A day before Ontarians cast their ballots, deciding whether to return the Progressive Conservatives to power, Leader Doug Ford indicated he’s many years — and campaigns — from exiting politics.
At a news conference near Windsor, the province’s premier of the last seven years dismissed a suggestion that he could leave the political arena anytime soon.
“Man, I want to be premier forever,” Ford quipped on Wednesday in response to a question about whether Thursday’s election could be his last.
“I want to beat out Hazel McCallion for the number of years,” he added, referring to the late former mayor of Mississauga, whose 36 years in office represent the longest mayoral tenure in the city’s history.
Another four years seem to be in Ford’s fortunes. An early election was called, at least partly, to get ahead of the potential resurgence of the Greenbelt scandal, PC-connected sources say.
Data from every major pollster surveying Ontario voters during the campaign suggest the PCs are headed toward winning a third straight majority.
Following his first stop on Wednesday at a LiUNA training facility in Oldcastle, Ont., Ford’s final day of campaigning was set to feature short visits to Tecumseh, London, Hamilton and Mississauga — most of which are ridings the PCs are hoping to turn blue.
Similarly to the last few weeks, Ford focused on driving home the party’s “protect Ontario” slogan. Throughout the campaign, the PCs’ main message has been that their leader — Ford — is best suited to be premier in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats against Canada.
Tariffs threatened by Trump — which he hasn’t implemented but instead delayed multiple times since assuming office on Jan. 20 — were what Ford originally said prompted him to call an election. His PCs need a “stronger mandate,” he said.
However, several PC sources, who were granted anonymity so they could speak frankly, have said there’s validity to claims by Ford’s opponents, who’ve said he called the election early to get ahead of any potentially damaging revelations from the RCMP’s ongoing Greenbelt probe.
The RCMP is about a year-and-a-half into its investigation into whether there was a criminal element to the Ford government’s removal of properties in 2022 from the swath of protected land.
Numerous examples of ties between developers, and their lobbyists, who were set to benefit from the Greenbelt removals transformed the controversy into a full-blown scandal in 2023. The Ford government’s attention in the latter part of that year was consumed by mitigating the impacts of the scandal, which cost the premier two cabinet ministers, along with multiple government staffers. It also significantly hurt the PCs’ public opinion standing.
The RCMP have interviewed various Ford government staffers, public servants and third parties since late 2023 when it announced its criminal investigation. It’s publicly revealed little about its work.
A few weeks ago, Ford said he hadn’t personally been interviewed by the RCMP. He’s repeatedly promised the Mounties his and his government’s “full co-operation.”
“We did nothing wrong,” said Ford on Feb. 6 to a reporter who asked him about the investigation.
The scandal has re-emerged a couple of times over the course of the campaign.
As The Trillium first reported, a central figure from the Greenbelt saga and another government staffer were recently accused in a lawsuit for being paid to use “their backchannel contacts and political connections” to try to get land rezoned for development — which they’ve denied.
On Tuesday, Global News published a video showing PC candidate Todd McCarthy, also a cabinet minister of Ford’s, telling a potential voter that a 2018 video of Doug Ford promising in private to open up the Greenbelt was “fake news” — which his party insisted was a mix-up.
Asked the day before election day whether he would resign as premier if the RCMP lay charges against someone from his government, Ford said, “I know that none of our MPPs did anything wrong (and) I know that I didn’t do anything wrong, so we’re going to move forward."
“I’m going to make sure that we co-operate with the RCMP and I’m feeling very confident,” Ford said. “I don’t know what’s going on with that,” he added, referring to the Mounties’ investigation.
