be done instead.’”
Do you think Doug Ford is an obstacle to advancing conservative values in this province? Is it that you’d like to see him gone, or is it that you want him to push more to the right?
“I don’t know that I’d frame it as wanting him to go ‘more to the right’ or ‘less to the right,’ because I don’t think all of these policies fall neatly on that spectrum. Even on housing policy, for example, we’ve seen pretty broad consensus across the political spectrum — there are nuanced differences between what an NDP platform might look like versus a Conservative platform, but generally you’ve seen agreement at all levels of government. We need to cut red tape, reduce taxes and fees, and allow developers to build so that we can increase supply. I don’t know that that’s inherently right-wing or left-wing.
I think what’s happening with Doug Ford is more about governing by public opinion polling — being highly sensitive to what the polling says, especially on issues that are contentious within certain demographics.
So no, I wouldn’t say the goal is to push him further right. The goal is to look at these problems and solve them. Is Doug Ford an impediment? Well, this isn’t an organized effort to push for a leadership race to replace him. Coincidentally, we became public around the same time as the New Leaf Liberals, and their outcome is clear now with Bonnie Crombie leaving the Liberal Party — but that’s not what this is.
I think Doug Ford can remain premier as long as he wants, based on current polling. But the reality is, one day he won’t be premier. Whenever that day comes — whether that’s a year from now because the Liberals or NDP get their act together, or 10 years from now because he decides he’s done — we need to be putting these ideas out there. The question is: what are the principles and ideas we want to be championing as a conservative movement in Ontario?
In a perfect world, this government would adopt those ideas right away. In a second scenario, maybe a future leadership candidate will adopt them in the post-Ford era. I won’t pretend to know the timeline.
You’ve been leading your emails with ’When conservatives lose their principles, Ontario loses its way.’ That makes me wonder: you’ve said this isn’t really about a turn to the right. Then what is it about?
“Well, it’s about knowing what those principles are and standing by them with conviction. If you take away the specific political context of Ontario and just ask a Canadian conservative — in most provinces, federally or provincially — ‘What do you stand for as a conservative? What do you believe?’ you’ll generally hear the same themes. Things like: we believe in the power of the free market. We believe in a competitive tax regime that allows businesses to improve productivity and grow the economy. We believe it’s the market — not the government — that grows prosperity. We believe parents should be at the center of education—not the teachers’ unions, not the public school boards. We believe healthcare should be reformed to allow for better outcomes and more choice.
These are the kinds of things most conservatives would agree are core principles. And if you’re not governing with those principles in mind — if you’re just governing based on issues management and putting out fires — it feels like flailing. It begs the question: What are you actually trying to accomplish as a government?
We’ve had this debate within our own broader conservative tent. Some argue, ’Well, we can’t accomplish anything if we don’t get elected. Doug Ford is very good at getting elected.’ And our retort is: Sure — but if we keep getting elected and never accomplish the things we actually believe in, then what’s the point of winning?”
But you said it’s not a push to get rid of Doug Ford. What we saw with the New Leaf Liberals was an organized push to get rid of Bonnie Crombie. And you’re saying this is not that. So then — what is it? How do you actually put pressure on Premier Ford and on the party apparatus to adopt the changes you want?
“I wouldn’t compare us to the New Leaf Liberals. In their case, the speculation, which I think has now been mostly confirmed, was that you had a leadership candidate behind the scenes organizing to shake things up and create a chance to run. In that case, Nate Erskine-Smith. And you had a very explicit set of demands: push for a leadership review, with the goal of forcing a race. They didn’t shy away from that.
What we’re doing is something else. The political landscape — provincially and federally — is shifting a lot right now. Looking two to five years ahead, we simply can’t predict what’s coming. We can’t predict who the next Liberal leader will be, or whether they’ll pose a real challenge to Doug Ford in an election. That could, for the first time in a long time, create a moment of weakness that makes the party question whether it’s time for renewal. That doesn’t necessarily have to come from people who dislike Ford — it’s just the natural cycle of politics.
So for us, the point is: we don’t think we’ll be the ones directly pressuring Ford to leave or to change course. What we do think we can do is help prep the stage for whoever comes next. Because if Ford left sooner than expected, there would be a massive scramble, and that vacuum could be filled by anyone. We want to make sure that whoever it is, there’s already a body of work — ideas, principles, policy prescriptions — ready to shape the conversation.
And frankly, another thing driving us is the lack of provincial think-tank infrastructure. Federally, you’ve got organizations like the Fraser Institute, C.D. Howe, Macdonald-Laurier — groups that churn out research, reports, critiques and recommendations. That doesn’t really exist at the provincial level. Here, what you mostly have is lobbyists. And those lobbyists, with the right clients and the right connections, end up shaping what the government prioritizes. That’s the reality.
So, I get the sense you’re in this for the long haul.
“Yeah, exactly. What that looks like is still to be determined. Naturally, these things take energy, time, and focus from people. So there’s still a question of what form it ultimately takes.
But I can say, speaking on behalf of many of the people contributing, there’s definitely an appetite to stay the course—as long as it takes to normalize these ideas, to shift the Overton window within the Ontario PC Party, and to get people inside the party apparatus asking: ’Why are we not listening to these types of ideas? Why are we boxing people like this out as opposed to inviting them in?’
What are you hearing as to how the Premier and those around him are reacting? How has the reaction been?
“I can’t speak to the Premier directly. I suspect a lot of this stuff is kept from him, just because it’s small stuff. But I know folks close to the Premier — whether in the leadership of the PC Party or in big, provincial-focused lobbying firms that have direct access to the Premier’s Office — we’ve heard directly from them that they’d like us to back down. Keep our criticism private. Bring this discussion within the party apparatus. Have this debate at a convention, as opposed to in the pages of a newspaper. That’s been some of the feedback.
The other feedback we’ve heard, secondhand, is that a lot of people who would otherwise want to join us, contribute to us, or participate in events we’re hosting are being told in no uncertain terms by their clients, their bosses, or their contacts in government that if they associate with what we’re doing, it will cost them. For example, if you’re a lobbyist with a particular client on a particular file, and you’re seen to be participating in Project Ontario, maybe all of a sudden your file gets deprioritized. We’ve heard that from more than a few people.
From people in government?
“No, from people we’ve reached out to—people we’ve invited to contribute or attend our events. They’ve said, ‘Hey, I really like what you guys are doing, but I got a call from my client, who was told in no uncertain terms by somebody in government that they don’t like what we’re up to.’ Again, to a certain extent this is hearsay, but we’ve heard it frequently enough that we know there are people close to the Premier who are discouraging others from associating with us.”
Finally, I want to get your reaction to what some well-placed Tories have been saying about this project. One said sarcastically: “[it’s] Conservatives who’ve decided that all the electoral success we’ve had over the last ten years federally needs to be imported to Ontario.” Another added: “There are people who have never accepted that it is the job of a political party to win elections.” Thoughts?
“Well, to that first comment, I think what’s happened federally is a little bit relevant. For one, we’ve seen three federal Conservative leaders over that decade — all with very different approaches, very different priorities, and frankly, very different mistakes. Whether you go back to Andrew Scheer, Erin O’Toole, or, in the most recent election, Pierre Poilievre, I don’t think there’s one way to characterize that era. To me, it feels like three very distinct eras under three very distinct leaders.
So, you know, it’s easy to criticize the lack of federal success. It’s also easy to dismiss the very unique political talent that was Justin Trudeau. There is no Justin Trudeau sitting in the ranks of the Ontario Liberal Party, right? So my response would be that we have benefited provincially from a disorganized and weak opposition for a number of years, whereas that was not the case federally. Federally, we had a very strong, organized, and popular opponent in the Liberal Party of Canada under Justin Trudeau, and more recently under Mark Carney. The political context is very different. So I’m not sure I buy that argument.
Now, to the second comment — we’ve heard this one a lot, the idea that the job of political parties is simply to win elections. I’ll say this: broadly speaking, we’re not naive. Many of us have been directly involved in political campaigns and organizing. We know you need to win elections. But we don’t think it stops there. What’s the point of winning if you don’t have an agenda, a set of policies, or a set of principles you intend to reflect while governing? Winning for the sake of winning — and popularity for the sake of popularity — does not improve the lives of Ontarians. We hear all the time: How can you criticize Doug Ford? He’s sitting at 53% in the polls, or 48%, depending on the poll. My response is: Yes, but our GDP growth is weaker than every other province, our healthcare wait times are getting worse, not better, and our housing prices and housing completions are the worst in the country. You can be as popular as you want, but if those fundamental metrics aren’t improving, popularity is irrelevant. That’s the weakness in that line of thinking. And eventually, this catches up to a political party. People feel the challenges of their daily lives.
The way I’d frame it is this: political leaders are not elected to follow public opinion polling. They’re elected to set public opinion in the direction of solutions. Strong leadership means changing people’s opinions, not just following them.
To me, it’s weak leadership to just say, ‘We’ll do what people want.’ Strong leadership is saying, ‘Here are the solutions,’ and then convincing people they’re the right path. That’s what we don’t see from this government.”
A message from Next Campaign:
— T-14 days until the House is back.
— The Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs will meet at 10 a.m. tomorrow to swap out ex-PC MPP Chris Scott with PC MPP Steve Pinsonneault. A closed session will begin at 10:15 a.m.
— Here’s what’s up on the fundraising trail this week:
Recall: The Tories’ $1,500-a-ticket Leader’s Dinner — once “problematic” for the Ford government — is set for Wednesday, November 19 in Toronto. Registration will close on Sunday, November 16. Get your ticket.
Also happening this week:
Save the date: Premier Ford will speak at the Empire Club on Tuesday, October 14, followed by a sit-down with Ben Mulroney. RSVP.
— Fall fun: Fall Festival is back on Saturday, October 18. “From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., visitors of all ages can enjoy live performances, tours, crafts, activities and more.”
— Know a seventh or eighth grader? Applications to become a Legislative Page are open until November 15.
— Digging in: Ex-PC Chris Scott — charged with assault and assault with a weapon — says he’s taking “a short leave from partisan and non-essential public appearances” but doesn’t plan to give up his seat.
What he’s saying: “I... remain fully committed to serving the people of Sault Ste. Marie as I was elected to do,” he said in a Thursday statement.
On the charges: “I have retained counsel to represent me. I have trust and confidence in the criminal justice system. While the case is before the Court, it is inappropriate to comment further about the charges. Out of respect for everyone involved — especially my children — I ask that my family’s privacy be respected through this process.”
The reaction: Sault Ste. Marie’s mayor says Scott should quit.
“A leave of absence is unacceptable for our community, given the enormity of the challenges we face that fall directly within the purview of the provincial government,” Matthew Shoemaker said. “While the courts can and will determine legal guilt, the economic and social realities in our community require a representative whose personal scandals do not take precedence over local needs.”
According to the Sault Star, His Worship’s plan is “simply to step around Scott.”
Meanwhile, the Ontario Federation of Labour says it’s “done waiting.” “It is time for him to step aside so Sault Ste. Marie has an MPP who is ready to lead and won’t cause further harm to the community, or shame to the position they hold,” president Laura Walton wrote.
Recall: The Soo was a toss-up in the February election, where the NDP went all-in to boost Lisa Vezeau-Allen. A by-election, some say, could give Marit Stiles a shot at growing her 27-member bench. (It’d be a much-needed win for Stiles post-68 per cent leadership review).
— More on Project Ontario: “A generation of young, smart, right-leaning activists is talking about the change they feel is needed in Ontario,” Robert Benzie wrote.
Chris Selley added: “If there’s a ‘bunch of yahoos’ in Ontario politics, it’s certainly not Project Ontario.”
From the Gardiner Museum, Graeme Gordon said: “They see the premier as reactive with no ideological moorings. They added that a stagnant economy and an increase in government handouts have led to a culture of ‘zero-sum’ politics, where, instead of a growth mindset, lobbying for government money has become the normalized pattern of behaviour.”
— What’s the threshold to get a ticket from Toronto’s speed camera program? Mahdis Habibinia digs in. “According to a source with direct knowledge of the ticketing process, the threshold for a ticket using a Toronto speed camera is never less than 11 km/h over the posted limit.”
— Bureaucracy be damned: “Ford government labour ministers have selected groups to receive hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars for worker-training programs against the advice of civil servants who’d evaluated their funding applications, Ontario’s auditor general has found.” More from The Trillium.
— Blame game: “Ottawa Public Health says it’s being forced to close a supervised consumption site in the city’s ByWard Market area because Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones hasn’t given her permission for it to remain open.” Catch up from Canadian Press.
— “A woman from Guelph, Ont. has lost tens of thousands of dollars to a scam that claimed Ontario Premier Doug Ford was launching a new cryptocurrency.” CP24 has more.
— Charged: “A former union branch representative with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) is facing charges in connection with allegedly misappropriating more than $100,000 in union funds, police say. Mark Babcook, the former branch president of OPSEU Local 228, was charged with fraud over $5,000 and possession of property obtained by crime.” Read on from CBC.
The Ford government was quick to pounce. “... I would like to understand which steps OPSEU is taking to ensure that the bargaining process remains above reproach and free from distraction,” wrote Treasury Board president Caroline Mulroney.
The union says it took action. “New local elections are scheduled for this month,” they said. “The local will have a new bank account with updated signing authorities and oversight protocols, including safeguards to prevent any one individual from having sole access to, or control of, local funds.”
— Brad Bradford says he’s running to be Toronto’s next mayor. Watch.
Recall: “Internal polling by Abacus... found Bradford as best-positioned to take on Chow.” Catch up.
— Education workers hit the lawn this weekend, urging action on what they describe as a crisis in schools. Watch.
— If you blinked: The Ford government’s draft regulation outlining how Special Economic Zones will be designated is now out.
— On the #onpoli podcast, Marit Stiles spoke about her leadership review. “We’ve had three of our top people resign in light of the results and I think it’s time for change,” the NDP leader said. “They thought it was too.” Catch up.
— Is Doug Ford laying a trap for his political opponents by banning photo radar? Martin Regg Cohn thinks so.
— It’s been 5,077 days since work began on the Eglinton Crosstown. “For the public, they just want the trains running; they are fed up with finger pointing,” Brian Lilley says
— Susan Delacourt argues the road ahead for Mark Carney won’t be an easy one.
— John Michael McGrath says a climate plan is within Ford’s reach — if he wants it.
— “If the Liberals choose to remain a sideshow, relying on a small circle of insiders, they should prepare for another decade in political purgatory,” Sharan Kaur writes.
— A new poll by Abacus found Pierre Poilievre’s Tories up by one point over Mark Carney’s Liberals. “Among those certain to vote, the Liberals edge ahead with 43 per cent, a 2-point lead over the Conservatives,” wrote David Colletto, “suggesting turnout advantage might still matter.”
Political moves, career milestones, sightings? Send ‘em in.
— OOTD: Bobbi Ann Brady got a fashion appreciation post. To which Aislinn Clancy replied: “I prefer her as a cow girl.”
— The Travis Dhanraj-Karman Wong podcast — “Can’t Be Censored” — is taking heat on X.
— Henley Strategies is growing. Sydney Pothakos and Joanna Bailey have joined the Toronto-based shop, which is hiring. “They’ve already hit the ground running and are supporting clients with expert public affairs and communications advice,” CEO Laryssa Waler wrote.
Pothakos, the ex-policy advisor to Todd McCarthy, was the Tories’ candidate in University-Rosedale. Bailey worked for Matheson Constructors, and earlier, the Greater Toronto Airports Authority.
— Vaughan mayor (and ex-Liberal leader) Steven Del Duca and his wife, Utilia, celebrated their 20-year anniversary.
— Jamil Jivani is hosting a “Restore the North” tour. First up: University of Guelph, UTM and Toronto Metropolitan University.
— Episode 1 of The Premier Files is out, feat. Bob Rae.
— Doly Begum voiced support for the Global Sumud Flotilla.
Thank you for reading POLICORNER. Got thoughts on Project Ontario — good, bad or yahoo? How are you gearing up for the fall session? Hit reply and you’ll stay anonymous. We’re back in your inbox on Monday, October 20.
Q+A — Is Doug Ford true-blue?
Meet Project Ontario, a “grassroots group” pushing the Tories to tack right. “It’s a group of small-c Ontario conservatives that came together with a shared frustration,” co-founder Matt Spoke said, describing a party that prizes polling over principal and survival over substance.
They see themselves as the conscience of the party. “Some argue, ‘Well, we can’t accomplish anything if we don’t get elected. Doug Ford is very good at getting elected,’” he said on a call. “And our retort is: Sure — but if we keep getting elected and never accomplish the things we actually believe in, then what’s the point of winning?”
