Last Friday was Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s lucky day. Just after he unveiled a cabinet shuffle aimed at relaunching his government after a gaffe-filled year, he was suddenly mired in a new embarrassing patronage scandal and his right-hand man, Dean French, had to quit.
Mr. Ford was reportedly angry that Mr. French’s appointment of friends to plum posts abroad had upstaged his big cabinet shuffle. He shouldn’t be. It was a useful crisis.
The scandal that rid him of Mr. French is the real opportunity for a reboot. Mr. Ford is an unusual politician and he had an obvious rookie leader problem: He is a non-managing premier who let an aide mismanage government.
His government has been famously mired in missteps and chaos since it took power. It turned the parents of autistic children into implacable opponents. The appointment of an OPP commissioner became a vivid case of nepotism that apparently only Mr. Ford could not see. Ontarians saw chaos at Queen’s Park. Mr. French was accused of bullying cabinet ministers and staffers and even berating an MPP until she was driven to tears.
The cabinet shuffle was supposed to be a fresh start. But it was never going to be.
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