MONTREAL—I don’t normally comment on events in Ontario politics. But while Premier Doug Ford has been making headlines for his anti-President Donald Trump tariff advertising campaign in the United States, he has attracted attention in Quebec—and not in a good way—in attempting to poach Quebec physicians.
Just one-third of Ontarians say their province is heading in the right direction, according to a new Leger poll.
The polling finds that, despite Premier Doug Ford having an approval rating of 45 per cent, a majority — 55 per cent — of Ontarians believe the province is on the wrong track. Only 33 per cent say the province is on the right track.
“There’s been a shift in moods in Ontario. Ontarians are growing more pessimistic,” said Jennifer McLeod Macey, Leger’s senior vice-president of public affairs.
In the last couple of weeks, Ontario Premier Doug Ford has calledhimself a “prudent fiscal manager” and a “staunch fiscal conservative.”
Okay. Perhaps it’s a good time to compare Ford’s fiscal record with that of his predecessor Kathleen Wynne, whom Ford frequently lambasted as a “reckless” manager of Ontario’s finances.
Let’s start with spending. During Wynne’s five years as premier, program spending (all spending except for debt interest) peaked in 2017/18, her final year at the helm, at $13,873 per person. By comparison, per-person spending this year under Ford is projected to reach $14,222 (all figures adjusted for inflation).
Under Premier Doug Ford’s watch, Ontario has quietly poured nearly half a billion dollars into reshaping its schools around a DEI agenda and pushing race-based ideology onto students.
Since Ontario launched its “equity” education overhaul in 2017, programs rooted in Marxist-inspired critical race theory and other DEI-rooted practices have been embedded throughout the public education system.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford seems to have discovered the secret sauce to political longevity. When bad things happen, find someone else to blame.
A few weeks ago, alcohol giant Diageo announced that it plans to shut down its Amherstburg, Ontario facility, where Crown Royal whisky is currently bottled, and shift its bottling operations for Canadian customers to a facility in Quebec.
For decades, Quebec wore the dubious crown of Canada’s “corporate welfare” king. La belle province poured billions of dollars into corporate handouts, all while maintaining one of the highest corporate tax rates in North America.
The results have been predictable: Mediocre growth and favoured businesses dependent on, and feeling increasingly entitled to, taxpayers’ forced generosity.
A new group called Project Ontario is taking aim at Doug Ford, accusing the Premier of abandoning conservative principles, while he dismisses its members as “yahoos” who are part of the radical right.
The group, whose listed contributors are writers, former provincial staffers and political organizers, is pushing the Progressive Conservative government to pursue more right-leaning policies on everything from deficit spending to education to health care.
They say Ontario has faltered under almost a decade of PC rule, citing high housing costs, an overcrowded health care system, flat productivity growth and limited options for child care.
‘I don’t know who these yahoos are’: Doug Ford dismisses new conservative group Project Ontario
A defensive Premier Doug Ford has dismissed the conservative activist organization Project Ontario as “yahoos” and a “radical right group.”
In the wake of a Star article on the nascent think tank being launched Tuesday at Toronto’s Gardiner Museum, Ford was asked if he were open to any of its right-wing ideas.
“I don’t even know who these guys are. They sound like a bunch of radical rights. You know, folks, I’m not in favour of the radical left and the radical right,” he told reporters Monday in Hamilton.
In the seven years since the Ontario Liberals got their proverbial backside handed to them in the 2018 election, the party has yet to develop a real ethos, focus, or intention. The party’s sell to the people of Ontario during the last two elections was simply that it will make things better, and also get rid of the current guy.
In the political version of self-flagellation, the Ontario Liberals have released an internal review of their campaign loss in last winter’s snap election called by Premier Doug Ford.
The report, which analyzes the Liberals’ third consecutive loss to Ford’s Progressive Conservatives, focused on new leader Bonnie Crombie, who brought dazzle to fundraising events but also created a “ripple of negative consequences” for potential Liberal candidates due to a delayed decision in her riding seat selection.
Bowmanville–Oshawa North MP Jamil Jivani used a conservative conference in Calgary to sharply criticize Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s leadership, arguing that Ford’s focus on power over principle risks fueling public cynicism and undermining federal Conservatives.
Speaking on a panel at the Canada Strong and Free Conference in Calgary, moderated by Western Standard publisher Derek Fildebrandt, Jivani accused Ford of treating politics primarily as a means of staying in office rather than advancing ideas or values.
Danielle Smith and Doug Ford are courteous with each other, but it’s a fragile friendship that could shatter at any moment.
Premier Smith and her people know this very well. They’re cheery on the surface but quietly suspicious. Old grudges die hard.
Uneasily, they watch the Ontario premier’s deepening ties with Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Doug Ford promised Ontarians that “the party is over with taxpayers’ money,” when he was running for premier. But the government just released its budget update, and one thing is loud and clear: The party with taxpayers’ money keeps raging on at Queen’s Park.
The Ontario government’s recent budget update confirmed the government plans to borrow $14.6 billion this year. That’s more than double last year’s $6-billion deficit.
According to new data from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., home building in Ontario plummeted in the first half of 2025 compared with prior years, making Premier Doug Ford’s target of 1.5 million new homes by 2031 look increasingly far-fetched.
While building more homes remains a challenge across much of Canada, the particularly sharp decline in Ontario undermines national progress. In the first half of 2025, housing starts in Ontario fell by 25 per cent compared with last year. Meanwhile, the rest of Canada saw a 17-per-cent increase in starts during the same period.
The Doug Ford Doctrine: ‘We really have to flex our muscles’
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is hosting Canada’s premiers in Muskoka starting Monday at a Council of the Federation summer gathering. Premiers of the 13 provinces and territories can look forward to enjoying Alberta-bred and Ontario-fed beef on the grill at the Ford family cottage. They will have a special guest: Prime Minister Mark Carney.
“For the first time ever that I can remember,” Ford says, “the prime minister is invited. That would have never happened with Trudeau, but it’s happening under Mark Carney. And he’s going to be welcomed with open arms.”