Though they insist this isn’t a push to oust Mr. Premier — this isn’t the New Leaf Liberals, they say — Spoke says Team Ford is already feeling the heat. Back-channel pressure is mounting, he says, to keep people from associating with the group. Ford, himself, has described the right-wing think tank as “a bunch of radical rights.”
Recall: The Progressive Conservatives timed their upcoming convention for the same weekend as the federal convention — a quiet bid to keep the “crazies” at bay.
We caught up with Spoke to talk Project Ontario — what they want, why now and how Team Ford is reacting.
Here’s our conversation, edited for length and clarity:
First things first — what is Project Ontario?
“Project Ontario is not a formal organization. It’s a group of small-c Ontario conservatives that came together with a shared frustration: we’re not seeing the policy accomplishments we would have liked from a PC government, particularly after, call it, seven and a half years in office. It started with the basic premise that we should be writing down and putting into the public domain more of these policy prescriptions for the problems we believe are facing the province. It’s evolved a little since then, but ultimately, that’s what this is: a group of people with ideas who would like to see some of those ideas prioritized within government. That’s gathered some attention — both positive and negative. Positive in the sense that many people agree with us and want to participate and contribute; negative in the sense that we’ve been characterized as hostile or as attacking the current sitting government.”
What has this government not done that you’re unhappy about?
“I’d say the starting point for us is looking at major metrics that indicate whether things are getting better or worse in the province. That began with a view of our macroeconomic indicators. Is our GDP growth doing better or worse than our peers — both in Canada and in other competing Western jurisdictions? Is the cost of living going up or down? Is the cost of housing going up or down? Are healthcare wait times improving? Are outcomes in education improving?
So it starts with a kind of dashboard: ‘how would you measure the success of a government across major policy portfolios?’ And then, within those, we can start nitpicking at the particular policies we think have either been misprioritized or completely overloaded.
Take housing, for example. This government started with very strong rhetoric on housing policy reforms. In fact, in 2018, when they first came into government, they kicked things off with what we thought was a strong bill — Bill 108 — and a relatively empowered and effective Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs at the time. Since then, they’ve backpedaled on a lot of those commitments. You might remember they created the Housing Affordability Task Force. That task force produced a long list of recommendations, but the province hasn’t adopted the most meaningful ones. Housing is now worse — not only from a pricing perspective for the average homebuyer or renter, but also as a sector of the economy that employs people. All the headlines today are about how badly our housing industry is doing. I think this is a direct result of policy decisions — or, in many cases, inaction.
On another front, we saw a report this morning from a Montreal-based group that found Ontario is now the highest-spending province on corporate subsidies. That used to be Quebec. Effectively, this government’s economic policy has been to write big checks to preferred industries and companies, instead of pursuing broad-based tax reform that would make Ontario’s economy more competitive and help businesses succeed more broadly. We see policies that pick winners and losers, often based on which industries have the best connections — through the right lobbying firms tied into the Premier’s Office.
We started this by saying: ’What’s the dashboard of metrics? Is the province doing well or poorly on them? If it’s doing poorly, let’s diagnose why, and outline what we think could be done instead.’”
Do you think Doug Ford is an obstacle to advancing conservative values in this province? Is it that you’d like to see him gone, or is it that you want him to push more to the right?
“I don’t know that I’d frame it as wanting him to go ‘more to the right’ or ‘less to the right,’ because I don’t think all of these policies fall neatly on that spectrum. Even on housing policy, for example, we’ve seen pretty broad consensus across the political spectrum — there are nuanced differences between what an NDP platform might look like versus a Conservative platform, but generally you’ve seen agreement at all levels of government. We need to cut red tape, reduce taxes and fees, and allow developers to build so that we can increase supply. I don’t know that that’s inherently right-wing or left-wing.
I think what’s happening with Doug Ford is more about governing by public opinion polling — being highly sensitive to what the polling says, especially on issues that are contentious within certain demographics.
So no, I wouldn’t say the goal is to push him further right. The goal is to look at these problems and solve them. Is Doug Ford an impediment? Well, this isn’t an organized effort to push for a leadership race to replace him. Coincidentally, we became public around the same time as the New Leaf Liberals, and their outcome is clear now with Bonnie Crombie leaving the Liberal Party — but that’s not what this is.
I think Doug Ford can remain premier as long as he wants, based on current polling. But the reality is, one day he won’t be premier. Whenever that day comes — whether that’s a year from now because the Liberals or NDP get their act together, or 10 years from now because he decides he’s done — we need to be putting these ideas out there. The question is: what are the principles and ideas we want to be championing as a conservative movement in Ontario?
In a perfect world, this government would adopt those ideas right away. In a second scenario, maybe a future leadership candidate will adopt them in the post-Ford era. I won’t pretend to know the timeline.
You’ve been leading your emails with ’When conservatives lose their principles, Ontario loses its way.’ That makes me wonder: you’ve said this isn’t really about a turn to the right. Then what is it about?
“Well, it’s about knowing what those principles are and standing by them with conviction. If you take away the specific political context of Ontario and just ask a Canadian conservative — in most provinces, federally or provincially — ‘What do you stand for as a conservative? What do you believe?’ you’ll generally hear the same themes. Things like: we believe in the power of the free market. We believe in a competitive tax regime that allows businesses to improve productivity and grow the economy. We believe it’s the market — not the government — that grows prosperity. We believe parents should be at the center of education—not the teachers’ unions, not the public school boards. We believe healthcare should be reformed to allow for better outcomes and more choice.
These are the kinds of things most conservatives would agree are core principles. And if you’re not governing with those principles in mind — if you’re just governing based on issues management and putting out fires — it feels like flailing. It begs the question: What are you actually trying to accomplish as a government?
We’ve had this debate within our own broader conservative tent. Some argue, ’Well, we can’t accomplish anything if we don’t get elected. Doug Ford is very good at getting elected.’ And our retort is: Sure — but if we keep getting elected and never accomplish the things we actually believe in, then what’s the point of winning?”
But you said it’s not a push to get rid of Doug Ford. What we saw with the New Leaf Liberals was an organized push to get rid of Bonnie Crombie. And you’re saying this is not that. So then — what is it? How do you actually put pressure on Premier Ford and on the party apparatus to adopt the changes you want?
“I wouldn’t compare us to the New Leaf Liberals. In their case, the speculation, which I think has now been mostly confirmed, was that you had a leadership candidate behind the scenes organizing to shake things up and create a chance to run. In that case, Nate Erskine-Smith. And you had a very explicit set of demands: push for a leadership review, with the goal of forcing a race. They didn’t shy away from that.
What we’re doing is something else. The political landscape — provincially and federally — is shifting a lot right now. Looking two to five years ahead, we simply can’t predict what’s coming. We can’t predict who the next Liberal leader will be, or whether they’ll pose a real challenge to Doug Ford in an election. That could, for the first time in a long time, create a moment of weakness that makes the party question whether it’s time for renewal. That doesn’t necessarily have to come from people who dislike Ford — it’s just the natural cycle of politics.
So for us, the point is: we don’t think we’ll be the ones directly pressuring Ford to leave or to change course. What we do think we can do is help prep the stage for whoever comes next. Because if Ford left sooner than expected, there would be a massive scramble, and that vacuum could be filled by anyone. We want to make sure that whoever it is, there’s already a body of work — ideas, principles, policy prescriptions — ready to shape the conversation.
And frankly, another thing driving us is the lack of provincial think-tank infrastructure. Federally, you’ve got organizations like the Fraser Institute, C.D. Howe, Macdonald-Laurier — groups that churn out research, reports, critiques and recommendations. That doesn’t really exist at the provincial level. Here, what you mostly have is lobbyists. And those lobbyists, with the right clients and the right connections, end up shaping what the government prioritizes. That’s the reality.
So, I get the sense you’re in this for the long haul.
“Yeah, exactly. What that looks like is still to be determined. Naturally, these things take energy, time, and focus from people. So there’s still a question of what form it ultimately takes.
But I can say, speaking on behalf of many of the people contributing, there’s definitely an appetite to stay the course—as long as it takes to normalize these ideas, to shift the Overton window within the Ontario PC Party, and to get people inside the party apparatus asking: ’Why are we not listening to these types of ideas? Why are we boxing people like this out as opposed to inviting them in?’
What are you hearing as to how the Premier and those around him are reacting? How has the reaction been?
“I can’t speak to the Premier directly. I suspect a lot of this stuff is kept from him, just because it’s small stuff. But I know folks close to the Premier — whether in the leadership of the PC Party or in big, provincial-focused lobbying firms that have direct access to the Premier’s Office — we’ve heard directly from them that they’d like us to back down. Keep our criticism private. Bring this discussion within the party apparatus. Have this debate at a convention, as opposed to in the pages of a newspaper. That’s been some of the feedback.
The other feedback we’ve heard, secondhand, is that a lot of people who would otherwise want to join us, contribute to us, or participate in events we’re hosting are being told in no uncertain terms by their clients, their bosses, or their contacts in government that if they associate with what we’re doing, it will cost them. For example, if you’re a lobbyist with a particular client on a particular file, and you’re seen to be participating in Project Ontario, maybe all of a sudden your file gets deprioritized. We’ve heard that from more than a few people.
From people in government?
“No, from people we’ve reached out to—people we’ve invited to contribute or attend our events. They’ve said, ‘Hey, I really like what you guys are doing, but I got a call from my client, who was told in no uncertain terms by somebody in government that they don’t like what we’re up to.’ Again, to a certain extent this is hearsay, but we’ve heard it frequently enough that we know there are people close to the Premier who are discouraging others from associating with us.”
Finally, I want to get your reaction to what some well-placed Tories have been saying about this project. One said sarcastically: “[it’s] Conservatives who’ve decided that all the electoral success we’ve had over the last ten years federally needs to be imported to Ontario.” Another added: “There are people who have never accepted that it is the job of a political party to win elections.” Thoughts?
“Well, to that first comment, I think what’s happened federally is a little bit relevant. For one, we’ve seen three federal Conservative leaders over that decade — all with very different approaches, very different priorities, and frankly, very different mistakes. Whether you go back to Andrew Scheer, Erin O’Toole, or, in the most recent election, Pierre Poilievre, I don’t think there’s one way to characterize that era. To me, it feels like three very distinct eras under three very distinct leaders.
So, you know, it’s easy to criticize the lack of federal success. It’s also easy to dismiss the very unique political talent that was Justin Trudeau. There is no Justin Trudeau sitting in the ranks of the Ontario Liberal Party, right? So my response would be that we have benefited provincially from a disorganized and weak opposition for a number of years, whereas that was not the case federally. Federally, we had a very strong, organized, and popular opponent in the Liberal Party of Canada under Justin Trudeau, and more recently under Mark Carney. The political context is very different. So I’m not sure I buy that argument.
Now, to the second comment — we’ve heard this one a lot, the idea that the job of political parties is simply to win elections. I’ll say this: broadly speaking, we’re not naive. Many of us have been directly involved in political campaigns and organizing. We know you need to win elections. But we don’t think it stops there. What’s the point of winning if you don’t have an agenda, a set of policies, or a set of principles you intend to reflect while governing? Winning for the sake of winning — and popularity for the sake of popularity — does not improve the lives of Ontarians. We hear all the time: How can you criticize Doug Ford? He’s sitting at 53% in the polls, or 48%, depending on the poll. My response is: Yes, but our GDP growth is weaker than every other province, our healthcare wait times are getting worse, not better, and our housing prices and housing completions are the worst in the country. You can be as popular as you want, but if those fundamental metrics aren’t improving, popularity is irrelevant. That’s the weakness in that line of thinking. And eventually, this catches up to a political party. People feel the challenges of their daily lives.
The way I’d frame it is this: political leaders are not elected to follow public opinion polling. They’re elected to set public opinion in the direction of solutions. Strong leadership means changing people’s opinions, not just following them.
To me, it’s weak leadership to just say, ‘We’ll do what people want.’ Strong leadership is saying, ‘Here are the solutions,’ and then convincing people they’re the right path. That’s what we don’t see from this government.”
A message from Next Campaign:
— T-14 days until the House is back.
— The Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs will meet at 10 a.m. tomorrow to swap out ex-PC MPP Chris Scott with PC MPP Steve Pinsonneault. A closed session will begin at 10:15 a.m.
— Here’s what’s up on the fundraising trail this week:
Recall: The Tories’ $1,500-a-ticket Leader’s Dinner — once “problematic” for the Ford government — is set for Wednesday, November 19 in Toronto. Registration will close on Sunday, November 16. Get your ticket.
Also happening this week:
Save the date: Premier Ford will speak at the Empire Club on Tuesday, October 14, followed by a sit-down with Ben Mulroney. RSVP.
— Fall fun: Fall Festival is back on Saturday, October 18. “From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., visitors of all ages can enjoy live performances, tours, crafts, activities and more.”
— Know a seventh or eighth grader? Applications to become a Legislative Page are open until November 15.
— Digging in: Ex-PC Chris Scott — charged with assault and assault with a weapon — says he’s taking “a short leave from partisan and non-essential public appearances” but doesn’t plan to give up his seat.
What he’s saying: “I... remain fully committed to serving the people of Sault Ste. Marie as I was elected to do,” he said in a Thursday statement.
On the charges: “I have retained counsel to represent me. I have trust and confidence in the criminal justice system. While the case is before the Court, it is inappropriate to comment further about the charges. Out of respect for everyone involved — especially my children — I ask that my family’s privacy be respected through this process.”
The reaction: Sault Ste. Marie’s mayor says Scott should quit.
“A leave of absence is unacceptable for our community, given the enormity of the challenges we face that fall directly within the purview of the provincial government,” Matthew Shoemaker said. “While the courts can and will determine legal guilt, the economic and social realities in our community require a representative whose personal scandals do not take precedence over local needs.”
According to the Sault Star, His Worship’s plan is “simply to step around Scott.”
Meanwhile, the Ontario Federation of Labour says it’s “done waiting.” “It is time for him to step aside so Sault Ste. Marie has an MPP who is ready to lead and won’t cause further harm to the community, or shame to the position they hold,” president Laura Walton wrote.
Recall: The Soo was a toss-up in the February election, where the NDP went all-in to boost Lisa Vezeau-Allen. A by-election, some say, could give Marit Stiles a shot at growing her 27-member bench. (It’d be a much-needed win for Stiles post-68 per cent leadership review).
— More on Project Ontario: “A generation of young, smart, right-leaning activists is talking about the change they feel is needed in Ontario,” Robert Benzie wrote.
Chris Selley added: “If there’s a ‘bunch of yahoos’ in Ontario politics, it’s certainly not Project Ontario.”
From the Gardiner Museum, Graeme Gordon said: “They see the premier as reactive with no ideological moorings. They added that a stagnant economy and an increase in government handouts have led to a culture of ‘zero-sum’ politics, where, instead of a growth mindset, lobbying for government money has become the normalized pattern of behaviour.”
— What’s the threshold to get a ticket from Toronto’s speed camera program? Mahdis Habibinia digs in. “According to a source with direct knowledge of the ticketing process, the threshold for a ticket using a Toronto speed camera is never less than 11 km/h over the posted limit.”
— Bureaucracy be damned: “Ford government labour ministers have selected groups to receive hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars for worker-training programs against the advice of civil servants who’d evaluated their funding applications, Ontario’s auditor general has found.” More from The Trillium.
— Blame game: “Ottawa Public Health says it’s being forced to close a supervised consumption site in the city’s ByWard Market area because Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones hasn’t given her permission for it to remain open.” Catch up from Canadian Press.
— “A woman from Guelph, Ont. has lost tens of thousands of dollars to a scam that claimed Ontario Premier Doug Ford was launching a new cryptocurrency.” CP24 has more.
— Charged: “A former union branch representative with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) is facing charges in connection with allegedly misappropriating more than $100,000 in union funds, police say. Mark Babcook, the former branch president of OPSEU Local 228, was charged with fraud over $5,000 and possession of property obtained by crime.” Read on from CBC.
The Ford government was quick to pounce. “... I would like to understand which steps OPSEU is taking to ensure that the bargaining process remains above reproach and free from distraction,” wrote Treasury Board president Caroline Mulroney.
The union says it took action. “New local elections are scheduled for this month,” they said. “The local will have a new bank account with updated signing authorities and oversight protocols, including safeguards to prevent any one individual from having sole access to, or control of, local funds.”
— Brad Bradford says he’s running to be Toronto’s next mayor. Watch.
Recall: “Internal polling by Abacus... found Bradford as best-positioned to take on Chow.” Catch up.
— Education workers hit the lawn this weekend, urging action on what they describe as a crisis in schools. Watch.
— If you blinked: The Ford government’s draft regulation outlining how Special Economic Zones will be designated is now out.
— On the #onpoli podcast, Marit Stiles spoke about her leadership review. “We’ve had three of our top people resign in light of the results and I think it’s time for change,” the NDP leader said. “They thought it was too.” Catch up.
