He isn’t running for any Canadian office, but President Donald Trump has become a focal point of the Ontario general election. As Premier Kathleen Wynne continually attempts to draw a false juxtaposition between Trump and her Progressive Conservative (PC) rival, Doug Ford, the Liberals and the media are aping the left’s behavior from the 2016 presidential election. And it’s just as nauseating.
Premier Wynne’s approval rating is the lowest in the country, the record of the Liberal Party is abysmal, and the foul residue of entitlement, corruption, and arrogance has seeped into every crevice of Queen’s Park. The provincial debt is nearing $350 billion, interest payments are the third-biggest budgetary item, and budget deficits have been the norm for most of the party’s tenure.
Suffice it to say, she is desperate to cling to power. The only way she can fend off Ford is to invoke Trump’s name, which is meant to ostensibly send voters shivers up and down their spines. Is she supposed to tout her government’s pristine record? That’s sarcasm by the way.
In April, speaking at Toronto’s Sunnybrook hospital, one of many medical facilities in Ontario that experience hallway care and lengthy wait times, the premier said:
“Doug Ford sounds like Donald Trump, and that’s because he is like Donald Trump. He believes in an ugly, vicious brand of politics that traffics in smears and lies. He’ll say anything about anyone at any time because — just like Trump — it is all about him.
That’s how Trump campaigned in 2016 and that’s how Ford is campaigning right now. I guarantee you that it will get worse before it gets better.”
Hours later, she tweeted:
“Doug Ford brought Donald Trump’s ‘lock her up’ brand of politics to Ontario and this morning I called that bullying behaviour out for what it is. Ontario is not the United States of America, and we can’t let that happen here.”
Since then, Wynne has repeatedly likened the former city councillor to Trump. Is it working? So far, yes.
Following this week’s fiery clash between the three party leaders, Wynne successfully slashed her opponent’s lead to just six points. It is an incredible feat considering that for months the PCs held a commanding double-digit lead over both campaigns. This has happened before: in 2007, 2011, and 2014, the PCs maintained sizeable distances between themselves and the grits, only for former Premier Dalton McGuinty and Wynne to make a comeback.
As long as the Wynne campaign and the press lodge accusations of racism, Islamophobia, ableism, and Trumpism at Ford, the Liberals could form yet another government this year.
Media Pounces on Ford-Trump Claims
But it isn’t just Wynne and the grits who are equating Ford, a businessman, to Trump. The media are participating in the comparisons, hoping that the PC leader loses the June 7 general election.
Take a gander at some of the headlines from the nation’s leading publications:
The Toronto Star: “Why Doug Trump and Donald Ford are cut from the same froth.”
The Huffington Post: “The Doug Ford-Donald Trump Comparisons Roll In After Ontario PC Leadership Win.”
The National Observer: “Doug Ford is too close to Donald Trump for comfort.”
Rabble: "Doug Ford wants to make Ontario great again."
Even the U.S. media is jumping on the pile; The Washington Post ran a headline: "Doug Ford could bring Trumpism to Ontario."
Doug Ford
Like the media to the south, much of the Canadian media is left-leaning and detests any politician that’s right of Green Party leader Elizabeth May.
Many of the media outlets are taking pages out of the playbook of MSNBC, CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. Rather than concentrate on the issues, newspapers and television networks will try to report on matters that will inevitably derail the Ford train.
For example, Ford was called to disavow an endorsement from Zeiger, a Quebec-based white nationalist writer from The Daily Stormer. The man announced his support for Ford on his podcast, This Hour Has 88 Minutes (the 88, or HH, alludes to the Nazi refrain, “Heil Hitler”), which was aired during a Liberal news conference:
“I'm converted to Ford Nation now, I swear we need to hit blue-collar people where they are, they don't want to see Muslims in their communities.
[Ford is] saying the same kind of things that invigorate the white working class.”
Ford did not take the bait, tweeting that he “condemns this guy’s views and everything he stands for.”
But this is what many tories are up against in the Great White North. The only thing missing from the discussion is that [insert conservative politician here] is literally Hitler. Of course, should a Liberal or New Democratic Party member garner the support of communists, socialists, Marxists, and everything in between, the media is silent, not a peep from the CBC or The Toronto Star.
Ford knows this all too well. When his late brother, Rob Ford, was mayor of Toronto, he faced a barrage of attacks from the media. It was so bad that journalists would camp outside of his Etobicoke home day and night. Why? The former mayor would often speak off the cuff, make politically incorrect statements, and refrain from participating in the city hall swamp.
No wonder why the elite loathed the Ford family.
Kathleen Wynne is Hillary Clinton
If Premier Wynne wants to import American politics into the Ontario campaign, then she should at least be honest about one thing: she is far more like Hillary Clinton than Doug Ford is like Donald Trump.
Despite stating that she is not Clinton, there are many similarities. They both have spent many years in public office. They both have been part of governments that wiped computer hard drives. They both have delivered remarks or adopted policies that were politically expedient.
Ford insists that he is not Trump, but Wynne insists that he is. Do Ontarians care one way or the other? With skyrocketing hydro rates, a healthcare system in shambles, a ballooning deficit, a failing education system, and reports of a new scandal every few days, the electorate might welcome Ford proclaim he wants to Make Ontario Great Again. Anything is better than four more years of the Wynne regime.
Do you think Doug Ford is like Donald Trump? Let us know in the comments section!
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