Kelly McParland: Doug Ford tempts fate with suite of snafus

Ontario Premier Doug Ford speaks to reporters at a Canadian Chamber of Commerce event in Ottawa on April 20, 2026. Photo by HYUNGCHEOL PARK/Postmedia

Article content

Canada doesn’t have term limits on its highest political offices, but perhaps it should have, if only for the benefit of the office holders.

Article content

Call it mercy legislation. An Act to Save Senior Politicians from the Humiliations of their own Hubris.

Article content

Article content

It needn’t necessarily be compulsory, but would entail high-level interventions with ruling authorities once they hit the eight-year mark of their mandate, strongly recommending they carefully consider alternative careers, starting next weekend. An alternative title might be the Save Them From Themselves Act.

Article content

Article content

It might have saved Justin Trudeau from being driven from office by his own caucus in year nine of his prime ministership. Ditto Stephen Harper, who could have parted before the mistakes that saw him lose to Trudeau in his own year nine. In 2022 Quebec Premier François Legault was so popular he won 40 per cent of the vote in a five-party race and added 14 seats to his majority; he didn’t even make it to the end of his mandate, stepping down in April with a popularity rating just this side of a cholera attack.

Article content

Article content

Someone might want to explain this to Doug Ford, now in his eighth year as Ontario premier and making just the sort of blunders that assist other leaders into early retirement. A series of polls show Conservative support in sudden decline, with one survey putting the leaderless (and not particularly dynamic) Liberals with a slight lead.

Article content

It’s entirely possible the shift is temporary, a reaction to a particularly egregious recent snafu by the often-impulsive Ford, but which nonetheless signals both a rise in the premier’s hubris index and a thinning of the public’s patience. Ford still attracts personal support for decisive leadership, but decisiveness is not immune to the kind of battering he’s been taking of late.

Article content

Article content

The tipping point to his troubles was the revelation that a $28.9 million Bombardier jet had been purchased for the premier’s use. Scanning the catalogue of provincial priorities, no one could find “premier needs a fancy new plane” on the list, sparking a backlash that saw the jet speedily returned to the maker amid semi-abject apologies from Ford, who defended the purchase while admitting he should have done his explaining before the deal was done.

Article content

“I have to get around, I have to go to the U.S. more … it’s part of the job,” he said.

Article content

True enough, but Ford was the one who mocked earlier premiers for using previous, less-glitzy aircraft to save time from extensive road journeys. “I prefer to drive around and talk to the people about things that matter,” he boasted in 2019.

Article content

The timing of the purchase was particularly klutzy, coming as Conservatives determinedly portray themselves as economic warriors set on fighting the fallout of Washington’s tariff attacks. Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser pointedly skewered the snafu when he noted: “At a time when people can’t afford to buy groceries or gas, Doug Ford is buying himself a private jet. It doesn’t get much more out of touch than that.”