— Is Doug Ford laying a trap for his political opponents by banning photo radar? Martin Regg Cohn thinks so.
— It’s been 5,077 days since work began on the Eglinton Crosstown. “For the public, they just want the trains running; they are fed up with finger pointing,” Brian Lilley says
— Susan Delacourt argues the road ahead for Mark Carney won’t be an easy one.
— John Michael McGrath says a climate plan is within Ford’s reach — if he wants it.
— “If the Liberals choose to remain a sideshow, relying on a small circle of insiders, they should prepare for another decade in political purgatory,” Sharan Kaur writes.
— A new poll by Abacus found Pierre Poilievre’s Tories up by one point over Mark Carney’s Liberals. “Among those certain to vote, the Liberals edge ahead with 43 per cent, a 2-point lead over the Conservatives,” wrote David Colletto, “suggesting turnout advantage might still matter.”
Political moves, career milestones, sightings? Send ‘em in.
— OOTD: Bobbi Ann Brady got a fashion appreciation post. To which Aislinn Clancy replied: “I prefer her as a cow girl.”
— The Travis Dhanraj-Karman Wong podcast — “Can’t Be Censored” — is taking heat on X.
— Henley Strategies is growing. Sydney Pothakos and Joanna Bailey have joined the Toronto-based shop, which is hiring. “They’ve already hit the ground running and are supporting clients with expert public affairs and communications advice,” CEO Laryssa Waler wrote.
Pothakos, the ex-policy advisor to Todd McCarthy, was the Tories’ candidate in University-Rosedale. Bailey worked for Matheson Constructors, and earlier, the Greater Toronto Airports Authority.
— Vaughan mayor (and ex-Liberal leader) Steven Del Duca and his wife, Utilia, celebrated their 20-year anniversary.
— Jamil Jivani is hosting a “Restore the North” tour. First up: University of Guelph, UTM and Toronto Metropolitan University.
— Episode 1 of The Premier Files is out, feat. Bob Rae.
— Doly Begum voiced support for the Global Sumud Flotilla.
Thank you for reading POLICORNER. Got thoughts on Project Ontario — good, bad or yahoo? How are you gearing up for the fall session? Hit reply and you’ll stay anonymous. We’re back in your inbox on Monday, October 20.
Q+A — Is Doug Ford true-blue?
Meet Project Ontario, a “grassroots group” pushing the Tories to tack right. “It’s a group of small-c Ontario conservatives that came together with a shared frustration,” co-founder Matt Spoke said, describing a party that prizes polling over principal and survival over substance.
They see themselves as the conscience of the party. “Some argue, ‘Well, we can’t accomplish anything if we don’t get elected. Doug Ford is very good at getting elected,’” he said on a call. “And our retort is: Sure — but if we keep getting elected and never accomplish the things we actually believe in, then what’s the point of winning?”
Though they insist this isn’t a push to oust Mr. Premier — this isn’t the New Leaf Liberals, they say — Spoke says Team Ford is already feeling the heat. Back-channel pressure is mounting, he says, to keep people from associating with the group. Ford, himself, has described the right-wing think tank as “a bunch of radical rights.”
Recall: The Progressive Conservatives timed their upcoming convention for the same weekend as the federal convention — a quiet bid to keep the “crazies” at bay.
We caught up with Spoke to talk Project Ontario — what they want, why now and how Team Ford is reacting.
Here’s our conversation, edited for length and clarity:
First things first — what is Project Ontario?
“Project Ontario is not a formal organization. It’s a group of small-c Ontario conservatives that came together with a shared frustration: we’re not seeing the policy accomplishments we would have liked from a PC government, particularly after, call it, seven and a half years in office. It started with the basic premise that we should be writing down and putting into the public domain more of these policy prescriptions for the problems we believe are facing the province. It’s evolved a little since then, but ultimately, that’s what this is: a group of people with ideas who would like to see some of those ideas prioritized within government. That’s gathered some attention — both positive and negative. Positive in the sense that many people agree with us and want to participate and contribute; negative in the sense that we’ve been characterized as hostile or as attacking the current sitting government.”
What has this government not done that you’re unhappy about?
“I’d say the starting point for us is looking at major metrics that indicate whether things are getting better or worse in the province. That began with a view of our macroeconomic indicators. Is our GDP growth doing better or worse than our peers — both in Canada and in other competing Western jurisdictions? Is the cost of living going up or down? Is the cost of housing going up or down? Are healthcare wait times improving? Are outcomes in education improving?
So it starts with a kind of dashboard: ‘how would you measure the success of a government across major policy portfolios?’ And then, within those, we can start nitpicking at the particular policies we think have either been misprioritized or completely overloaded.
Take housing, for example. This government started with very strong rhetoric on housing policy reforms. In fact, in 2018, when they first came into government, they kicked things off with what we thought was a strong bill — Bill 108 — and a relatively empowered and effective Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs at the time. Since then, they’ve backpedaled on a lot of those commitments. You might remember they created the Housing Affordability Task Force. That task force produced a long list of recommendations, but the province hasn’t adopted the most meaningful ones. Housing is now worse — not only from a pricing perspective for the average homebuyer or renter, but also as a sector of the economy that employs people. All the headlines today are about how badly our housing industry is doing. I think this is a direct result of policy decisions — or, in many cases, inaction.
On another front, we saw a report this morning from a Montreal-based group that found Ontario is now the highest-spending province on corporate subsidies. That used to be Quebec. Effectively, this government’s economic policy has been to write big checks to preferred industries and companies, instead of pursuing broad-based tax reform that would make Ontario’s economy more competitive and help businesses succeed more broadly. We see policies that pick winners and losers, often based on which industries have the best connections — through the right lobbying firms tied into the Premier’s Office.
We started this by saying: ’What’s the dashboard of metrics? Is the province doing well or poorly on them? If it’s doing poorly, let’s diagnose why, and outline what we think could be done instead.’”
Do you think Doug Ford is an obstacle to advancing conservative values in this province? Is it that you’d like to see him gone, or is it that you want him to push more to the right?
“I don’t know that I’d frame it as wanting him to go ‘more to the right’ or ‘less to the right,’ because I don’t think all of these policies fall neatly on that spectrum. Even on housing policy, for example, we’ve seen pretty broad consensus across the political spectrum — there are nuanced differences between what an NDP platform might look like versus a Conservative platform, but generally you’ve seen agreement at all levels of government. We need to cut red tape, reduce taxes and fees, and allow developers to build so that we can increase supply. I don’t know that that’s inherently right-wing or left-wing.
I think what’s happening with Doug Ford is more about governing by public opinion polling — being highly sensitive to what the polling says, especially on issues that are contentious within certain demographics.
So no, I wouldn’t say the goal is to push him further right. The goal is to look at these problems and solve them. Is Doug Ford an impediment? Well, this isn’t an organized effort to push for a leadership race to replace him. Coincidentally, we became public around the same time as the New Leaf Liberals, and their outcome is clear now with Bonnie Crombie leaving the Liberal Party — but that’s not what this is.
I think Doug Ford can remain premier as long as he wants, based on current polling. But the reality is, one day he won’t be premier. Whenever that day comes — whether that’s a year from now because the Liberals or NDP get their act together, or 10 years from now because he decides he’s done — we need to be putting these ideas out there. The question is: what are the principles and ideas we want to be championing as a conservative movement in Ontario?
In a perfect world, this government would adopt those ideas right away. In a second scenario, maybe a future leadership candidate will adopt them in the post-Ford era. I won’t pretend to know the timeline.
You’ve been leading your emails with ’When conservatives lose their principles, Ontario loses its way.’ That makes me wonder: you’ve said this isn’t really about a turn to the right. Then what is it about?
“Well, it’s about knowing what those principles are and standing by them with conviction. If you take away the specific political context of Ontario and just ask a Canadian conservative — in most provinces, federally or provincially — ‘What do you stand for as a conservative? What do you believe?’ you’ll generally hear the same themes. Things like: we believe in the power of the free market. We believe in a competitive tax regime that allows businesses to improve productivity and grow the economy. We believe it’s the market — not the government — that grows prosperity. We believe parents should be at the center of education—not the teachers’ unions, not the public school boards. We believe healthcare should be reformed to allow for better outcomes and more choice.
These are the kinds of things most conservatives would agree are core principles. And if you’re not governing with those principles in mind — if you’re just governing based on issues management and putting out fires — it feels like flailing. It begs the question: What are you actually trying to accomplish as a government?
We’ve had this debate within our own broader conservative tent. Some argue, ’Well, we can’t accomplish anything if we don’t get elected. Doug Ford is very good at getting elected.’ And our retort is: Sure — but if we keep getting elected and never accomplish the things we actually believe in, then what’s the point of winning?”
But you said it’s not a push to get rid of Doug Ford. What we saw with the New Leaf Liberals was an organized push to get rid of Bonnie Crombie. And you’re saying this is not that. So then — what is it? How do you actually put pressure on Premier Ford and on the party apparatus to adopt the changes you want?
“I wouldn’t compare us to the New Leaf Liberals. In their case, the speculation, which I think has now been mostly confirmed, was that you had a leadership candidate behind the scenes organizing to shake things up and create a chance to run. In that case, Nate Erskine-Smith. And you had a very explicit set of demands: push for a leadership review, with the goal of forcing a race. They didn’t shy away from that.
What we’re doing is something else. The political landscape — provincially and federally — is shifting a lot right now. Looking two to five years ahead, we simply can’t predict what’s coming. We can’t predict who the next Liberal leader will be, or whether they’ll pose a real challenge to Doug Ford in an election. That could, for the first time in a long time, create a moment of weakness that makes the party question whether it’s time for renewal. That doesn’t necessarily have to come from people who dislike Ford — it’s just the natural cycle of politics.
So for us, the point is: we don’t think we’ll be the ones directly pressuring Ford to leave or to change course. What we do think we can do is help prep the stage for whoever comes next. Because if Ford left sooner than expected, there would be a massive scramble, and that vacuum could be filled by anyone. We want to make sure that whoever it is, there’s already a body of work — ideas, principles, policy prescriptions — ready to shape the conversation.
And frankly, another thing driving us is the lack of provincial think-tank infrastructure. Federally, you’ve got organizations like the Fraser Institute, C.D. Howe, Macdonald-Laurier — groups that churn out research, reports, critiques and recommendations. That doesn’t really exist at the provincial level. Here, what you mostly have is lobbyists. And those lobbyists, with the right clients and the right connections, end up shaping what the government prioritizes. That’s the reality.
So, I get the sense you’re in this for the long haul.
“Yeah, exactly. What that looks like is still to be determined. Naturally, these things take energy, time, and focus from people. So there’s still a question of what form it ultimately takes.
But I can say, speaking on behalf of many of the people contributing, there’s definitely an appetite to stay the course—as long as it takes to normalize these ideas, to shift the Overton window within the Ontario PC Party, and to get people inside the party apparatus asking: ’Why are we not listening to these types of ideas? Why are we boxing people like this out as opposed to inviting them in?’
What are you hearing as to how the Premier and those around him are reacting? How has the reaction been?
“I can’t speak to the Premier directly. I suspect a lot of this stuff is kept from him, just because it’s small stuff. But I know folks close to the Premier — whether in the leadership of the PC Party or in big, provincial-focused lobbying firms that have direct access to the Premier’s Office — we’ve heard directly from them that they’d like us to back down. Keep our criticism private. Bring this discussion within the party apparatus. Have this debate at a convention, as opposed to in the pages of a newspaper. That’s been some of the feedback.
The other feedback we’ve heard, secondhand, is that a lot of people who would otherwise want to join us, contribute to us, or participate in events we’re hosting are being told in no uncertain terms by their clients, their bosses, or their contacts in government that if they associate with what we’re doing, it will cost them. For example, if you’re a lobbyist with a particular client on a particular file, and you’re seen to be participating in Project Ontario, maybe all of a sudden your file gets deprioritized. We’ve heard that from more than a few people.
From people in government?
“No, from people we’ve reached out to—people we’ve invited to contribute or attend our events. They’ve said, ‘Hey, I really like what you guys are doing, but I got a call from my client, who was told in no uncertain terms by somebody in government that they don’t like what we’re up to.’ Again, to a certain extent this is hearsay, but we’ve heard it frequently enough that we know there are people close to the Premier who are discouraging others from associating with us.”
Finally, I want to get your reaction to what some well-placed Tories have been saying about this project. One said sarcastically: “[it’s] Conservatives who’ve decided that all the electoral success we’ve had over the last ten years federally needs to be imported to Ontario.” Another added: “There are people who have never accepted that it is the job of a political party to win elections.” Thoughts?
“Well, to that first comment, I think what’s happened federally is a little bit relevant. For one, we’ve seen three federal Conservative leaders over that decade — all with very different approaches, very different priorities, and frankly, very different mistakes. Whether you go back to Andrew Scheer, Erin O’Toole, or, in the most recent election, Pierre Poilievre, I don’t think there’s one way to characterize that era. To me, it feels like three very distinct eras under three very distinct leaders.
So, you know, it’s easy to criticize the lack of federal success. It’s also easy to dismiss the very unique political talent that was Justin Trudeau. There is no Justin Trudeau sitting in the ranks of the Ontario Liberal Party, right? So my response would be that we have benefited provincially from a disorganized and weak opposition for a number of years, whereas that was not the case federally. Federally, we had a very strong, organized, and popular opponent in the Liberal Party of Canada under Justin Trudeau, and more recently under Mark Carney. The political context is very different. So I’m not sure I buy that argument.
Now, to the second comment — we’ve heard this one a lot, the idea that the job of political parties is simply to win elections. I’ll say this: broadly speaking, we’re not naive. Many of us have been directly involved in political campaigns and organizing. We know you need to win elections. But we don’t think it stops there. What’s the point of winning if you don’t have an agenda, a set of policies, or a set of principles you intend to reflect while governing? Winning for the sake of winning — and popularity for the sake of popularity — does not improve the lives of Ontarians. We hear all the time: How can you criticize Doug Ford? He’s sitting at 53% in the polls, or 48%, depending on the poll. My response is: Yes, but our GDP growth is weaker than every other province, our healthcare wait times are getting worse, not better, and our housing prices and housing completions are the worst in the country. You can be as popular as you want, but if those fundamental metrics aren’t improving, popularity is irrelevant. That’s the weakness in that line of thinking. And eventually, this catches up to a political party. People feel the challenges of their daily lives.
The way I’d frame it is this: political leaders are not elected to follow public opinion polling. They’re elected to set public opinion in the direction of solutions. Strong leadership means changing people’s opinions, not just following them.
To me, it’s weak leadership to just say, ‘We’ll do what people want.’ Strong leadership is saying, ‘Here are the solutions,’ and then convincing people they’re the right path. That’s what we don’t see from this government.”
A message from Next Campaign:
— T-14 days until the House is back.
— The Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs will meet at 10 a.m. tomorrow to swap out ex-PC MPP Chris Scott with PC MPP Steve Pinsonneault. A closed session will begin at 10:15 a.m.
— Here’s what’s up on the fundraising trail this week:
Recall: The Tories’ $1,500-a-ticket Leader’s Dinner — once “problematic” for the Ford government — is set for Wednesday, November 19 in Toronto. Registration will close on Sunday, November 16. Get your ticket.
Also happening this week:
Save the date: Premier Ford will speak at the Empire Club on Tuesday, October 14, followed by a sit-down with Ben Mulroney. RSVP.
— Fall fun: Fall Festival is back on Saturday, October 18. “From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., visitors of all ages can enjoy live performances, tours, crafts, activities and more.”
— Know a seventh or eighth grader? Applications to become a Legislative Page are open until November 15.
— Digging in: Ex-PC Chris Scott — charged with assault and assault with a weapon — says he’s taking “a short leave from partisan and non-essential public appearances” but doesn’t plan to give up his seat.
What he’s saying: “I... remain fully committed to serving the people of Sault Ste. Marie as I was elected to do,” he said in a Thursday statement.
On the charges: “I have retained counsel to represent me. I have trust and confidence in the criminal justice system. While the case is before the Court, it is inappropriate to comment further about the charges. Out of respect for everyone involved — especially my children — I ask that my family’s privacy be respected through this process.”
The reaction: Sault Ste. Marie’s mayor says Scott should quit.
“A leave of absence is unacceptable for our community, given the enormity of the challenges we face that fall directly within the purview of the provincial government,” Matthew Shoemaker said. “While the courts can and will determine legal guilt, the economic and social realities in our community require a representative whose personal scandals do not take precedence over local needs.”
According to the Sault Star, His Worship’s plan is “simply to step around Scott.”
Meanwhile, the Ontario Federation of Labour says it’s “done waiting.” “It is time for him to step aside so Sault Ste. Marie has an MPP who is ready to lead and won’t cause further harm to the community, or shame to the position they hold,” president Laura Walton wrote.
