Scott Stinson: Ontario MPPs blast Doug Ford over aborted plans for $28.9M private jet

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

The Ontario government had barely begun the process of getting Doug Ford’s new private jet ready for official use before the premier abandoned it like it was on fire.

Article content

And from a public relations standpoint, it had indeed burst into flames.

Article content

Article content

Two days of bad headlines, helped in no small part by the fact that “Gravy Plane” made for excellent copy, was enough to cause Ford to explain in a Sunday statement that, upon further consideration, the plane plan was grounded.

Article content

Article content

One only had to watch the first few minutes of question period at Queen’s Park on Monday morning to understand why such a decision was inevitable.

Article content

Article content

NDP Leader Marit Stiles complained that, at a time when the province is cutting funding for disadvantaged post-secondary students, “the premier was obsessing over what colour leather would go in his private jet.”

Article content

Stiles also demanded to know how much was being spent on upgrading the plane, allowing her to take a throwback shot at Ford’s aborted 2019 proposal to purchase an SUV for official use and have it tricked out with a mini fridge, recliner and television.

Article content

(Ironically, Ford’s defence in that earlier controversy had been that he preferred driving around the province to meet regular folks instead of using the government’s turboprop planes, a sound bite that came back to haunt him when the $28.9-million purchase of the used Bombardier Challenger jet was revealed on Friday.)

Article content

John Fraser, the interim leader of the Liberals, managed to squeeze a shot about Ford “pimping up his private jet” into a question on a matter that couldn’t be more unrelated, the unauthorized and accidental release of prisoners from correctional facilities.

Article content

Article content

Truly, the gravy plane zingers would have been shoehorned into every public statement from opposition MPPs for weeks, had the government not reversed course.

Article content

Article content

Ford, evidently not wanting to take a public scolding in the legislature like a dog that sits in the corner in shame after it has taken food from the kitchen counter, let his ministers do the public show of contrition.

Article content

First up was Steve Clark, government house leader, who said that the government “heard from the public, we heard from the people,” over the weekend. No government makes every decision correctly, Clark noted, “no government is perfect,” and he saluted the “leadership” shown by Ford in deciding to bail from the plane like he was wearing a parachute.

Article content

“We made the right decision (on Sunday),” Clark said.

Article content

Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy tried turning a question about jet-related expenses into a lesson on the value of the small business tax cuts included in the provincial budget, only to have Stiles exclaim that there was nothing in that budget about the purchase of a private jet.

Article content

“If there has ever been a government more out of touch, I don’t know when,” she fumed.