Doug Ford urges federal Conservatives to be more liberal
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is calling on the federal Conservatives to avoid what he calls “political extremes” and embrace a middle-of-the-road approach that blends progressive social values.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is calling on the federal Conservatives to avoid what he calls “political extremes” and embrace a middle-of-the-road approach that blends progressive social values.
“It can’t be one extreme or the other extreme,” Ford said during a recent remark published in a Calgary Herald column. “You can’t be far left or hardcore right.”
Ford, leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario and critic of federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, said the party needs to avoid governing “based on your personal beliefs,” and instead focus on what voters actually want. “You’ve got to have a social heart too,” he said.
His comments come amid internal Conservative conflict following Prime Minister Mark Carney’s minority re-election victory and ahead of a national party convention in January.
In a move that raised eyebrows among fiscal conservatives, Ford even defended Carney’s Brookfield credentials, praising the Liberal prime minister’s corporate background:
“There should be a law that you can’t be prime minister unless you’ve been involved in a business at a high level,” he said.
But for all his talk of moderation and pragmatism, Ford’s record tells a different story.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation criticized Ford and his government for voting themselves a raise and pension hike, ending the MPP salary freeze in May.
Eric Kaufmann, a Senior Fellow at the MacDonald Laurier Institute, described Ford as a politician that bends the knee to woke norms; “Doug Ford continues to act as a progressive rule-taker when it comes to critical race and gender ideology in the public sector.”
Kaufmann affirmed that taking a stance against wokeism wouldn’t spell an end to Ford’s electability. “In Ford’s Ontario, I find a 56-31 slant in favour of teachers being required to inform parents of children 16 or under if they change their pronouns at school; among Tory voters, it’s 72-11.”
When Ford does veer into politically incorrect territory, he’s quick to retreat.
In June, Ford criticized Indigenous leaders for being overreliant on taxpayer handouts, while saying no to infrastructure and resource projects, describing those moments as “hat in hand.”
Jamil Jivani, Conservative MP for Durham, grilled Ford on election night in April. “He couldn’t stay out of our business, always getting his criticisms and all his opinions out, distracting our campaign, trying to make it about him, trying to position himself as some kind of political genius that we need to be taking cues from.”
“I see Doug Ford as a problem for Ontario and for Canada. I think he’s not doing a great job running this province, and now he’s trying to exercise his influence over other levels of government, and it’s not like the guy is doing anything particularly well,” said Jivani, downplaying Ford’s political credibility as a Conservative.
“This guy is a political genius because he beat Bonnie Crombie and Steven Del Duca, and now we’ve got to sit around and get advice from him. He has taken the provincial Conservative Party and turned it into something hollow, unprincipled, something that doesn’t solve problems.”
Jivani also attacked Ford’s warm relationship with the federal Liberal government. “He is glad-handing with Chrystia Freeland, having coffees and lattes with Mark Carney, and I’m sitting here and saying we need to be fighting for change, for something new, not being a hype man of the Liberal party.”
Ford sang praise for Premiers across the country recently from Conservative-leaning Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Saskatchewan’s Scott Moe, while also expressing support for Manitoba’s NDP Premier Wab Kinew, saying “he talks like a conservative.”
The recent comments add to the ongoing debate inside Conservative circles over how best to grow the party’s appeal ahead of the January Conservative leadership review.Last month, Ford did not rule out running to become the leader of the Federal Conservatives in an interview.