Recall: The Soo was a toss-up in the February election, where the NDP went all-in to boost Lisa Vezeau-Allen. A by-election, some say, could give Marit Stiles a shot at growing her 27-member bench. (It’d be a much-needed win for Stiles post-68 per cent leadership review).
— More on Project Ontario: “A generation of young, smart, right-leaning activists is talking about the change they feel is needed in Ontario,” Robert Benzie wrote.
Chris Selley added: “If there’s a ‘bunch of yahoos’ in Ontario politics, it’s certainly not Project Ontario.”
From the Gardiner Museum, Graeme Gordon said: “They see the premier as reactive with no ideological moorings. They added that a stagnant economy and an increase in government handouts have led to a culture of ‘zero-sum’ politics, where, instead of a growth mindset, lobbying for government money has become the normalized pattern of behaviour.”
— What’s the threshold to get a ticket from Toronto’s speed camera program? Mahdis Habibinia digs in. “According to a source with direct knowledge of the ticketing process, the threshold for a ticket using a Toronto speed camera is never less than 11 km/h over the posted limit.”
— Bureaucracy be damned: “Ford government labour ministers have selected groups to receive hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars for worker-training programs against the advice of civil servants who’d evaluated their funding applications, Ontario’s auditor general has found.” More from The Trillium.
— Blame game: “Ottawa Public Health says it’s being forced to close a supervised consumption site in the city’s ByWard Market area because Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones hasn’t given her permission for it to remain open.” Catch up from Canadian Press.
— “A woman from Guelph, Ont. has lost tens of thousands of dollars to a scam that claimed Ontario Premier Doug Ford was launching a new cryptocurrency.” CP24 has more.
— Charged: “A former union branch representative with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) is facing charges in connection with allegedly misappropriating more than $100,000 in union funds, police say. Mark Babcook, the former branch president of OPSEU Local 228, was charged with fraud over $5,000 and possession of property obtained by crime.” Read on from CBC.
The Ford government was quick to pounce. “... I would like to understand which steps OPSEU is taking to ensure that the bargaining process remains above reproach and free from distraction,” wrote Treasury Board president Caroline Mulroney.
The union says it took action. “New local elections are scheduled for this month,” they said. “The local will have a new bank account with updated signing authorities and oversight protocols, including safeguards to prevent any one individual from having sole access to, or control of, local funds.”
— Brad Bradford says he’s running to be Toronto’s next mayor. Watch.
Recall: “Internal polling by Abacus... found Bradford as best-positioned to take on Chow.” Catch up.
— Education workers hit the lawn this weekend, urging action on what they describe as a crisis in schools. Watch.
— If you blinked: The Ford government’s draft regulation outlining how Special Economic Zones will be designated is now out.
— On the #onpoli podcast, Marit Stiles spoke about her leadership review. “We’ve had three of our top people resign in light of the results and I think it’s time for change,” the NDP leader said. “They thought it was too.” Catch up.
— Is Doug Ford laying a trap for his political opponents by banning photo radar? Martin Regg Cohn thinks so.
— It’s been 5,077 days since work began on the Eglinton Crosstown. “For the public, they just want the trains running; they are fed up with finger pointing,” Brian Lilley says
— Susan Delacourt argues the road ahead for Mark Carney won’t be an easy one.
— John Michael McGrath says a climate plan is within Ford’s reach — if he wants it.
— “If the Liberals choose to remain a sideshow, relying on a small circle of insiders, they should prepare for another decade in political purgatory,” Sharan Kaur writes.
— A new poll by Abacus found Pierre Poilievre’s Tories up by one point over Mark Carney’s Liberals. “Among those certain to vote, the Liberals edge ahead with 43 per cent, a 2-point lead over the Conservatives,” wrote David Colletto, “suggesting turnout advantage might still matter.”
Political moves, career milestones, sightings? Send ‘em in.
— OOTD: Bobbi Ann Brady got a fashion appreciation post. To which Aislinn Clancy replied: “I prefer her as a cow girl.”
— The Travis Dhanraj-Karman Wong podcast — “Can’t Be Censored” — is taking heat on X.
— Henley Strategies is growing. Sydney Pothakos and Joanna Bailey have joined the Toronto-based shop, which is hiring. “They’ve already hit the ground running and are supporting clients with expert public affairs and communications advice,” CEO Laryssa Waler wrote.
Pothakos, the ex-policy advisor to Todd McCarthy, was the Tories’ candidate in University-Rosedale. Bailey worked for Matheson Constructors, and earlier, the Greater Toronto Airports Authority.
— Vaughan mayor (and ex-Liberal leader) Steven Del Duca and his wife, Utilia, celebrated their 20-year anniversary.
— Jamil Jivani is hosting a “Restore the North” tour. First up: University of Guelph, UTM and Toronto Metropolitan University.
— Episode 1 of The Premier Files is out, feat. Bob Rae.
— Doly Begum voiced support for the Global Sumud Flotilla.
Thank you for reading POLICORNER. Got thoughts on Project Ontario — good, bad or yahoo? How are you gearing up for the fall session? Hit reply and you’ll stay anonymous. We’re back in your inbox on Monday, October 20.
Q+A — Is Doug Ford true-blue?
Meet Project Ontario, a “grassroots group” pushing the Tories to tack right. “It’s a group of small-c Ontario conservatives that came together with a shared frustration,” co-founder Matt Spoke said, describing a party that prizes polling over principal and survival over substance.
They see themselves as the conscience of the party. “Some argue, ‘Well, we can’t accomplish anything if we don’t get elected. Doug Ford is very good at getting elected,’” he said on a call. “And our retort is: Sure — but if we keep getting elected and never accomplish the things we actually believe in, then what’s the point of winning?”
Though they insist this isn’t a push to oust Mr. Premier — this isn’t the New Leaf Liberals, they say — Spoke says Team Ford is already feeling the heat. Back-channel pressure is mounting, he says, to keep people from associating with the group. Ford, himself, has described the right-wing think tank as “a bunch of radical rights.”
Recall: The Progressive Conservatives timed their upcoming convention for the same weekend as the federal convention — a quiet bid to keep the “crazies” at bay.
We caught up with Spoke to talk Project Ontario — what they want, why now and how Team Ford is reacting.
Here’s our conversation, edited for length and clarity:
First things first — what is Project Ontario?
“Project Ontario is not a formal organization. It’s a group of small-c Ontario conservatives that came together with a shared frustration: we’re not seeing the policy accomplishments we would have liked from a PC government, particularly after, call it, seven and a half years in office. It started with the basic premise that we should be writing down and putting into the public domain more of these policy prescriptions for the problems we believe are facing the province. It’s evolved a little since then, but ultimately, that’s what this is: a group of people with ideas who would like to see some of those ideas prioritized within government. That’s gathered some attention — both positive and negative. Positive in the sense that many people agree with us and want to participate and contribute; negative in the sense that we’ve been characterized as hostile or as attacking the current sitting government.”
What has this government not done that you’re unhappy about?
“I’d say the starting point for us is looking at major metrics that indicate whether things are getting better or worse in the province. That began with a view of our macroeconomic indicators. Is our GDP growth doing better or worse than our peers — both in Canada and in other competing Western jurisdictions? Is the cost of living going up or down? Is the cost of housing going up or down? Are healthcare wait times improving? Are outcomes in education improving?
So it starts with a kind of dashboard: ‘how would you measure the success of a government across major policy portfolios?’ And then, within those, we can start nitpicking at the particular policies we think have either been misprioritized or completely overloaded.
Take housing, for example. This government started with very strong rhetoric on housing policy reforms. In fact, in 2018, when they first came into government, they kicked things off with what we thought was a strong bill — Bill 108 — and a relatively empowered and effective Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs at the time. Since then, they’ve backpedaled on a lot of those commitments. You might remember they created the Housing Affordability Task Force. That task force produced a long list of recommendations, but the province hasn’t adopted the most meaningful ones. Housing is now worse — not only from a pricing perspective for the average homebuyer or renter, but also as a sector of the economy that employs people. All the headlines today are about how badly our housing industry is doing. I think this is a direct result of policy decisions — or, in many cases, inaction.
On another front, we saw a report this morning from a Montreal-based group that found Ontario is now the highest-spending province on corporate subsidies. That used to be Quebec. Effectively, this government’s economic policy has been to write big checks to preferred industries and companies, instead of pursuing broad-based tax reform that would make Ontario’s economy more competitive and help businesses succeed more broadly. We see policies that pick winners and losers, often based on which industries have the best connections — through the right lobbying firms tied into the Premier’s Office.
We started this by saying: ’What’s the dashboard of metrics? Is the province doing well or poorly on them? If it’s doing poorly, let’s diagnose why, and outline what we think could be done instead.’”
Do you think Doug Ford is an obstacle to advancing conservative values in this province? Is it that you’d like to see him gone, or is it that you want him to push more to the right?
“I don’t know that I’d frame it as wanting him to go ‘more to the right’ or ‘less to the right,’ because I don’t think all of these policies fall neatly on that spectrum. Even on housing policy, for example, we’ve seen pretty broad consensus across the political spectrum — there are nuanced differences between what an NDP platform might look like versus a Conservative platform, but generally you’ve seen agreement at all levels of government. We need to cut red tape, reduce taxes and fees, and allow developers to build so that we can increase supply. I don’t know that that’s inherently right-wing or left-wing.
I think what’s happening with Doug Ford is more about governing by public opinion polling — being highly sensitive to what the polling says, especially on issues that are contentious within certain demographics.
So no, I wouldn’t say the goal is to push him further right. The goal is to look at these problems and solve them. Is Doug Ford an impediment? Well, this isn’t an organized effort to push for a leadership race to replace him. Coincidentally, we became public around the same time as the New Leaf Liberals, and their outcome is clear now with Bonnie Crombie leaving the Liberal Party — but that’s not what this is.
I think Doug Ford can remain premier as long as he wants, based on current polling. But the reality is, one day he won’t be premier. Whenever that day comes — whether that’s a year from now because the Liberals or NDP get their act together, or 10 years from now because he decides he’s done — we need to be putting these ideas out there. The question is: what are the principles and ideas we want to be championing as a conservative movement in Ontario?
In a perfect world, this government would adopt those ideas right away. In a second scenario, maybe a future leadership candidate will adopt them in the post-Ford era. I won’t pretend to know the timeline.
You’ve been leading your emails with ’When conservatives lose their principles, Ontario loses its way.’ That makes me wonder: you’ve said this isn’t really about a turn to the right. Then what is it about?
“Well, it’s about knowing what those principles are and standing by them with conviction. If you take away the specific political context of Ontario and just ask a Canadian conservative — in most provinces, federally or provincially — ‘What do you stand for as a conservative? What do you believe?’ you’ll generally hear the same themes. Things like: we believe in the power of the free market. We believe in a competitive tax regime that allows businesses to improve productivity and grow the economy. We believe it’s the market — not the government — that grows prosperity. We believe parents should be at the center of education—not the teachers’ unions, not the public school boards. We believe healthcare should be reformed to allow for better outcomes and more choice.
These are the kinds of things most conservatives would agree are core principles. And if you’re not governing with those principles in mind — if you’re just governing based on issues management and putting out fires — it feels like flailing. It begs the question: What are you actually trying to accomplish as a government?
We’ve had this debate within our own broader conservative tent. Some argue, ’Well, we can’t accomplish anything if we don’t get elected. Doug Ford is very good at getting elected.’ And our retort is: Sure — but if we keep getting elected and never accomplish the things we actually believe in, then what’s the point of winning?”
But you said it’s not a push to get rid of Doug Ford. What we saw with the New Leaf Liberals was an organized push to get rid of Bonnie Crombie. And you’re saying this is not that. So then — what is it? How do you actually put pressure on Premier Ford and on the party apparatus to adopt the changes you want?
“I wouldn’t compare us to the New Leaf Liberals. In their case, the speculation, which I think has now been mostly confirmed, was that you had a leadership candidate behind the scenes organizing to shake things up and create a chance to run. In that case, Nate Erskine-Smith. And you had a very explicit set of demands: push for a leadership review, with the goal of forcing a race. They didn’t shy away from that.
What we’re doing is something else. The political landscape — provincially and federally — is shifting a lot right now. Looking two to five years ahead, we simply can’t predict what’s coming. We can’t predict who the next Liberal leader will be, or whether they’ll pose a real challenge to Doug Ford in an election. That could, for the first time in a long time, create a moment of weakness that makes the party question whether it’s time for renewal. That doesn’t necessarily have to come from people who dislike Ford — it’s just the natural cycle of politics.
So for us, the point is: we don’t think we’ll be the ones directly pressuring Ford to leave or to change course. What we do think we can do is help prep the stage for whoever comes next. Because if Ford left sooner than expected, there would be a massive scramble, and that vacuum could be filled by anyone. We want to make sure that whoever it is, there’s already a body of work — ideas, principles, policy prescriptions — ready to shape the conversation.
And frankly, another thing driving us is the lack of provincial think-tank infrastructure. Federally, you’ve got organizations like the Fraser Institute, C.D. Howe, Macdonald-Laurier — groups that churn out research, reports, critiques and recommendations. That doesn’t really exist at the provincial level. Here, what you mostly have is lobbyists. And those lobbyists, with the right clients and the right connections, end up shaping what the government prioritizes. That’s the reality.
So, I get the sense you’re in this for the long haul.
“Yeah, exactly. What that looks like is still to be determined. Naturally, these things take energy, time, and focus from people. So there’s still a question of what form it ultimately takes.
But I can say, speaking on behalf of many of the people contributing, there’s definitely an appetite to stay the course—as long as it takes to normalize these ideas, to shift the Overton window within the Ontario PC Party, and to get people inside the party apparatus asking: ’Why are we not listening to these types of ideas? Why are we boxing people like this out as opposed to inviting them in?’
What are you hearing as to how the Premier and those around him are reacting? How has the reaction been?
“I can’t speak to the Premier directly. I suspect a lot of this stuff is kept from him, just because it’s small stuff. But I know folks close to the Premier — whether in the leadership of the PC Party or in big, provincial-focused lobbying firms that have direct access to the Premier’s Office — we’ve heard directly from them that they’d like us to back down. Keep our criticism private. Bring this discussion within the party apparatus. Have this debate at a convention, as opposed to in the pages of a newspaper. That’s been some of the feedback.
The other feedback we’ve heard, secondhand, is that a lot of people who would otherwise want to join us, contribute to us, or participate in events we’re hosting are being told in no uncertain terms by their clients, their bosses, or their contacts in government that if they associate with what we’re doing, it will cost them. For example, if you’re a lobbyist with a particular client on a particular file, and you’re seen to be participating in Project Ontario, maybe all of a sudden your file gets deprioritized. We’ve heard that from more than a few people.
From people in government?
“No, from people we’ve reached out to—people we’ve invited to contribute or attend our events. They’ve said, ‘Hey, I really like what you guys are doing, but I got a call from my client, who was told in no uncertain terms by somebody in government that they don’t like what we’re up to.’ Again, to a certain extent this is hearsay, but we’ve heard it frequently enough that we know there are people close to the Premier who are discouraging others from associating with us.”
Finally, I want to get your reaction to what some well-placed Tories have been saying about this project. One said sarcastically: “[it’s] Conservatives who’ve decided that all the electoral success we’ve had over the last ten years federally needs to be imported to Ontario.” Another added: “There are people who have never accepted that it is the job of a political party to win elections.” Thoughts?
“Well, to that first comment, I think what’s happened federally is a little bit relevant. For one, we’ve seen three federal Conservative leaders over that decade — all with very different approaches, very different priorities, and frankly, very different mistakes. Whether you go back to Andrew Scheer, Erin O’Toole, or, in the most recent election, Pierre Poilievre, I don’t think there’s one way to characterize that era. To me, it feels like three very distinct eras under three very distinct leaders.
So, you know, it’s easy to criticize the lack of federal success. It’s also easy to dismiss the very unique political talent that was Justin Trudeau. There is no Justin Trudeau sitting in the ranks of the Ontario Liberal Party, right? So my response would be that we have benefited provincially from a disorganized and weak opposition for a number of years, whereas that was not the case federally. Federally, we had a very strong, organized, and popular opponent in the Liberal Party of Canada under Justin Trudeau, and more recently under Mark Carney. The political context is very different. So I’m not sure I buy that argument.
