How the leaders' debate affects the rest of the Ontario election campaign
CBC
Ontario PC Leader Doug Ford's campaign slogan is "Protect Ontario," but during the province-wide leaders' debate on Monday night, he seemed to switch it to "Protect My Lead."
Ford played it safe for the 90 minutes of televised debate time, and he played it even safer after the broadcast by skipping out on the scheduled post-debate news conferences.
That's the second straight time Ford has refused to participate in a post-debate Q and A, as he did the same thing on Friday after the northern debate. This means Ford has now gone more than a week without taking any questions from reporters on Ontario soil, smack-dab in the middle of an election campaign that lasts just four weeks.
It's all part of a very clear Ford strategy that was also on display during the debate: sticking to his single-minded campaign message of protecting Ontario from the threat of tariffs, and spending as little time as possible talking about anything else.
Among Ford's rivals, Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie was the most aggressive at attempting to knock him off his talking points.
The debate format gave each leader one opportunity to go one-on-one against each other for two minutes, and Crombie started off her segment with Ford with a bang.
"Doug, I have one question for you and one question only," Crombie said, as she appeared on a split screen with Ford. "After seven years of lies, why should anyone trust a word you say?"
Crombie — who spent some of her childhood living in a rooming house — ratcheted up her attack on Ford near the end of the debate with a comment about him being born into wealth.
"You don't get the plight of real people because you were raised privileged, with a silver spoon in your mouth," Crombie said. "You didn't have to work for anything. You had a company handed to you, Doug, so you don't understand how expensive things are today. I bet you couldn't tell me what the cost of eggs are."
If Ford didn't know the price of eggs before the debate, guaranteed that his handlers will tell him by the next time he faces reporters.
Crombie is attempting to chip away at the "For The People" persona that Ford has successfully portrayed throughout his time in politics. That's a rather difficult task.
Laryssa Waler, Ford's former communications director, says Liberal and NDP messaging has typically failed to hurt Ford because it's been attacking a version of him that she says doesn't exist.
"You can't convince everyday voters that Doug Ford doesn't care about you, because he genuinely does," said Waler in a recent interview.
When NDP Leader Marit Stiles had her two-minute opportunity to go one-on-one with Ford, in contrast to Crombie, she spent nearly 45 seconds on preamble, before getting around to tackling him on per-student funding in the school system.
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