May 11 2019 — Adam Radwanski — Globe and Mail — Conservatives are starting to feel bullish about vote-splitting. Until recently, the ability of New Democrats to pull votes away from Liberals was a source of consternation for Andrew Scheer’s party. If Jagmeet Singh didn’t get his act together, it might be too easy for Justin Trudeau to rally the centre-left behind him, and take a […]
Nov 17 2018 — Adam Radwanski — Globe and Mail — When Ontario Progressive Conservatives gathered for a “unity rally” last March, the plan was for Doug Ford to be introduced by the candidates he had defeated for his party’s leadership days earlier. It was to be an important gesture of conciliation, after a hurried and heated race that he barely won. But when Christine Elliott […]
Sep 21 2018 — Adam Radwanski — Globe and Mail — Jagmeet Singh has recently been sitting through sessions with experts in key areas of federal policy. The sessions are aimed at making him more authoritative on subjects the national leader of a left-of-centre party should be authoritative about. New Democrats had best hope that the erstwhile provincial politician is exiting the policy “boot camp,” as […]
Sep 16 2018 — Adam Radwanski — Globe and Mail — Doug Ford keeps sending a very clear message about the test of Ontario’s political culture that he will provide over the next four years. Again and again this week, the Ontario Premier defended his plan to use the notwithstanding clause – in response to a court ruling that his government’s overhaul of the Toronto electoral […]
Jun 5 2018 — Adam Radwanski — Globe and Mail — Ever since the Ontario election campaign started, Doug Ford’s campaign team has spent much of its time putting out fires – some inherited when he abruptly took over the Progressive Conservatives this winter, others he lit himself. Three days before election day, the Tories were saddled with one more – one that uniquely threatened to […]
May 26 2018 — Adam Radwanski — Globe and Mail — This is not the election campaign any of Ontario’s major parties expected. Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives thought that if they could run a reasonably safe campaign, they would hold up as the only alternative to Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals. The Liberals, despite abysmal approval ratings, thought they’d get a decent chance to compete for yet another […]
May 24 2018 — Adam Radwanski — Globe and Mail — Suddenly, Doug Ford thinks everything was hunky-dory with his party’s handling of candidate nominations, back when Patrick Brown was leader. For more than two months, after winning the vote to take the Ontario Progressive Conservatives’ helm, Mr. Ford had no qualms about revisiting contentious local votes deemed above board under Mr. Brown. Four Greater Toronto […]
May 23 2018 — Adam Radwanski — Globe and Mail — The past few days could have been pretty rough for Andrea Horwath’s New Democrats. As Ontarians were settling into their long weekends, perhaps discussing among themselves whether they should for once consider voting for an NDP government on June 7, news came of a very basic math error in the party’s platform – one that […]
May 18 2018 — Adam Radwanski — Globe and Mail — Many party leaders spend years trying to perfect every aspect of their pitches to voters, only to be doomed by a single mistake or sudden shift in mood. Doug Ford had a couple of months to prepare for his first election leading Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives. He lacks a coherent message and is constantly on the […]
Apr 21 2018 — Adam Radwanski — Globe and Mail — Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals are desperate. So it wasn’t much surprise this week when they seized on the slightest chance to compare Doug Ford with Donald Trump – Ms. Wynne delivering an overwrought statement to the effect that a comment by the Progressive Conservative Leader about how more Liberals would be in jail for their accounting […]
Apr 20 2018 — Adam Radwanski — Globe and Mail — Even as Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford pushes back hard against comparisons to Donald Trump heading into this spring’s Ontario election, he has been using Facebook advertising to target Ontarians who are “interested” in the U.S. President. Meanwhile, local candidates for Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals have been highlighting exactly how much their government’s last-ditch spending spree […]
Apr 6 2018 — Adam Radwanski — Globe and Mail — Pitching himself to voters pining for simpler times, Doug Ford often comes off as a nostalgia candidate. In the absence of a policy platform, the Progressive Conservative Leader broadly promises that Ontario’s past glories will be restored through roll-up-your-sleeves industriousness. His belief about how to foster that, other than by getting out of the way, […]
Mar 31 2018 — Adam Radwanski — Globe and Mail — In Canada’s largest province, the centre of the political spectrum now sits vacant. There will be no middle-of-the-road, steady-as-she-goes option for voters in Ontario’s June election. Not when Patrick Brown’s attempt to impose the Red Toryism of yore upon the Progressive Conservatives has been replaced by Doug Ford’s right-wing populism. And not after a leftward […]
Mar 24 2018 — Adam Radwanski — Globe and Mail — When Justin Trudeau won power, savviness about using digital media was part of his youthful brand. Both before and after the 2015 federal election, his Liberals were eager to talk about how they had overtaken the Conservatives in using available data to profile individual voters and deliver tailored messages to them. Like political operatives in […]
Mar 11 2018 — Adam Radwanski — Globe and Mail — After years of speculation, Canada is about to find out what happens when the populist wave that has swept much of the Western world overtakes one of its major political parties. The bizarre manner in which Doug Ford was crowned the leader of Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives on Saturday – his victory rumoured for many hours, […]