Now, to the second comment — we’ve heard this one a lot, the idea that the job of political parties is simply to win elections. I’ll say this: broadly speaking, we’re not naive. Many of us have been directly involved in political campaigns and organizing. We know you need to win elections. But we don’t think it stops there. What’s the point of winning if you don’t have an agenda, a set of policies, or a set of principles you intend to reflect while governing? Winning for the sake of winning — and popularity for the sake of popularity — does not improve the lives of Ontarians. We hear all the time: How can you criticize Doug Ford? He’s sitting at 53% in the polls, or 48%, depending on the poll. My response is: Yes, but our GDP growth is weaker than every other province, our healthcare wait times are getting worse, not better, and our housing prices and housing completions are the worst in the country. You can be as popular as you want, but if those fundamental metrics aren’t improving, popularity is irrelevant. That’s the weakness in that line of thinking. And eventually, this catches up to a political party. People feel the challenges of their daily lives.
The way I’d frame it is this: political leaders are not elected to follow public opinion polling. They’re elected to set public opinion in the direction of solutions. Strong leadership means changing people’s opinions, not just following them.
To me, it’s weak leadership to just say, ‘We’ll do what people want.’ Strong leadership is saying, ‘Here are the solutions,’ and then convincing people they’re the right path. That’s what we don’t see from this government.”
A message from Next Campaign:
— T-14 days until the House is back.
— The Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs will meet at 10 a.m. tomorrow to swap out ex-PC MPP Chris Scott with PC MPP Steve Pinsonneault. A closed session will begin at 10:15 a.m.
— Here’s what’s up on the fundraising trail this week:
Recall: The Tories’ $1,500-a-ticket Leader’s Dinner — once “problematic” for the Ford government — is set for Wednesday, November 19 in Toronto. Registration will close on Sunday, November 16. Get your ticket.
Also happening this week:
Save the date: Premier Ford will speak at the Empire Club on Tuesday, October 14, followed by a sit-down with Ben Mulroney. RSVP.
— Fall fun: Fall Festival is back on Saturday, October 18. “From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., visitors of all ages can enjoy live performances, tours, crafts, activities and more.”
— Know a seventh or eighth grader? Applications to become a Legislative Page are open until November 15.
— Digging in: Ex-PC Chris Scott — charged with assault and assault with a weapon — says he’s taking “a short leave from partisan and non-essential public appearances” but doesn’t plan to give up his seat.
What he’s saying: “I... remain fully committed to serving the people of Sault Ste. Marie as I was elected to do,” he said in a Thursday statement.
On the charges: “I have retained counsel to represent me. I have trust and confidence in the criminal justice system. While the case is before the Court, it is inappropriate to comment further about the charges. Out of respect for everyone involved — especially my children — I ask that my family’s privacy be respected through this process.”
The reaction: Sault Ste. Marie’s mayor says Scott should quit.
“A leave of absence is unacceptable for our community, given the enormity of the challenges we face that fall directly within the purview of the provincial government,” Matthew Shoemaker said. “While the courts can and will determine legal guilt, the economic and social realities in our community require a representative whose personal scandals do not take precedence over local needs.”
According to the Sault Star, His Worship’s plan is “simply to step around Scott.”
Meanwhile, the Ontario Federation of Labour says it’s “done waiting.” “It is time for him to step aside so Sault Ste. Marie has an MPP who is ready to lead and won’t cause further harm to the community, or shame to the position they hold,” president Laura Walton wrote.
Recall: The Soo was a toss-up in the February election, where the NDP went all-in to boost Lisa Vezeau-Allen. A by-election, some say, could give Marit Stiles a shot at growing her 27-member bench. (It’d be a much-needed win for Stiles post-68 per cent leadership review).
— More on Project Ontario: “A generation of young, smart, right-leaning activists is talking about the change they feel is needed in Ontario,” Robert Benzie wrote.
Chris Selley added: “If there’s a ‘bunch of yahoos’ in Ontario politics, it’s certainly not Project Ontario.”
From the Gardiner Museum, Graeme Gordon said: “They see the premier as reactive with no ideological moorings. They added that a stagnant economy and an increase in government handouts have led to a culture of ‘zero-sum’ politics, where, instead of a growth mindset, lobbying for government money has become the normalized pattern of behaviour.”
— What’s the threshold to get a ticket from Toronto’s speed camera program? Mahdis Habibinia digs in. “According to a source with direct knowledge of the ticketing process, the threshold for a ticket using a Toronto speed camera is never less than 11 km/h over the posted limit.”
— Bureaucracy be damned: “Ford government labour ministers have selected groups to receive hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars for worker-training programs against the advice of civil servants who’d evaluated their funding applications, Ontario’s auditor general has found.” More from The Trillium.
— Blame game: “Ottawa Public Health says it’s being forced to close a supervised consumption site in the city’s ByWard Market area because Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones hasn’t given her permission for it to remain open.” Catch up from Canadian Press.
— “A woman from Guelph, Ont. has lost tens of thousands of dollars to a scam that claimed Ontario Premier Doug Ford was launching a new cryptocurrency.” CP24 has more.
— Charged: “A former union branch representative with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) is facing charges in connection with allegedly misappropriating more than $100,000 in union funds, police say. Mark Babcook, the former branch president of OPSEU Local 228, was charged with fraud over $5,000 and possession of property obtained by crime.” Read on from CBC.
The Ford government was quick to pounce. “... I would like to understand which steps OPSEU is taking to ensure that the bargaining process remains above reproach and free from distraction,” wrote Treasury Board president Caroline Mulroney.
The union says it took action. “New local elections are scheduled for this month,” they said. “The local will have a new bank account with updated signing authorities and oversight protocols, including safeguards to prevent any one individual from having sole access to, or control of, local funds.”
— Brad Bradford says he’s running to be Toronto’s next mayor. Watch.
Recall: “Internal polling by Abacus... found Bradford as best-positioned to take on Chow.” Catch up.
— Education workers hit the lawn this weekend, urging action on what they describe as a crisis in schools. Watch.
— If you blinked: The Ford government’s draft regulation outlining how Special Economic Zones will be designated is now out.
— On the #onpoli podcast, Marit Stiles spoke about her leadership review. “We’ve had three of our top people resign in light of the results and I think it’s time for change,” the NDP leader said. “They thought it was too.” Catch up.
— Is Doug Ford laying a trap for his political opponents by banning photo radar? Martin Regg Cohn thinks so.
— It’s been 5,077 days since work began on the Eglinton Crosstown. “For the public, they just want the trains running; they are fed up with finger pointing,” Brian Lilley says
— Susan Delacourt argues the road ahead for Mark Carney won’t be an easy one.
— John Michael McGrath says a climate plan is within Ford’s reach — if he wants it.
— “If the Liberals choose to remain a sideshow, relying on a small circle of insiders, they should prepare for another decade in political purgatory,” Sharan Kaur writes.
— A new poll by Abacus found Pierre Poilievre’s Tories up by one point over Mark Carney’s Liberals. “Among those certain to vote, the Liberals edge ahead with 43 per cent, a 2-point lead over the Conservatives,” wrote David Colletto, “suggesting turnout advantage might still matter.”
Political moves, career milestones, sightings? Send ‘em in.
— OOTD: Bobbi Ann Brady got a fashion appreciation post. To which Aislinn Clancy replied: “I prefer her as a cow girl.”
— The Travis Dhanraj-Karman Wong podcast — “Can’t Be Censored” — is taking heat on X.
— Henley Strategies is growing. Sydney Pothakos and Joanna Bailey have joined the Toronto-based shop, which is hiring. “They’ve already hit the ground running and are supporting clients with expert public affairs and communications advice,” CEO Laryssa Waler wrote.
Pothakos, the ex-policy advisor to Todd McCarthy, was the Tories’ candidate in University-Rosedale. Bailey worked for Matheson Constructors, and earlier, the Greater Toronto Airports Authority.
— Vaughan mayor (and ex-Liberal leader) Steven Del Duca and his wife, Utilia, celebrated their 20-year anniversary.
— Jamil Jivani is hosting a “Restore the North” tour. First up: University of Guelph, UTM and Toronto Metropolitan University.
— Episode 1 of The Premier Files is out, feat. Bob Rae.
— Doly Begum voiced support for the Global Sumud Flotilla.
Thank you for reading POLICORNER. Got thoughts on Project Ontario — good, bad or yahoo? How are you gearing up for the fall session? Hit reply and you’ll stay anonymous. We’re back in your inbox on Monday, October 20.
Q+A — Is Doug Ford true-blue?
Meet Project Ontario, a “grassroots group” pushing the Tories to tack right. “It’s a group of small-c Ontario conservatives that came together with a shared frustration,” co-founder Matt Spoke said, describing a party that prizes polling over principal and survival over substance.
They see themselves as the conscience of the party. “Some argue, ‘Well, we can’t accomplish anything if we don’t get elected. Doug Ford is very good at getting elected,’” he said on a call. “And our retort is: Sure — but if we keep getting elected and never accomplish the things we actually believe in, then what’s the point of winning?”
Though they insist this isn’t a push to oust Mr. Premier — this isn’t the New Leaf Liberals, they say — Spoke says Team Ford is already feeling the heat. Back-channel pressure is mounting, he says, to keep people from associating with the group. Ford, himself, has described the right-wing think tank as “a bunch of radical rights.”
Recall: The Progressive Conservatives timed their upcoming convention for the same weekend as the federal convention — a quiet bid to keep the “crazies” at bay.
We caught up with Spoke to talk Project Ontario — what they want, why now and how Team Ford is reacting.
Here’s our conversation, edited for length and clarity:
First things first — what is Project Ontario?
“Project Ontario is not a formal organization. It’s a group of small-c Ontario conservatives that came together with a shared frustration: we’re not seeing the policy accomplishments we would have liked from a PC government, particularly after, call it, seven and a half years in office. It started with the basic premise that we should be writing down and putting into the public domain more of these policy prescriptions for the problems we believe are facing the province. It’s evolved a little since then, but ultimately, that’s what this is: a group of people with ideas who would like to see some of those ideas prioritized within government. That’s gathered some attention — both positive and negative. Positive in the sense that many people agree with us and want to participate and contribute; negative in the sense that we’ve been characterized as hostile or as attacking the current sitting government.”
What has this government not done that you’re unhappy about?
“I’d say the starting point for us is looking at major metrics that indicate whether things are getting better or worse in the province. That began with a view of our macroeconomic indicators. Is our GDP growth doing better or worse than our peers — both in Canada and in other competing Western jurisdictions? Is the cost of living going up or down? Is the cost of housing going up or down? Are healthcare wait times improving? Are outcomes in education improving?
So it starts with a kind of dashboard: ‘how would you measure the success of a government across major policy portfolios?’ And then, within those, we can start nitpicking at the particular policies we think have either been misprioritized or completely overloaded.
Take housing, for example. This government started with very strong rhetoric on housing policy reforms. In fact, in 2018, when they first came into government, they kicked things off with what we thought was a strong bill — Bill 108 — and a relatively empowered and effective Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs at the time. Since then, they’ve backpedaled on a lot of those commitments. You might remember they created the Housing Affordability Task Force. That task force produced a long list of recommendations, but the province hasn’t adopted the most meaningful ones. Housing is now worse — not only from a pricing perspective for the average homebuyer or renter, but also as a sector of the economy that employs people. All the headlines today are about how badly our housing industry is doing. I think this is a direct result of policy decisions — or, in many cases, inaction.
On another front, we saw a report this morning from a Montreal-based group that found Ontario is now the highest-spending province on corporate subsidies. That used to be Quebec. Effectively, this government’s economic policy has been to write big checks to preferred industries and companies, instead of pursuing broad-based tax reform that would make Ontario’s economy more competitive and help businesses succeed more broadly. We see policies that pick winners and losers, often based on which industries have the best connections — through the right lobbying firms tied into the Premier’s Office.
We started this by saying: ’What’s the dashboard of metrics? Is the province doing well or poorly on them? If it’s doing poorly, let’s diagnose why, and outline what we think could be done instead.’”
Do you think Doug Ford is an obstacle to advancing conservative values in this province? Is it that you’d like to see him gone, or is it that you want him to push more to the right?
“I don’t know that I’d frame it as wanting him to go ‘more to the right’ or ‘less to the right,’ because I don’t think all of these policies fall neatly on that spectrum. Even on housing policy, for example, we’ve seen pretty broad consensus across the political spectrum — there are nuanced differences between what an NDP platform might look like versus a Conservative platform, but generally you’ve seen agreement at all levels of government. We need to cut red tape, reduce taxes and fees, and allow developers to build so that we can increase supply. I don’t know that that’s inherently right-wing or left-wing.
I think what’s happening with Doug Ford is more about governing by public opinion polling — being highly sensitive to what the polling says, especially on issues that are contentious within certain demographics.
So no, I wouldn’t say the goal is to push him further right. The goal is to look at these problems and solve them. Is Doug Ford an impediment? Well, this isn’t an organized effort to push for a leadership race to replace him. Coincidentally, we became public around the same time as the New Leaf Liberals, and their outcome is clear now with Bonnie Crombie leaving the Liberal Party — but that’s not what this is.
I think Doug Ford can remain premier as long as he wants, based on current polling. But the reality is, one day he won’t be premier. Whenever that day comes — whether that’s a year from now because the Liberals or NDP get their act together, or 10 years from now because he decides he’s done — we need to be putting these ideas out there. The question is: what are the principles and ideas we want to be championing as a conservative movement in Ontario?
In a perfect world, this government would adopt those ideas right away. In a second scenario, maybe a future leadership candidate will adopt them in the post-Ford era. I won’t pretend to know the timeline.
You’ve been leading your emails with ’When conservatives lose their principles, Ontario loses its way.’ That makes me wonder: you’ve said this isn’t really about a turn to the right. Then what is it about?
“Well, it’s about knowing what those principles are and standing by them with conviction. If you take away the specific political context of Ontario and just ask a Canadian conservative — in most provinces, federally or provincially — ‘What do you stand for as a conservative? What do you believe?’ you’ll generally hear the same themes. Things like: we believe in the power of the free market. We believe in a competitive tax regime that allows businesses to improve productivity and grow the economy. We believe it’s the market — not the government — that grows prosperity. We believe parents should be at the center of education—not the teachers’ unions, not the public school boards. We believe healthcare should be reformed to allow for better outcomes and more choice.
These are the kinds of things most conservatives would agree are core principles. And if you’re not governing with those principles in mind — if you’re just governing based on issues management and putting out fires — it feels like flailing. It begs the question: What are you actually trying to accomplish as a government?
We’ve had this debate within our own broader conservative tent. Some argue, ’Well, we can’t accomplish anything if we don’t get elected. Doug Ford is very good at getting elected.’ And our retort is: Sure — but if we keep getting elected and never accomplish the things we actually believe in, then what’s the point of winning?”
But you said it’s not a push to get rid of Doug Ford. What we saw with the New Leaf Liberals was an organized push to get rid of Bonnie Crombie. And you’re saying this is not that. So then — what is it? How do you actually put pressure on Premier Ford and on the party apparatus to adopt the changes you want?
“I wouldn’t compare us to the New Leaf Liberals. In their case, the speculation, which I think has now been mostly confirmed, was that you had a leadership candidate behind the scenes organizing to shake things up and create a chance to run. In that case, Nate Erskine-Smith. And you had a very explicit set of demands: push for a leadership review, with the goal of forcing a race. They didn’t shy away from that.
What we’re doing is something else. The political landscape — provincially and federally — is shifting a lot right now. Looking two to five years ahead, we simply can’t predict what’s coming. We can’t predict who the next Liberal leader will be, or whether they’ll pose a real challenge to Doug Ford in an election. That could, for the first time in a long time, create a moment of weakness that makes the party question whether it’s time for renewal. That doesn’t necessarily have to come from people who dislike Ford — it’s just the natural cycle of politics.
So for us, the point is: we don’t think we’ll be the ones directly pressuring Ford to leave or to change course. What we do think we can do is help prep the stage for whoever comes next. Because if Ford left sooner than expected, there would be a massive scramble, and that vacuum could be filled by anyone. We want to make sure that whoever it is, there’s already a body of work — ideas, principles, policy prescriptions — ready to shape the conversation.
And frankly, another thing driving us is the lack of provincial think-tank infrastructure. Federally, you’ve got organizations like the Fraser Institute, C.D. Howe, Macdonald-Laurier — groups that churn out research, reports, critiques and recommendations. That doesn’t really exist at the provincial level. Here, what you mostly have is lobbyists. And those lobbyists, with the right clients and the right connections, end up shaping what the government prioritizes. That’s the reality.
So, I get the sense you’re in this for the long haul.
“Yeah, exactly. What that looks like is still to be determined. Naturally, these things take energy, time, and focus from people. So there’s still a question of what form it ultimately takes.
But I can say, speaking on behalf of many of the people contributing, there’s definitely an appetite to stay the course—as long as it takes to normalize these ideas, to shift the Overton window within the Ontario PC Party, and to get people inside the party apparatus asking: ’Why are we not listening to these types of ideas? Why are we boxing people like this out as opposed to inviting them in?’
