By John Bkila (NewsHooked) | Sunday, April 8, 2018 at 12:10
Can Ontario Progressive Conservatives leader Doug Ford bring his political party to victory, and with a majority, in the upcoming provincial election?
If you’re looking at polls today — he 93.6 per cent sure can.
That’s the current probability of winning according to the Ontario Votes 2018 Poll Tracker done by CBC poll analyst Éric Grenier.
I checked its status this morning and it projected the PCs would lead the polls with 44.1 per cent of the vote and win a whopping 89 seats in the Ontario Legislature.
Thanks to new ridings, there will be 122 seats up for grabs this year (there were 107 in 2014) and a party needs 63 seats for a majority.
The NDPs, led by Andrea Horwath, had 21.7 per cent of the polls, but was projected to win 20 seats; while Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals sat at 26.9 per cent in the polls and projected to win 15 seats.
If that happens her party would go from running the show with a majority to third-party status (not even the official opposition… ouch!)
But these numbers are to be taken with a grain of salt because the election isn’t today; it’s on June 7. And a whole lot can happen between now and then. Frankly, the only poll that matters is the one on election day.
I’m not entirely shocked by these numbers, though.
Whatever her intentions were (cough, vote-grabbing), Wynne’s 2018 pre-election budget did not win her a lot of fans.
That $6.7 billion deficit projected for the first year is a tough pill to swallow — even tougher is Ontario will stay in the red for the next six years.
Ford, with a stop-the-gravy-train/scorched-Earth mentality, can seem like a breath of fresh air.
The only issue is — is he qualified to run the multi-billion-dollar enterprise that is the Province of Ontario?
An editorial in the Toronto Star brings up some valid points, Ford was (before entering the PC leadership race) considering a run at Toronto’s mayor and he has no experience in a legislature.
Most recently, he announced he would not have a bus for media to follow him on the election campaign trail (a standard political practice during elections), which is set to start in May — as a journalist, that leaves a pretty salty taste in my mouth.
Yes, he says the media can still attend all his events and he’s livestreaming everything online, but you’re not exactly making it easy for reporters. Maybe that’s the point.
Having journalists readily available at campaign events not only projects the image you have nothing to hide, but it also gives reporters a chance to hold politicians to account to whatever they hear in speeches and ask them for explanations right then and there.
The public needs to scrutinize every utterance of a politician and be able to understand what they say in a greater context and not just drink the Kool-Aid.
Can Ford win and become the new Premier of Ontario? Absolutely.
But should he?
Featured top photo “Empty Chairs” photo by Joakim Honkasalo on Unsplash
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