Never one to let an opportunity to pass Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his ministers are floating trial balloons on calling an early provincial election in order to fight the good fight against the threat of crippling US tariffs. The argument is that he needs a new mandate in order to do so—and throwing the provincial government into limbo as that threat looms over our nation is the way to do it.
Never mind that Premier Ford currently enjoys a strong majority at Queen’s Park and that his traditional opponents are currently challenged by the public antipathy to their current federal counterparts.
The argument that he needs a new mandate is, of course, complete and utter hooey.
Like former provincial leader David Peterson, Premier Ford and his advisors see a looming catastrophe in the form of The Donald’s tariff threats (in Mr. Peterson provincial Liberal case it was a looming dip in the business cycle that he wanted to avoid wearing) and the perfect opportunity to leap over the next four years.
It is not, however, despite enjoying the levers of a resurgent Canadian nationalism of which Ontarians stand first and foremost in the ranks, a slam dunk—calling an early and unnecessary election can bring a backlash from the electorate—which Mr. Peterson discovered to his dismay and to then NDP leader Bob Rae’s delight.
Mr. Peterson cynically gambled that his strong lead in the polls and a sleepy summer doldrum electorate would prove the magic ballot bullet. He was wrong. The voters of Ontario rebelled in a big way—leading to the first (and at least until now last) NDP government. History knows how that turned out.
The auguries for Premier Ford look better than even Mr. Peterson’s, of course. His Liberal opponents are barely out of the gate with a new leader, Bonnie Crombie, the NDP official opposition under Marit Stiles remain challenged to find traction despite the odour surrounding the current government’s plans to (allegedly) reward their wealthy developer donors. But, perhaps even more important in his advisors’ political arithmetic is the historic trend where Ontarians prefer their provincial government to be of a different flavour than the federal.
With Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre poised to ascend to a majority in Parliament by this October, at the latest, waiting until after the federal election is fraught. Striking while the federal Liberals are still at the helm would dodge that particular political albatross even while (hopefully) bridging the incoming four years of chaos promised by the incoming POTUS.
Calling an unnecessary and expensive provincial election when our province is facing economic turmoil on an unprecedented peacetime scale is nothing short of irresponsible. At this point in our history, with existential threats looming for humanity on so many fronts and for Canada in particular, the cost of taking cynical political coin runs the very real risk of buying electoral payback.
We call on Premier Ford to put his personal ambition on the backburner and instead to focus his attention and political acumen on safeguarding our province, and our nation, from those existential threats. That is the mark of true statesmanship. Ontarians have punished political opportunism in the past—we may very well do so again.