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Five days before the provincial election, with his most hated rival taking herself out of the race to be premier, Progressive Conservative leader Doug Ford surrounded himself with a “team of all-stars” in Nepean to try to show the Tories are ready to govern Ontario.
On his first real trip to Ottawa during the whole campaign, Ford brought with him former leadership rivals Christine Elliott and Caroline Mulroney, placing them on each side of him at centre of a table in the Centurion conference centre on Colonnade Road on Saturday.
Beyond them, veteran local Tories Lisa MacLeod and Steve Clark, and then the rest of the Ford Nation candidates for Eastern Ontario.
“We have an incredible team of highly capable people running for the PC party,” Ford said. “They’re running because they believe in our plan for the people. A team that is ready to get to work, and the fact is, in government, you’re only as strong as your team, and we have a team of all-stars.”
The appearance was almost content-free: the Tories are done promising things this campaign. Now they want to show Ford as Ontario’s premier-in-waiting, surrounded by potential cabinet ministers, in contrast to the New Democratic Party’s “team of radical special interests.”
Polls find Ford’s “negatives” with Ontario voters are high — we like his party better than we like him — so emphasizing the team makes obvious sense.
Ford read his praise for his candidates from a screen and journalists were kept at a distance behind a rope line, an unusual degree of stage-managing for an Ontario party leader. He took a handful of questions from reporters chosen by a staffer holding a microphone, who didn’t allow follow-ups.
Other than Ford, only MacLeod spoke, naming Kanata-Carleton candidate Merrilee Fullerton, Orléans’s Cameron Montgomery, Ottawa West-Nepean’s Jeremy Roberts and Carleton’s Goldie Ghamari as likely new caucusmates.
“We’ve got a strong field of candidates,” MacLeod said. “I’m sorry I’m not naming all of them, but I just want to point out that we are going to have a team that will represent Ottawa at Queen’s Park and will make sure that our voices are continually heard in Toronto. We will represent this city with great vigour and great passion in a Doug Ford government.”
The Tories are openly confident of taking away Liberal seats in Ottawa West-Nepean and Glengarry-Prescott-Russell. They consider Orléans a likely win and Ottawa South a real possibility. Ottawa Centre, a seat no Progressive Conservative has ever won, could be a Tory pickup if the numbers split just right between Liberal Yasir Naqvi and New Democrat Joel Harden, they say.
Right before Ford’s appearance, Liberal leader Kathleen Wynne had conceded in Toronto that her party stands no chance of winning the election, but begged for Ontarians to vote Liberal anyway to deny either Ford or the New Democrats’ Andrea Horwath a majority. What did he think of Wynne’s call?
“This election is about change. People are fed up with 15 years of waste, scandal and mismanagement,” Ford said, then pivoted to his message of the day: “We have an incredible team, as you can see around this table. We have an incredible team of all-stars all around this province. We’re ready to govern. We’re ready to hit the ground running. We look forward to June 7, but I can tell you we’re going to work up to the very last minute to earn every single vote in Ontario.”
“But what about —”
“Next question,” staffer Jeff Silverstein interjected, withdrawing the mic.
Ford responded similarly to questions about his party’s opaque financial plans and a candidate in Brampton facing fraud allegations. “We’re focused on a great team … 123 all-stars … I’m proud of every single person on our team,” and so on.
Ford has said he’d kill Ontario’s current system of charging big carbon-dioxide emitters and oppose any attempt to replace it, but he’s also said he believes that the earth’s climate is changing and humans are substantially responsible for it. Does he have a replacement policy on climate-change?
“We have a strong environmental message,” he said. “We talk to people across Ontario and people want clean lakes, they want clean rivers, they want clean air. We’re going to make sure that we deliver that. And the polluters, any companies that decide they’re going to pollute, we’re going to come down heavy on them. We’re going to come down really heavy on them. We’re going to make sure that we’re all environmentally friendly, We have a half a billion dollars out aside to make sure we have a clean environment. Clean air, clean rivers, clean parks, that’s what we care about.”
