Ford Needs To Rethink Things

After weeks of intense pressure, Doug Ford and the Ontario Progressive Conservatives have backed off a controversial policy proposal. This time, it was about changes to how Ontario contributes to services jointly funded with municipalities. These were not, per se, cuts to the programs themselves, because the municipalities could have made good the shortfall (not that they’d want to, but it was possible). But Ontario’s funding cut was sudden, unexpected and retroactive, catching cities in the middle of their fiscal years, with budgets and taxes already set. Municipal officials howled. Protests were organized. And then Ford backed off, at least for now, granting that making the cuts retroactive was unfair. The PC government, he said, is a government that listens.

Some of Ford’s critics hailed that as a victory, others as a mere reprieve. I viewed it as something else: predictable. Doug Ford has a fairly consistent habit of blinking under pressure.

I’m been pondering this a lot in recent days. A series of polls have come out, showing that the Ontario PCs are shedding public support fast. That could have played a part in the government’s decision to back down. But I honestly wonder if a better explanation isn’t a savvy campaign by his opponents at Toronto’s city hall. They did all the usual stuff you do in a political spat — they did media interviews and started petitions and tweeted a lot. But they also specifically targeted Ford’s home base — the folks that make up Ford Nation. Toronto released figures breaking down precisely how many childcare spots would be lost in Ford’s home riding, which were repeated over and over by Ford’s critics. Toronto Mayor John Tory shared conversations he’d had with working-class people who were going to be hurt by the cuts.

And, wouldn’t you know it, the cuts were reversed.

[…]