What are you hearing as to how the Premier and those around him are reacting? How has the reaction been?
“I can’t speak to the Premier directly. I suspect a lot of this stuff is kept from him, just because it’s small stuff. But I know folks close to the Premier — whether in the leadership of the PC Party or in big, provincial-focused lobbying firms that have direct access to the Premier’s Office — we’ve heard directly from them that they’d like us to back down. Keep our criticism private. Bring this discussion within the party apparatus. Have this debate at a convention, as opposed to in the pages of a newspaper. That’s been some of the feedback.
The other feedback we’ve heard, secondhand, is that a lot of people who would otherwise want to join us, contribute to us, or participate in events we’re hosting are being told in no uncertain terms by their clients, their bosses, or their contacts in government that if they associate with what we’re doing, it will cost them. For example, if you’re a lobbyist with a particular client on a particular file, and you’re seen to be participating in Project Ontario, maybe all of a sudden your file gets deprioritized. We’ve heard that from more than a few people.
From people in government?
“No, from people we’ve reached out to—people we’ve invited to contribute or attend our events. They’ve said, ‘Hey, I really like what you guys are doing, but I got a call from my client, who was told in no uncertain terms by somebody in government that they don’t like what we’re up to.’ Again, to a certain extent this is hearsay, but we’ve heard it frequently enough that we know there are people close to the Premier who are discouraging others from associating with us.”
Finally, I want to get your reaction to what some well-placed Tories have been saying about this project. One said sarcastically: “[it’s] Conservatives who’ve decided that all the electoral success we’ve had over the last ten years federally needs to be imported to Ontario.” Another added: “There are people who have never accepted that it is the job of a political party to win elections.” Thoughts?
“Well, to that first comment, I think what’s happened federally is a little bit relevant. For one, we’ve seen three federal Conservative leaders over that decade — all with very different approaches, very different priorities, and frankly, very different mistakes. Whether you go back to Andrew Scheer, Erin O’Toole, or, in the most recent election, Pierre Poilievre, I don’t think there’s one way to characterize that era. To me, it feels like three very distinct eras under three very distinct leaders.
So, you know, it’s easy to criticize the lack of federal success. It’s also easy to dismiss the very unique political talent that was Justin Trudeau. There is no Justin Trudeau sitting in the ranks of the Ontario Liberal Party, right? So my response would be that we have benefited provincially from a disorganized and weak opposition for a number of years, whereas that was not the case federally. Federally, we had a very strong, organized, and popular opponent in the Liberal Party of Canada under Justin Trudeau, and more recently under Mark Carney. The political context is very different. So I’m not sure I buy that argument.
Now, to the second comment — we’ve heard this one a lot, the idea that the job of political parties is simply to win elections. I’ll say this: broadly speaking, we’re not naive. Many of us have been directly involved in political campaigns and organizing. We know you need to win elections. But we don’t think it stops there. What’s the point of winning if you don’t have an agenda, a set of policies, or a set of principles you intend to reflect while governing? Winning for the sake of winning — and popularity for the sake of popularity — does not improve the lives of Ontarians. We hear all the time: How can you criticize Doug Ford? He’s sitting at 53% in the polls, or 48%, depending on the poll. My response is: Yes, but our GDP growth is weaker than every other province, our healthcare wait times are getting worse, not better, and our housing prices and housing completions are the worst in the country. You can be as popular as you want, but if those fundamental metrics aren’t improving, popularity is irrelevant. That’s the weakness in that line of thinking. And eventually, this catches up to a political party. People feel the challenges of their daily lives.
The way I’d frame it is this: political leaders are not elected to follow public opinion polling. They’re elected to set public opinion in the direction of solutions. Strong leadership means changing people’s opinions, not just following them.
To me, it’s weak leadership to just say, ‘We’ll do what people want.’ Strong leadership is saying, ‘Here are the solutions,’ and then convincing people they’re the right path. That’s what we don’t see from this government.”
A message from Next Campaign:
— T-14 days until the House is back.
— The Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs will meet at 10 a.m. tomorrow to swap out ex-PC MPP Chris Scott with PC MPP Steve Pinsonneault. A closed session will begin at 10:15 a.m.
— Here’s what’s up on the fundraising trail this week:
Recall: The Tories’ $1,500-a-ticket Leader’s Dinner — once “problematic” for the Ford government — is set for Wednesday, November 19 in Toronto. Registration will close on Sunday, November 16. Get your ticket.
Also happening this week:
Save the date: Premier Ford will speak at the Empire Club on Tuesday, October 14, followed by a sit-down with Ben Mulroney. RSVP.
— Fall fun: Fall Festival is back on Saturday, October 18. “From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., visitors of all ages can enjoy live performances, tours, crafts, activities and more.”
— Know a seventh or eighth grader? Applications to become a Legislative Page are open until November 15.
— Digging in: Ex-PC Chris Scott — charged with assault and assault with a weapon — says he’s taking “a short leave from partisan and non-essential public appearances” but doesn’t plan to give up his seat.
What he’s saying: “I... remain fully committed to serving the people of Sault Ste. Marie as I was elected to do,” he said in a Thursday statement.
On the charges: “I have retained counsel to represent me. I have trust and confidence in the criminal justice system. While the case is before the Court, it is inappropriate to comment further about the charges. Out of respect for everyone involved — especially my children — I ask that my family’s privacy be respected through this process.”
The reaction: Sault Ste. Marie’s mayor says Scott should quit.
“A leave of absence is unacceptable for our community, given the enormity of the challenges we face that fall directly within the purview of the provincial government,” Matthew Shoemaker said. “While the courts can and will determine legal guilt, the economic and social realities in our community require a representative whose personal scandals do not take precedence over local needs.”
According to the Sault Star, His Worship’s plan is “simply to step around Scott.”
Meanwhile, the Ontario Federation of Labour says it’s “done waiting.” “It is time for him to step aside so Sault Ste. Marie has an MPP who is ready to lead and won’t cause further harm to the community, or shame to the position they hold,” president Laura Walton wrote.
Recall: The Soo was a toss-up in the February election, where the NDP went all-in to boost Lisa Vezeau-Allen. A by-election, some say, could give Marit Stiles a shot at growing her 27-member bench. (It’d be a much-needed win for Stiles post-68 per cent leadership review).
— More on Project Ontario: “A generation of young, smart, right-leaning activists is talking about the change they feel is needed in Ontario,” Robert Benzie wrote.
Chris Selley added: “If there’s a ‘bunch of yahoos’ in Ontario politics, it’s certainly not Project Ontario.”
From the Gardiner Museum, Graeme Gordon said: “They see the premier as reactive with no ideological moorings. They added that a stagnant economy and an increase in government handouts have led to a culture of ‘zero-sum’ politics, where, instead of a growth mindset, lobbying for government money has become the normalized pattern of behaviour.”
— What’s the threshold to get a ticket from Toronto’s speed camera program? Mahdis Habibinia digs in. “According to a source with direct knowledge of the ticketing process, the threshold for a ticket using a Toronto speed camera is never less than 11 km/h over the posted limit.”
— Bureaucracy be damned: “Ford government labour ministers have selected groups to receive hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars for worker-training programs against the advice of civil servants who’d evaluated their funding applications, Ontario’s auditor general has found.” More from The Trillium.
— Blame game: “Ottawa Public Health says it’s being forced to close a supervised consumption site in the city’s ByWard Market area because Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones hasn’t given her permission for it to remain open.” Catch up from Canadian Press.
— “A woman from Guelph, Ont. has lost tens of thousands of dollars to a scam that claimed Ontario Premier Doug Ford was launching a new cryptocurrency.” CP24 has more.
— Charged: “A former union branch representative with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) is facing charges in connection with allegedly misappropriating more than $100,000 in union funds, police say. Mark Babcook, the former branch president of OPSEU Local 228, was charged with fraud over $5,000 and possession of property obtained by crime.” Read on from CBC.
The Ford government was quick to pounce. “... I would like to understand which steps OPSEU is taking to ensure that the bargaining process remains above reproach and free from distraction,” wrote Treasury Board president Caroline Mulroney.
The union says it took action. “New local elections are scheduled for this month,” they said. “The local will have a new bank account with updated signing authorities and oversight protocols, including safeguards to prevent any one individual from having sole access to, or control of, local funds.”
— Brad Bradford says he’s running to be Toronto’s next mayor. Watch.
Recall: “Internal polling by Abacus... found Bradford as best-positioned to take on Chow.” Catch up.
— Education workers hit the lawn this weekend, urging action on what they describe as a crisis in schools. Watch.
— If you blinked: The Ford government’s draft regulation outlining how Special Economic Zones will be designated is now out.
— On the #onpoli podcast, Marit Stiles spoke about her leadership review. “We’ve had three of our top people resign in light of the results and I think it’s time for change,” the NDP leader said. “They thought it was too.” Catch up.
— Is Doug Ford laying a trap for his political opponents by banning photo radar? Martin Regg Cohn thinks so.
— It’s been 5,077 days since work began on the Eglinton Crosstown. “For the public, they just want the trains running; they are fed up with finger pointing,” Brian Lilley says
— Susan Delacourt argues the road ahead for Mark Carney won’t be an easy one.
— John Michael McGrath says a climate plan is within Ford’s reach — if he wants it.
— “If the Liberals choose to remain a sideshow, relying on a small circle of insiders, they should prepare for another decade in political purgatory,” Sharan Kaur writes.
— A new poll by Abacus found Pierre Poilievre’s Tories up by one point over Mark Carney’s Liberals. “Among those certain to vote, the Liberals edge ahead with 43 per cent, a 2-point lead over the Conservatives,” wrote David Colletto, “suggesting turnout advantage might still matter.”
Political moves, career milestones, sightings? Send ‘em in.
— OOTD: Bobbi Ann Brady got a fashion appreciation post. To which Aislinn Clancy replied: “I prefer her as a cow girl.”
— The Travis Dhanraj-Karman Wong podcast — “Can’t Be Censored” — is taking heat on X.
— Henley Strategies is growing. Sydney Pothakos and Joanna Bailey have joined the Toronto-based shop, which is hiring. “They’ve already hit the ground running and are supporting clients with expert public affairs and communications advice,” CEO Laryssa Waler wrote.
Pothakos, the ex-policy advisor to Todd McCarthy, was the Tories’ candidate in University-Rosedale. Bailey worked for Matheson Constructors, and earlier, the Greater Toronto Airports Authority.
— Vaughan mayor (and ex-Liberal leader) Steven Del Duca and his wife, Utilia, celebrated their 20-year anniversary.
— Jamil Jivani is hosting a “Restore the North” tour. First up: University of Guelph, UTM and Toronto Metropolitan University.
— Episode 1 of The Premier Files is out, feat. Bob Rae.
— Doly Begum voiced support for the Global Sumud Flotilla.
Thank you for reading POLICORNER. Got thoughts on Project Ontario — good, bad or yahoo? How are you gearing up for the fall session? Hit reply and you’ll stay anonymous. We’re back in your inbox on Monday, October 20.
Q+A — Is Doug Ford true-blue?
Meet Project Ontario, a “grassroots group” pushing the Tories to tack right. “It’s a group of small-c Ontario conservatives that came together with a shared frustration,” co-founder Matt Spoke said, describing a party that prizes polling over principal and survival over substance.
They see themselves as the conscience of the party. “Some argue, ‘Well, we can’t accomplish anything if we don’t get elected. Doug Ford is very good at getting elected,’” he said on a call. “And our retort is: Sure — but if we keep getting elected and never accomplish the things we actually believe in, then what’s the point of winning?”
Though they insist this isn’t a push to oust Mr. Premier — this isn’t the New Leaf Liberals, they say — Spoke says Team Ford is already feeling the heat. Back-channel pressure is mounting, he says, to keep people from associating with the group. Ford, himself, has described the right-wing think tank as “a bunch of radical rights.”
Recall: The Progressive Conservatives timed their upcoming convention for the same weekend as the federal convention — a quiet bid to keep the “crazies” at bay.
We caught up with Spoke to talk Project Ontario — what they want, why now and how Team Ford is reacting.
Here’s our conversation, edited for length and clarity:
First things first — what is Project Ontario?
“Project Ontario is not a formal organization. It’s a group of small-c Ontario conservatives that came together with a shared frustration: we’re not seeing the policy accomplishments we would have liked from a PC government, particularly after, call it, seven and a half years in office. It started with the basic premise that we should be writing down and putting into the public domain more of these policy prescriptions for the problems we believe are facing the province. It’s evolved a little since then, but ultimately, that’s what this is: a group of people with ideas who would like to see some of those ideas prioritized within government. That’s gathered some attention — both positive and negative. Positive in the sense that many people agree with us and want to participate and contribute; negative in the sense that we’ve been characterized as hostile or as attacking the current sitting government.”
What has this government not done that you’re unhappy about?
“I’d say the starting point for us is looking at major metrics that indicate whether things are getting better or worse in the province. That began with a view of our macroeconomic indicators. Is our GDP growth doing better or worse than our peers — both in Canada and in other competing Western jurisdictions? Is the cost of living going up or down? Is the cost of housing going up or down? Are healthcare wait times improving? Are outcomes in education improving?
So it starts with a kind of dashboard: ‘how would you measure the success of a government across major policy portfolios?’ And then, within those, we can start nitpicking at the particular policies we think have either been misprioritized or completely overloaded.
Take housing, for example. This government started with very strong rhetoric on housing policy reforms. In fact, in 2018, when they first came into government, they kicked things off with what we thought was a strong bill — Bill 108 — and a relatively empowered and effective Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs at the time. Since then, they’ve backpedaled on a lot of those commitments. You might remember they created the Housing Affordability Task Force. That task force produced a long list of recommendations, but the province hasn’t adopted the most meaningful ones. Housing is now worse — not only from a pricing perspective for the average homebuyer or renter, but also as a sector of the economy that employs people. All the headlines today are about how badly our housing industry is doing. I think this is a direct result of policy decisions — or, in many cases, inaction.
On another front, we saw a report this morning from a Montreal-based group that found Ontario is now the highest-spending province on corporate subsidies. That used to be Quebec. Effectively, this government’s economic policy has been to write big checks to preferred industries and companies, instead of pursuing broad-based tax reform that would make Ontario’s economy more competitive and help businesses succeed more broadly. We see policies that pick winners and losers, often based on which industries have the best connections — through the right lobbying firms tied into the Premier’s Office.
We started this by saying: ’What’s the dashboard of metrics? Is the province doing well or poorly on them? If it’s doing poorly, let’s diagnose why, and outline what we think could be done instead.’”
Do you think Doug Ford is an obstacle to advancing conservative values in this province? Is it that you’d like to see him gone, or is it that you want him to push more to the right?
“I don’t know that I’d frame it as wanting him to go ‘more to the right’ or ‘less to the right,’ because I don’t think all of these policies fall neatly on that spectrum. Even on housing policy, for example, we’ve seen pretty broad consensus across the political spectrum — there are nuanced differences between what an NDP platform might look like versus a Conservative platform, but generally you’ve seen agreement at all levels of government. We need to cut red tape, reduce taxes and fees, and allow developers to build so that we can increase supply. I don’t know that that’s inherently right-wing or left-wing.
I think what’s happening with Doug Ford is more about governing by public opinion polling — being highly sensitive to what the polling says, especially on issues that are contentious within certain demographics.
So no, I wouldn’t say the goal is to push him further right. The goal is to look at these problems and solve them. Is Doug Ford an impediment? Well, this isn’t an organized effort to push for a leadership race to replace him. Coincidentally, we became public around the same time as the New Leaf Liberals, and their outcome is clear now with Bonnie Crombie leaving the Liberal Party — but that’s not what this is.
I think Doug Ford can remain premier as long as he wants, based on current polling. But the reality is, one day he won’t be premier. Whenever that day comes — whether that’s a year from now because the Liberals or NDP get their act together, or 10 years from now because he decides he’s done — we need to be putting these ideas out there. The question is: what are the principles and ideas we want to be championing as a conservative movement in Ontario?
In a perfect world, this government would adopt those ideas right away. In a second scenario, maybe a future leadership candidate will adopt them in the post-Ford era. I won’t pretend to know the timeline.
You’ve been leading your emails with ’When conservatives lose their principles, Ontario loses its way.’ That makes me wonder: you’ve said this isn’t really about a turn to the right. Then what is it about?
“Well, it’s about knowing what those principles are and standing by them with conviction. If you take away the specific political context of Ontario and just ask a Canadian conservative — in most provinces, federally or provincially — ‘What do you stand for as a conservative? What do you believe?’ you’ll generally hear the same themes. Things like: we believe in the power of the free market. We believe in a competitive tax regime that allows businesses to improve productivity and grow the economy. We believe it’s the market — not the government — that grows prosperity. We believe parents should be at the center of education—not the teachers’ unions, not the public school boards. We believe healthcare should be reformed to allow for better outcomes and more choice.
