Saturday, January 8, 2022

WILL ONTARIANS STICK WITH DOUG FORD?

Doug Ford objectively deserves to get blown out in June of this year. His government was a disaster before COVID-19, and when the pandemic arrived, it seamlessly evolved into a somewhat different kind of disaster — the kind that has resulted in people dying and having their lives repeatedly disrupted as the government has chaotically flailed about, trying without success to get ahead of the crisis. People are angry — and not just “Ontario angry,” an emotion that would be more akin to mild irritation in most other places. I haven’t seen and heard this much raw anger among Ontarians since last April, when they were also angry at Doug Ford.

Yet for all that, I don’t think anyone should bet against the premier’s re-election. It’s not enough to hate Ford. You need a viable alternative. The PCs still lead in the polls, or at least they did a few days ago (things are kinda fluid right now, so take that with a grain or two of salt). Ontario’s NDP is chronically useless; even as Ford has struggled, the NDP (which currently form the opposition) have often trailed the Liberals in the polls, even when the Liberals had no full-time leader. “Generic Liberal” continually beats “Actual NDP” among Ontarians.


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