At the 15-minute mark, the availability was ended and Ford and the all-stars disappeared behind a curtain, with security officers watching in case anybody took a notion to follow them.
dreevely@postmedia.com
twitter.com/davidreevely
查看原文...
On his first real trip to Ottawa during the whole campaign, Ford brought with him former leadership rivals Christine Elliott and Caroline Mulroney, placing them on each side of him at centre of a table in the Centurion conference centre on Colonnade Road on Saturday.
Beyond them, veteran local Tories Lisa MacLeod and Steve Clark, and then the rest of the Ford Nation candidates for Eastern Ontario.
“We have an incredible team of highly capable people running for the PC party,” Ford said. “They’re running because they believe in our plan for the people. A team that is ready to get to work, and the fact is, in government, you’re only as strong as your team, and we have a team of all-stars.”
The appearance was almost content-free: the Tories are done promising things this campaign. Now they want to show Ford as Ontario’s premier-in-waiting, surrounded by potential cabinet ministers, in contrast to the New Democratic Party’s “team of radical special interests.”
Polls find Ford’s “negatives” with Ontario voters are high — we like his party better than we like him — so emphasizing the team makes obvious sense.
Ford read his praise for his candidates from a screen and journalists were kept at a distance behind a rope line, an unusual degree of stage-managing for an Ontario party leader. He took a handful of questions from reporters chosen by a staffer holding a microphone, who didn’t allow follow-ups.
Other than Ford, only MacLeod spoke, naming Kanata-Carleton candidate Merrilee Fullerton, Orléans’s Cameron Montgomery, Ottawa West-Nepean’s Jeremy Roberts and Carleton’s Goldie Ghamari as likely new caucusmates.
“We’ve got a strong field of candidates,” MacLeod said. “I’m sorry I’m not naming all of them, but I just want to point out that we are going to have a team that will represent Ottawa at Queen’s Park and will make sure that our voices are continually heard in Toronto. We will represent this city with great vigour and great passion in a Doug Ford government.”
The Tories are openly confident of taking away Liberal seats in Ottawa West-Nepean and Glengarry-Prescott-Russell. They consider Orléans a likely win and Ottawa South a real possibility. Ottawa Centre, a seat no Progressive Conservative has ever won, could be a Tory pickup if the numbers split just right between Liberal Yasir Naqvi and New Democrat Joel Harden, they say.
Right before Ford’s appearance, Liberal leader Kathleen Wynne had conceded in Toronto that her party stands no chance of winning the election, but begged for Ontarians to vote Liberal anyway to deny either Ford or the New Democrats’ Andrea Horwath a majority. What did he think of Wynne’s call?
“This election is about change. People are fed up with 15 years of waste, scandal and mismanagement,” Ford said, then pivoted to his message of the day: “We have an incredible team, as you can see around this table. We have an incredible team of all-stars all around this province. We’re ready to govern. We’re ready to hit the ground running. We look forward to June 7, but I can tell you we’re going to work up to the very last minute to earn every single vote in Ontario.”
“But what about —”
“Next question,” staffer Jeff Silverstein interjected, withdrawing the mic.
Ford responded similarly to questions about his party’s opaque financial plans and a candidate in Brampton facing fraud allegations. “We’re focused on a great team … 123 all-stars … I’m proud of every single person on our team,” and so on.
Ford has said he’d kill Ontario’s current system of charging big carbon-dioxide emitters and oppose any attempt to replace it, but he’s also said he believes that the earth’s climate is changing and humans are substantially responsible for it. Does he have a replacement policy on climate-change?
“We have a strong environmental message,” he said. “We talk to people across Ontario and people want clean lakes, they want clean rivers, they want clean air. We’re going to make sure that we deliver that. And the polluters, any companies that decide they’re going to pollute, we’re going to come down heavy on them. We’re going to come down really heavy on them. We’re going to make sure that we’re all environmentally friendly, We have a half a billion dollars out aside to make sure we have a clean environment. Clean air, clean rivers, clean parks, that’s what we care about.”
At the 15-minute mark, the availability was ended and Ford and the all-stars disappeared behind a curtain, with security officers watching in case anybody took a notion to follow them.
dreevely@postmedia.com
twitter.com/davidreevely
查看原文...