These are the kinds of things most conservatives would agree are core principles. And if you’re not governing with those principles in mind — if you’re just governing based on issues management and putting out fires — it feels like flailing. It begs the question: What are you actually trying to accomplish as a government?
We’ve had this debate within our own broader conservative tent. Some argue, ’Well, we can’t accomplish anything if we don’t get elected. Doug Ford is very good at getting elected.’ And our retort is: Sure — but if we keep getting elected and never accomplish the things we actually believe in, then what’s the point of winning?”
But you said it’s not a push to get rid of Doug Ford. What we saw with the New Leaf Liberals was an organized push to get rid of Bonnie Crombie. And you’re saying this is not that. So then — what is it? How do you actually put pressure on Premier Ford and on the party apparatus to adopt the changes you want?
“I wouldn’t compare us to the New Leaf Liberals. In their case, the speculation, which I think has now been mostly confirmed, was that you had a leadership candidate behind the scenes organizing to shake things up and create a chance to run. In that case, Nate Erskine-Smith. And you had a very explicit set of demands: push for a leadership review, with the goal of forcing a race. They didn’t shy away from that.
What we’re doing is something else. The political landscape — provincially and federally — is shifting a lot right now. Looking two to five years ahead, we simply can’t predict what’s coming. We can’t predict who the next Liberal leader will be, or whether they’ll pose a real challenge to Doug Ford in an election. That could, for the first time in a long time, create a moment of weakness that makes the party question whether it’s time for renewal. That doesn’t necessarily have to come from people who dislike Ford — it’s just the natural cycle of politics.
So for us, the point is: we don’t think we’ll be the ones directly pressuring Ford to leave or to change course. What we do think we can do is help prep the stage for whoever comes next. Because if Ford left sooner than expected, there would be a massive scramble, and that vacuum could be filled by anyone. We want to make sure that whoever it is, there’s already a body of work — ideas, principles, policy prescriptions — ready to shape the conversation.
And frankly, another thing driving us is the lack of provincial think-tank infrastructure. Federally, you’ve got organizations like the Fraser Institute, C.D. Howe, Macdonald-Laurier — groups that churn out research, reports, critiques and recommendations. That doesn’t really exist at the provincial level. Here, what you mostly have is lobbyists. And those lobbyists, with the right clients and the right connections, end up shaping what the government prioritizes. That’s the reality.
So, I get the sense you’re in this for the long haul.
“Yeah, exactly. What that looks like is still to be determined. Naturally, these things take energy, time, and focus from people. So there’s still a question of what form it ultimately takes.
But I can say, speaking on behalf of many of the people contributing, there’s definitely an appetite to stay the course—as long as it takes to normalize these ideas, to shift the Overton window within the Ontario PC Party, and to get people inside the party apparatus asking: ’Why are we not listening to these types of ideas? Why are we boxing people like this out as opposed to inviting them in?’
What are you hearing as to how the Premier and those around him are reacting? How has the reaction been?
“I can’t speak to the Premier directly. I suspect a lot of this stuff is kept from him, just because it’s small stuff. But I know folks close to the Premier — whether in the leadership of the PC Party or in big, provincial-focused lobbying firms that have direct access to the Premier’s Office — we’ve heard directly from them that they’d like us to back down. Keep our criticism private. Bring this discussion within the party apparatus. Have this debate at a convention, as opposed to in the pages of a newspaper. That’s been some of the feedback.
The other feedback we’ve heard, secondhand, is that a lot of people who would otherwise want to join us, contribute to us, or participate in events we’re hosting are being told in no uncertain terms by their clients, their bosses, or their contacts in government that if they associate with what we’re doing, it will cost them. For example, if you’re a lobbyist with a particular client on a particular file, and you’re seen to be participating in Project Ontario, maybe all of a sudden your file gets deprioritized. We’ve heard that from more than a few people.
From people in government?
“No, from people we’ve reached out to—people we’ve invited to contribute or attend our events. They’ve said, ‘Hey, I really like what you guys are doing, but I got a call from my client, who was told in no uncertain terms by somebody in government that they don’t like what we’re up to.’ Again, to a certain extent this is hearsay, but we’ve heard it frequently enough that we know there are people close to the Premier who are discouraging others from associating with us.”
Finally, I want to get your reaction to what some well-placed Tories have been saying about this project. One said sarcastically: “[it’s] Conservatives who’ve decided that all the electoral success we’ve had over the last ten years federally needs to be imported to Ontario.” Another added: “There are people who have never accepted that it is the job of a political party to win elections.” Thoughts?
“Well, to that first comment, I think what’s happened federally is a little bit relevant. For one, we’ve seen three federal Conservative leaders over that decade — all with very different approaches, very different priorities, and frankly, very different mistakes. Whether you go back to Andrew Scheer, Erin O’Toole, or, in the most recent election, Pierre Poilievre, I don’t think there’s one way to characterize that era. To me, it feels like three very distinct eras under three very distinct leaders.
So, you know, it’s easy to criticize the lack of federal success. It’s also easy to dismiss the very unique political talent that was Justin Trudeau. There is no Justin Trudeau sitting in the ranks of the Ontario Liberal Party, right? So my response would be that we have benefited provincially from a disorganized and weak opposition for a number of years, whereas that was not the case federally. Federally, we had a very strong, organized, and popular opponent in the Liberal Party of Canada under Justin Trudeau, and more recently under Mark Carney. The political context is very different. So I’m not sure I buy that argument.
Now, to the second comment — we’ve heard this one a lot, the idea that the job of political parties is simply to win elections. I’ll say this: broadly speaking, we’re not naive. Many of us have been directly involved in political campaigns and organizing. We know you need to win elections. But we don’t think it stops there. What’s the point of winning if you don’t have an agenda, a set of policies, or a set of principles you intend to reflect while governing? Winning for the sake of winning — and popularity for the sake of popularity — does not improve the lives of Ontarians. We hear all the time: How can you criticize Doug Ford? He’s sitting at 53% in the polls, or 48%, depending on the poll. My response is: Yes, but our GDP growth is weaker than every other province, our healthcare wait times are getting worse, not better, and our housing prices and housing completions are the worst in the country. You can be as popular as you want, but if those fundamental metrics aren’t improving, popularity is irrelevant. That’s the weakness in that line of thinking. And eventually, this catches up to a political party. People feel the challenges of their daily lives.
The way I’d frame it is this: political leaders are not elected to follow public opinion polling. They’re elected to set public opinion in the direction of solutions. Strong leadership means changing people’s opinions, not just following them.
To me, it’s weak leadership to just say, ‘We’ll do what people want.’ Strong leadership is saying, ‘Here are the solutions,’ and then convincing people they’re the right path. That’s what we don’t see from this government.”
A message from Next Campaign:
— T-14 days until the House is back.
— The Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs will meet at 10 a.m. tomorrow to swap out ex-PC MPP Chris Scott with PC MPP Steve Pinsonneault. A closed session will begin at 10:15 a.m.
— Here’s what’s up on the fundraising trail this week:
Recall: The Tories’ $1,500-a-ticket Leader’s Dinner — once “problematic” for the Ford government — is set for Wednesday, November 19 in Toronto. Registration will close on Sunday, November 16. Get your ticket.
Also happening this week:
Save the date: Premier Ford will speak at the Empire Club on Tuesday, October 14, followed by a sit-down with Ben Mulroney. RSVP.
— Fall fun: Fall Festival is back on Saturday, October 18. “From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., visitors of all ages can enjoy live performances, tours, crafts, activities and more.”
— Know a seventh or eighth grader? Applications to become a Legislative Page are open until November 15.
— Digging in: Ex-PC Chris Scott — charged with assault and assault with a weapon — says he’s taking “a short leave from partisan and non-essential public appearances” but doesn’t plan to give up his seat.
What he’s saying: “I... remain fully committed to serving the people of Sault Ste. Marie as I was elected to do,” he said in a Thursday statement.
On the charges: “I have retained counsel to represent me. I have trust and confidence in the criminal justice system. While the case is before the Court, it is inappropriate to comment further about the charges. Out of respect for everyone involved — especially my children — I ask that my family’s privacy be respected through this process.”
The reaction: Sault Ste. Marie’s mayor says Scott should quit.
“A leave of absence is unacceptable for our community, given the enormity of the challenges we face that fall directly within the purview of the provincial government,” Matthew Shoemaker said. “While the courts can and will determine legal guilt, the economic and social realities in our community require a representative whose personal scandals do not take precedence over local needs.”
According to the Sault Star, His Worship’s plan is “simply to step around Scott.”
Meanwhile, the Ontario Federation of Labour says it’s “done waiting.” “It is time for him to step aside so Sault Ste. Marie has an MPP who is ready to lead and won’t cause further harm to the community, or shame to the position they hold,” president Laura Walton wrote.
Recall: The Soo was a toss-up in the February election, where the NDP went all-in to boost Lisa Vezeau-Allen. A by-election, some say, could give Marit Stiles a shot at growing her 27-member bench. (It’d be a much-needed win for Stiles post-68 per cent leadership review).
— More on Project Ontario: “A generation of young, smart, right-leaning activists is talking about the change they feel is needed in Ontario,” Robert Benzie wrote.
Chris Selley added: “If there’s a ‘bunch of yahoos’ in Ontario politics, it’s certainly not Project Ontario.”
From the Gardiner Museum, Graeme Gordon said: “They see the premier as reactive with no ideological moorings. They added that a stagnant economy and an increase in government handouts have led to a culture of ‘zero-sum’ politics, where, instead of a growth mindset, lobbying for government money has become the normalized pattern of behaviour.”
— What’s the threshold to get a ticket from Toronto’s speed camera program? Mahdis Habibinia digs in. “According to a source with direct knowledge of the ticketing process, the threshold for a ticket using a Toronto speed camera is never less than 11 km/h over the posted limit.”
— Bureaucracy be damned: “Ford government labour ministers have selected groups to receive hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars for worker-training programs against the advice of civil servants who’d evaluated their funding applications, Ontario’s auditor general has found.” More from The Trillium.
— Blame game: “Ottawa Public Health says it’s being forced to close a supervised consumption site in the city’s ByWard Market area because Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones hasn’t given her permission for it to remain open.” Catch up from Canadian Press.
— “A woman from Guelph, Ont. has lost tens of thousands of dollars to a scam that claimed Ontario Premier Doug Ford was launching a new cryptocurrency.” CP24 has more.
— Charged: “A former union branch representative with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) is facing charges in connection with allegedly misappropriating more than $100,000 in union funds, police say. Mark Babcook, the former branch president of OPSEU Local 228, was charged with fraud over $5,000 and possession of property obtained by crime.” Read on from CBC.
The Ford government was quick to pounce. “... I would like to understand which steps OPSEU is taking to ensure that the bargaining process remains above reproach and free from distraction,” wrote Treasury Board president Caroline Mulroney.
The union says it took action. “New local elections are scheduled for this month,” they said. “The local will have a new bank account with updated signing authorities and oversight protocols, including safeguards to prevent any one individual from having sole access to, or control of, local funds.”
— Brad Bradford says he’s running to be Toronto’s next mayor. Watch.
Recall: “Internal polling by Abacus... found Bradford as best-positioned to take on Chow.” Catch up.
— Education workers hit the lawn this weekend, urging action on what they describe as a crisis in schools. Watch.
— If you blinked: The Ford government’s draft regulation outlining how Special Economic Zones will be designated is now out.
— On the #onpoli podcast, Marit Stiles spoke about her leadership review. “We’ve had three of our top people resign in light of the results and I think it’s time for change,” the NDP leader said. “They thought it was too.” Catch up.
— Is Doug Ford laying a trap for his political opponents by banning photo radar? Martin Regg Cohn thinks so.
— It’s been 5,077 days since work began on the Eglinton Crosstown. “For the public, they just want the trains running; they are fed up with finger pointing,” Brian Lilley says
— Susan Delacourt argues the road ahead for Mark Carney won’t be an easy one.
— John Michael McGrath says a climate plan is within Ford’s reach — if he wants it.
— “If the Liberals choose to remain a sideshow, relying on a small circle of insiders, they should prepare for another decade in political purgatory,” Sharan Kaur writes.
— A new poll by Abacus found Pierre Poilievre’s Tories up by one point over Mark Carney’s Liberals. “Among those certain to vote, the Liberals edge ahead with 43 per cent, a 2-point lead over the Conservatives,” wrote David Colletto, “suggesting turnout advantage might still matter.”
Political moves, career milestones, sightings? Send ‘em in.
— OOTD: Bobbi Ann Brady got a fashion appreciation post. To which Aislinn Clancy replied: “I prefer her as a cow girl.”
— The Travis Dhanraj-Karman Wong podcast — “Can’t Be Censored” — is taking heat on X.
— Henley Strategies is growing. Sydney Pothakos and Joanna Bailey have joined the Toronto-based shop, which is hiring. “They’ve already hit the ground running and are supporting clients with expert public affairs and communications advice,” CEO Laryssa Waler wrote.
Pothakos, the ex-policy advisor to Todd McCarthy, was the Tories’ candidate in University-Rosedale. Bailey worked for Matheson Constructors, and earlier, the Greater Toronto Airports Authority.
— Vaughan mayor (and ex-Liberal leader) Steven Del Duca and his wife, Utilia, celebrated their 20-year anniversary.
— Jamil Jivani is hosting a “Restore the North” tour. First up: University of Guelph, UTM and Toronto Metropolitan University.
— Episode 1 of The Premier Files is out, feat. Bob Rae.
— Doly Begum voiced support for the Global Sumud Flotilla.
Thank you for reading POLICORNER. Got thoughts on Project Ontario — good, bad or yahoo? How are you gearing up for the fall session? Hit reply and you’ll stay anonymous. We’re back in your inbox on Monday, October 20.
Q+A — Is Doug Ford true-blue?
Meet Project Ontario, a “grassroots group” pushing the Tories to tack right. “It’s a group of small-c Ontario conservatives that came together with a shared frustration,” co-founder Matt Spoke said, describing a party that prizes polling over principal and survival over substance.
They see themselves as the conscience of the party. “Some argue, ‘Well, we can’t accomplish anything if we don’t get elected. Doug Ford is very good at getting elected,’” he said on a call. “And our retort is: Sure — but if we keep getting elected and never accomplish the things we actually believe in, then what’s the point of winning?”
Though they insist this isn’t a push to oust Mr. Premier — this isn’t the New Leaf Liberals, they say — Spoke says Team Ford is already feeling the heat. Back-channel pressure is mounting, he says, to keep people from associating with the group. Ford, himself, has described the right-wing think tank as “a bunch of radical rights.”
Recall: The Progressive Conservatives timed their upcoming convention for the same weekend as the federal convention — a quiet bid to keep the “crazies” at bay.
We caught up with Spoke to talk Project Ontario — what they want, why now and how Team Ford is reacting.
Here’s our conversation, edited for length and clarity:
First things first — what is Project Ontario?
“Project Ontario is not a formal organization. It’s a group of small-c Ontario conservatives that came together with a shared frustration: we’re not seeing the policy accomplishments we would have liked from a PC government, particularly after, call it, seven and a half years in office. It started with the basic premise that we should be writing down and putting into the public domain more of these policy prescriptions for the problems we believe are facing the province. It’s evolved a little since then, but ultimately, that’s what this is: a group of people with ideas who would like to see some of those ideas prioritized within government. That’s gathered some attention — both positive and negative. Positive in the sense that many people agree with us and want to participate and contribute; negative in the sense that we’ve been characterized as hostile or as attacking the current sitting government.”
What has this government not done that you’re unhappy about?
“I’d say the starting point for us is looking at major metrics that indicate whether things are getting better or worse in the province. That began with a view of our macroeconomic indicators. Is our GDP growth doing better or worse than our peers — both in Canada and in other competing Western jurisdictions? Is the cost of living going up or down? Is the cost of housing going up or down? Are healthcare wait times improving? Are outcomes in education improving?
So it starts with a kind of dashboard: ‘how would you measure the success of a government across major policy portfolios?’ And then, within those, we can start nitpicking at the particular policies we think have either been misprioritized or completely overloaded.
Take housing, for example. This government started with very strong rhetoric on housing policy reforms. In fact, in 2018, when they first came into government, they kicked things off with what we thought was a strong bill — Bill 108 — and a relatively empowered and effective Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs at the time. Since then, they’ve backpedaled on a lot of those commitments. You might remember they created the Housing Affordability Task Force. That task force produced a long list of recommendations, but the province hasn’t adopted the most meaningful ones. Housing is now worse — not only from a pricing perspective for the average homebuyer or renter, but also as a sector of the economy that employs people. All the headlines today are about how badly our housing industry is doing. I think this is a direct result of policy decisions — or, in many cases, inaction.
