Is Ford’s Government Still Flying High In Ontario? Could It Win A Third Term?

Here Is Betting You A Buck A Beer That IT COULD!

A News Commentary by Doug Draper, reporter/publisher, Niagara At Large

Posted December 20^th, 2023 on Niagara At Large

With the Greenbelt scandal controversy dogging them for most of the year, not to mention an ongoing RCMP investigation  that ensued, along with  protest after protest over the way they have been mishandling short-changing key  services like education, affordable housing and health care, you would think that Doug Ford and his Conservatives would now be circling the drain in terms of  public popularity.

Yet at least one recent survey of Ontarians, conducted for Tr provincial election was held now, Ford and company might very well pull through with a minority, and maybe even another majority government.

That may seem very difficult to believe to so many Ontario citizens who have been out protesting and swamping Ford and his Tory MPPs with angry email and phone calls over a whole host of whole host of issues of concern to them.

But what the Abacus Data survey, reported at the end of this November shows, is that as of this passing fall, Ford’s Conservatives have the support of 39 per cent of those polled, with the Liberals (that lost so many seats in the 2018 provincial  election that it went from governing the province to losing official party status) at 31 per cent, the NDP (now serving a second term Ontario’s Official Opposition Party, down to 20 per cent and the Green Party of Ontario at six per cent.

Let’s not forget that in the last provincial election, in June 2022, the Ford Conservatives won a second majority with just over 40 per cent of the 43 per cent of eligible voters (a pathetic turnout) that bothered to get off their butts and go to the polls.

So what do the results of this latest poll mean?

It may mean that despite all the vocal protests and media coverage over the Ford government’s handling of the Greenbelt and so many other hot-button issues, there are a good number of people out there who either don’t care or don’t know about these issues, or who are just fine with the way Ford and company are going about business.

There are no doubt at least some individuals and organizations in Ontario who are even cheering Ford and his MPPs along and are rewarding them with donations for the next campaign.

For those who want to see the Ford government go, what may also seem at least a little disheartening and little hard to believe in these latest poll numbers is the drop of the NDP from second to third place.

For anyone who has been paying attention to provincial politics in recent years (and that, unfortunately, may not be many), the Ontario New Democrats under their former leader Andrea Horwath and current leader Marit Stiles, have been hammering away night and day for better results from Ford on issues that affect the health and welfare of a majority of children, seniors and everyone in between.

Yet all of that hustle doesn’t seem to be paying off as much as it should for Marit Stiles and the NDP.

If these latest poll numbers are an accurate reflection of the support the four political parties in the province are now getting, it is odd enough that the NDP is still trailing behind a Ford government that has been steeped in controversy. It has also dropped behind a Liberal Party that has all but been invisible in recent years and has, only weeks ago, chosen a new leader in outgoing Mississauga mayor Bonnie Crombie who hasn’t got a seat in the provincial legislature yet.

We don’t have another provincial election in Ontario for another two and a half years, but the latest Abacus Data polling numbers don’t hold out very much hope that Doug Ford won’t be premier again.

Indeed, if he is still flying higher than the rest after all the scandal and controversy he has faced this year, why wouldn’t he win again?

Sorry if my analysis leaves you crying in a buck-a-beer (that God-awful swill Ford dumped in our beer and liquor stores some five years ago).

But if there aren’t enough people out there who are paying attention or care about the way the Ford government is dealing with issues that should be of interest and concern to all of us, then that’s the way it may go.

• Here is a toast to the Holiday Season, Doug Draper, Niagara At Large

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