When Doug Ford was elected Premier of Ontario back in May, it was obvious to everyone that he was riding the same populist, let's-break-things wave that took Donald Trump into the White House. Similarities between the two men were apparent before Ford's victory, and have only become more striking since Ford took office. Let's take a quick look.
Both portray themselves as self-made men of the people but this isn't true. Both have carried on businesses first established and built by their fathers -- real estate in the case of Trump; label-making in the case of Doug Ford.
They have a nil-to-negligible amount of political experience. Absolutely nil in the case of Trump, unless you count his occasional musings about running for office during various talk show appearances; one four-year term on Toronto City Council for Ford, but that hardly counts since his attendance record was abysmal.
Arguably each man only won because of the nature of the opponent he faced. Both Hillary Clinton and Kathleen Wynne were infinitely more experienced and qualified, but each was about as pure a definition of an establishment candidate as you could find. Given the nihilistic mood of much of the electorate, this was fatal. Any Democrat you can name would have beaten Trump; somewhat less certainly, you can argue that Ford might not have been elected if Wynne had swallowed her pride and quit before the election campaign started.
In both cases it was assumed that once elected, their parties would hold them back from carrying out their more outrageous election promises. Not so: Trump has moved the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, cancelled the Iran nuclear deal, slashed taxes for the wealthy, crippled Obamacare and set off a trade war. Doug Ford has moved to downsize Toronto City Council, reduce beer and gasoline prices, abolish an updated sex-ed curriculum and start a legal battle with the Federal government over climate change.
As a corollary of this the "adults in the room" have become irrelevant and powerless. Trump's cabinet room has had a revolving door since Day One, with no-one seeming able to rein in their boss's worst instincts. Similarly, Ford's cabinet already seems to be something of a sideshow. with the Premier clearly loving and hogging the spotlight in the Provincial legislature.
How you feel about this, of course, depends on whether you liked the two men's ideas in the first place. From my point of view, both Trump and Ford offered up a series of idiotic promises and are now putting them into practice. But if that's what you wanted, that's what you're getting, and you're getting it hot and fast. That's why both men are able to count on the support of their so-called "bases" even as the media and much of the electorate looks on aghast, and it's why both seem set to wreak changes that will last well beyond their term in office.
As a footnote, there's one small consolation to be had here in Ontario. There's almost nothing Ford is doing that I personally support, but it's fun to watch the collective blood pressure at the Toronto Star rise ever higher as one illiberal measure follows another. Panicked editorials are showing up almost daily. Get used to it guys -- he's just getting started.
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