On another front, we saw a report this morning from a Montreal-based group that found Ontario is now the highest-spending province on corporate subsidies. That used to be Quebec. Effectively, this government’s economic policy has been to write big checks to preferred industries and companies, instead of pursuing broad-based tax reform that would make Ontario’s economy more competitive and help businesses succeed more broadly. We see policies that pick winners and losers, often based on which industries have the best connections — through the right lobbying firms tied into the Premier’s Office.
We started this by saying: ’What’s the dashboard of metrics? Is the province doing well or poorly on them? If it’s doing poorly, let’s diagnose why, and outline what we think could be done instead.’”
Do you think Doug Ford is an obstacle to advancing conservative values in this province? Is it that you’d like to see him gone, or is it that you want him to push more to the right?
“I don’t know that I’d frame it as wanting him to go ‘more to the right’ or ‘less to the right,’ because I don’t think all of these policies fall neatly on that spectrum. Even on housing policy, for example, we’ve seen pretty broad consensus across the political spectrum — there are nuanced differences between what an NDP platform might look like versus a Conservative platform, but generally you’ve seen agreement at all levels of government. We need to cut red tape, reduce taxes and fees, and allow developers to build so that we can increase supply. I don’t know that that’s inherently right-wing or left-wing.
I think what’s happening with Doug Ford is more about governing by public opinion polling — being highly sensitive to what the polling says, especially on issues that are contentious within certain demographics.
So no, I wouldn’t say the goal is to push him further right. The goal is to look at these problems and solve them. Is Doug Ford an impediment? Well, this isn’t an organized effort to push for a leadership race to replace him. Coincidentally, we became public around the same time as the New Leaf Liberals, and their outcome is clear now with Bonnie Crombie leaving the Liberal Party — but that’s not what this is.
I think Doug Ford can remain premier as long as he wants, based on current polling. But the reality is, one day he won’t be premier. Whenever that day comes — whether that’s a year from now because the Liberals or NDP get their act together, or 10 years from now because he decides he’s done — we need to be putting these ideas out there. The question is: what are the principles and ideas we want to be championing as a conservative movement in Ontario?
In a perfect world, this government would adopt those ideas right away. In a second scenario, maybe a future leadership candidate will adopt them in the post-Ford era. I won’t pretend to know the timeline.
You’ve been leading your emails with ’When conservatives lose their principles, Ontario loses its way.’ That makes me wonder: you’ve said this isn’t really about a turn to the right. Then what is it about?
“Well, it’s about knowing what those principles are and standing by them with conviction. If you take away the specific political context of Ontario and just ask a Canadian conservative — in most provinces, federally or provincially — ‘What do you stand for as a conservative? What do you believe?’ you’ll generally hear the same themes. Things like: we believe in the power of the free market. We believe in a competitive tax regime that allows businesses to improve productivity and grow the economy. We believe it’s the market — not the government — that grows prosperity. We believe parents should be at the center of education—not the teachers’ unions, not the public school boards. We believe healthcare should be reformed to allow for better outcomes and more choice.
These are the kinds of things most conservatives would agree are core principles. And if you’re not governing with those principles in mind — if you’re just governing based on issues management and putting out fires — it feels like flailing. It begs the question: What are you actually trying to accomplish as a government?
We’ve had this debate within our own broader conservative tent. Some argue, ’Well, we can’t accomplish anything if we don’t get elected. Doug Ford is very good at getting elected.’ And our retort is: Sure — but if we keep getting elected and never accomplish the things we actually believe in, then what’s the point of winning?”
But you said it’s not a push to get rid of Doug Ford. What we saw with the New Leaf Liberals was an organized push to get rid of Bonnie Crombie. And you’re saying this is not that. So then — what is it? How do you actually put pressure on Premier Ford and on the party apparatus to adopt the changes you want?
“I wouldn’t compare us to the New Leaf Liberals. In their case, the speculation, which I think has now been mostly confirmed, was that you had a leadership candidate behind the scenes organizing to shake things up and create a chance to run. In that case, Nate Erskine-Smith. And you had a very explicit set of demands: push for a leadership review, with the goal of forcing a race. They didn’t shy away from that.
What we’re doing is something else. The political landscape — provincially and federally — is shifting a lot right now. Looking two to five years ahead, we simply can’t predict what’s coming. We can’t predict who the next Liberal leader will be, or whether they’ll pose a real challenge to Doug Ford in an election. That could, for the first time in a long time, create a moment of weakness that makes the party question whether it’s time for renewal. That doesn’t necessarily have to come from people who dislike Ford — it’s just the natural cycle of politics.
So for us, the point is: we don’t think we’ll be the ones directly pressuring Ford to leave or to change course. What we do think we can do is help prep the stage for whoever comes next. Because if Ford left sooner than expected, there would be a massive scramble, and that vacuum could be filled by anyone. We want to make sure that whoever it is, there’s already a body of work — ideas, principles, policy prescriptions — ready to shape the conversation.
And frankly, another thing driving us is the lack of provincial think-tank infrastructure. Federally, you’ve got organizations like the Fraser Institute, C.D. Howe, Macdonald-Laurier — groups that churn out research, reports, critiques and recommendations. That doesn’t really exist at the provincial level. Here, what you mostly have is lobbyists. And those lobbyists, with the right clients and the right connections, end up shaping what the government prioritizes. That’s the reality.
So, I get the sense you’re in this for the long haul.
“Yeah, exactly. What that looks like is still to be determined. Naturally, these things take energy, time, and focus from people. So there’s still a question of what form it ultimately takes.
But I can say, speaking on behalf of many of the people contributing, there’s definitely an appetite to stay the course—as long as it takes to normalize these ideas, to shift the Overton window within the Ontario PC Party, and to get people inside the party apparatus asking: ’Why are we not listening to these types of ideas? Why are we boxing people like this out as opposed to inviting them in?’
What are you hearing as to how the Premier and those around him are reacting? How has the reaction been?
“I can’t speak to the Premier directly. I suspect a lot of this stuff is kept from him, just because it’s small stuff. But I know folks close to the Premier — whether in the leadership of the PC Party or in big, provincial-focused lobbying firms that have direct access to the Premier’s Office — we’ve heard directly from them that they’d like us to back down. Keep our criticism private. Bring this discussion within the party apparatus. Have this debate at a convention, as opposed to in the pages of a newspaper. That’s been some of the feedback.
The other feedback we’ve heard, secondhand, is that a lot of people who would otherwise want to join us, contribute to us, or participate in events we’re hosting are being told in no uncertain terms by their clients, their bosses, or their contacts in government that if they associate with what we’re doing, it will cost them. For example, if you’re a lobbyist with a particular client on a particular file, and you’re seen to be participating in Project Ontario, maybe all of a sudden your file gets deprioritized. We’ve heard that from more than a few people.
From people in government?
“No, from people we’ve reached out to—people we’ve invited to contribute or attend our events. They’ve said, ‘Hey, I really like what you guys are doing, but I got a call from my client, who was told in no uncertain terms by somebody in government that they don’t like what we’re up to.’ Again, to a certain extent this is hearsay, but we’ve heard it frequently enough that we know there are people close to the Premier who are discouraging others from associating with us.”
Finally, I want to get your reaction to what some well-placed Tories have been saying about this project. One said sarcastically: “[it’s] Conservatives who’ve decided that all the electoral success we’ve had over the last ten years federally needs to be imported to Ontario.” Another added: “There are people who have never accepted that it is the job of a political party to win elections.” Thoughts?
“Well, to that first comment, I think what’s happened federally is a little bit relevant. For one, we’ve seen three federal Conservative leaders over that decade — all with very different approaches, very different priorities, and frankly, very different mistakes. Whether you go back to Andrew Scheer, Erin O’Toole, or, in the most recent election, Pierre Poilievre, I don’t think there’s one way to characterize that era. To me, it feels like three very distinct eras under three very distinct leaders.
So, you know, it’s easy to criticize the lack of federal success. It’s also easy to dismiss the very unique political talent that was Justin Trudeau. There is no Justin Trudeau sitting in the ranks of the Ontario Liberal Party, right? So my response would be that we have benefited provincially from a disorganized and weak opposition for a number of years, whereas that was not the case federally. Federally, we had a very strong, organized, and popular opponent in the Liberal Party of Canada under Justin Trudeau, and more recently under Mark Carney. The political context is very different. So I’m not sure I buy that argument.
Now, to the second comment — we’ve heard this one a lot, the idea that the job of political parties is simply to win elections. I’ll say this: broadly speaking, we’re not naive. Many of us have been directly involved in political campaigns and organizing. We know you need to win elections. But we don’t think it stops there. What’s the point of winning if you don’t have an agenda, a set of policies, or a set of principles you intend to reflect while governing? Winning for the sake of winning — and popularity for the sake of popularity — does not improve the lives of Ontarians. We hear all the time: How can you criticize Doug Ford? He’s sitting at 53% in the polls, or 48%, depending on the poll. My response is: Yes, but our GDP growth is weaker than every other province, our healthcare wait times are getting worse, not better, and our housing prices and housing completions are the worst in the country. You can be as popular as you want, but if those fundamental metrics aren’t improving, popularity is irrelevant. That’s the weakness in that line of thinking. And eventually, this catches up to a political party. People feel the challenges of their daily lives.
The way I’d frame it is this: political leaders are not elected to follow public opinion polling. They’re elected to set public opinion in the direction of solutions. Strong leadership means changing people’s opinions, not just following them.
To me, it’s weak leadership to just say, ‘We’ll do what people want.’ Strong leadership is saying, ‘Here are the solutions,’ and then convincing people they’re the right path. That’s what we don’t see from this government.”
A message from Next Campaign:
— T-14 days until the House is back.
— The Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs will meet at 10 a.m. tomorrow to swap out ex-PC MPP Chris Scott with PC MPP Steve Pinsonneault. A closed session will begin at 10:15 a.m.
— Here’s what’s up on the fundraising trail this week:
Recall: The Tories’ $1,500-a-ticket Leader’s Dinner — once “problematic” for the Ford government — is set for Wednesday, November 19 in Toronto. Registration will close on Sunday, November 16. Get your ticket.
Also happening this week:
Save the date: Premier Ford will speak at the Empire Club on Tuesday, October 14, followed by a sit-down with Ben Mulroney. RSVP.
— Fall fun: Fall Festival is back on Saturday, October 18. “From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., visitors of all ages can enjoy live performances, tours, crafts, activities and more.”
— Know a seventh or eighth grader? Applications to become a Legislative Page are open until November 15.
— Digging in: Ex-PC Chris Scott — charged with assault and assault with a weapon — says he’s taking “a short leave from partisan and non-essential public appearances” but doesn’t plan to give up his seat.
What he’s saying: “I... remain fully committed to serving the people of Sault Ste. Marie as I was elected to do,” he said in a Thursday statement.
On the charges: “I have retained counsel to represent me. I have trust and confidence in the criminal justice system. While the case is before the Court, it is inappropriate to comment further about the charges. Out of respect for everyone involved — especially my children — I ask that my family’s privacy be respected through this process.”
The reaction: Sault Ste. Marie’s mayor says Scott should quit.
“A leave of absence is unacceptable for our community, given the enormity of the challenges we face that fall directly within the purview of the provincial government,” Matthew Shoemaker said. “While the courts can and will determine legal guilt, the economic and social realities in our community require a representative whose personal scandals do not take precedence over local needs.”
According to the Sault Star, His Worship’s plan is “simply to step around Scott.”
Meanwhile, the Ontario Federation of Labour says it’s “done waiting.” “It is time for him to step aside so Sault Ste. Marie has an MPP who is ready to lead and won’t cause further harm to the community, or shame to the position they hold,” president Laura Walton wrote.
Recall: The Soo was a toss-up in the February election, where the NDP went all-in to boost Lisa Vezeau-Allen. A by-election, some say, could give Marit Stiles a shot at growing her 27-member bench. (It’d be a much-needed win for Stiles post-68 per cent leadership review).
— More on Project Ontario: “A generation of young, smart, right-leaning activists is talking about the change they feel is needed in Ontario,” Robert Benzie wrote.
Chris Selley added: “If there’s a ‘bunch of yahoos’ in Ontario politics, it’s certainly not Project Ontario.”
From the Gardiner Museum, Graeme Gordon said: “They see the premier as reactive with no ideological moorings. They added that a stagnant economy and an increase in government handouts have led to a culture of ‘zero-sum’ politics, where, instead of a growth mindset, lobbying for government money has become the normalized pattern of behaviour.”
— What’s the threshold to get a ticket from Toronto’s speed camera program? Mahdis Habibinia digs in. “According to a source with direct knowledge of the ticketing process, the threshold for a ticket using a Toronto speed camera is never less than 11 km/h over the posted limit.”
— Bureaucracy be damned: “Ford government labour ministers have selected groups to receive hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars for worker-training programs against the advice of civil servants who’d evaluated their funding applications, Ontario’s auditor general has found.” More from The Trillium.
— Blame game: “Ottawa Public Health says it’s being forced to close a supervised consumption site in the city’s ByWard Market area because Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones hasn’t given her permission for it to remain open.” Catch up from Canadian Press.
— “A woman from Guelph, Ont. has lost tens of thousands of dollars to a scam that claimed Ontario Premier Doug Ford was launching a new cryptocurrency.” CP24 has more.
— Charged: “A former union branch representative with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) is facing charges in connection with allegedly misappropriating more than $100,000 in union funds, police say. Mark Babcook, the former branch president of OPSEU Local 228, was charged with fraud over $5,000 and possession of property obtained by crime.” Read on from CBC.
The Ford government was quick to pounce. “... I would like to understand which steps OPSEU is taking to ensure that the bargaining process remains above reproach and free from distraction,” wrote Treasury Board president Caroline Mulroney.
The union says it took action. “New local elections are scheduled for this month,” they said. “The local will have a new bank account with updated signing authorities and oversight protocols, including safeguards to prevent any one individual from having sole access to, or control of, local funds.”
— Brad Bradford says he’s running to be Toronto’s next mayor. Watch.
Recall: “Internal polling by Abacus... found Bradford as best-positioned to take on Chow.” Catch up.
— Education workers hit the lawn this weekend, urging action on what they describe as a crisis in schools. Watch.
— If you blinked: The Ford government’s draft regulation outlining how Special Economic Zones will be designated is now out.
— On the #onpoli podcast, Marit Stiles spoke about her leadership review. “We’ve had three of our top people resign in light of the results and I think it’s time for change,” the NDP leader said. “They thought it was too.” Catch up.
— Is Doug Ford laying a trap for his political opponents by banning photo radar? Martin Regg Cohn thinks so.
— It’s been 5,077 days since work began on the Eglinton Crosstown. “For the public, they just want the trains running; they are fed up with finger pointing,” Brian Lilley says
— Susan Delacourt argues the road ahead for Mark Carney won’t be an easy one.
— John Michael McGrath says a climate plan is within Ford’s reach — if he wants it.
— “If the Liberals choose to remain a sideshow, relying on a small circle of insiders, they should prepare for another decade in political purgatory,” Sharan Kaur writes.
— A new poll by Abacus found Pierre Poilievre’s Tories up by one point over Mark Carney’s Liberals. “Among those certain to vote, the Liberals edge ahead with 43 per cent, a 2-point lead over the Conservatives,” wrote David Colletto, “suggesting turnout advantage might still matter.”
Political moves, career milestones, sightings? Send ‘em in.
— OOTD: Bobbi Ann Brady got a fashion appreciation post. To which Aislinn Clancy replied: “I prefer her as a cow girl.”
— The Travis Dhanraj-Karman Wong podcast — “Can’t Be Censored” — is taking heat on X.
— Henley Strategies is growing. Sydney Pothakos and Joanna Bailey have joined the Toronto-based shop, which is hiring. “They’ve already hit the ground running and are supporting clients with expert public affairs and communications advice,” CEO Laryssa Waler wrote.
Pothakos, the ex-policy advisor to Todd McCarthy, was the Tories’ candidate in University-Rosedale. Bailey worked for Matheson Constructors, and earlier, the Greater Toronto Airports Authority.
— Vaughan mayor (and ex-Liberal leader) Steven Del Duca and his wife, Utilia, celebrated their 20-year anniversary.
— Jamil Jivani is hosting a “Restore the North” tour. First up: University of Guelph, UTM and Toronto Metropolitan University.
— Episode 1 of The Premier Files is out, feat. Bob Rae.
— Doly Begum voiced support for the Global Sumud Flotilla.
Thank you for reading POLICORNER. Got thoughts on Project Ontario — good, bad or yahoo? How are you gearing up for the fall session? Hit reply and you’ll stay anonymous. We’re back in your inbox on Monday, October 20.