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 Not when Patrick Brown’s attempt to impose the Red Toryism of yore upon the Progressive Conservatives has been replaced by Doug Ford’s right-wing populism.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, […]
Mar 10 2018 — Adam Radwanski — Globe and Mail — From the moment the results of the contest to replace Patrick Brown are announced on Saturday, the Ontario Progressive Conservatives’ new leader will try to present that party’s recent woes as firmly in the rear-view mirror. Sure, Mr. Brown’s sudden exit revealed a PC culture in crisis – not just because of the sexual-misconduct allegations […]
Feb 22 2018 — Adam Radwanski — Globe and Mail — The stakes of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives’ manic sprint of a leadership contest just got even higher. From the moment of Patrick Brown’s sudden resignation four weeks ago, this stood out as a contest of unusual consequence – a party leading in the polls, choosing someone to lead it into a general election almost immediately […]
Feb 17 2018 — Adam Radwanski — Globe and Mail — Even on his best days, leading in the polls and raising lots of cash and glad-handing with the best of them, it was never entirely clear why Patrick Brown wanted to be leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario. He didn’t have a notable interest in the mechanics of the government he was hoping […]
Feb 13 2018 — Adam Radwanski — Globe and Mail — The contest to lead Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives has only just begun, but it’s already in crunch time. On Thursday, Doug Ford, Christine Elliott and Caroline Mulroney square off against one another in the first of two scheduled debates; the following day is the cut-off for signing up new members eligible to vote before results are […]
Feb 10 2018 — Adam Radwanski — Globe and Mail — “I live with five women at home,” Doug Ford said this week. “I can handle Caroline Mulroney and Christine Elliott.” It was a dismissal of his competition that, coming from another man seeking to lead a political party, might have brought a hasty end to his candidacy – especially with that party hyper-sensitive to how […]
Feb 4 2018 — Adam Radwanski — Globe and Mail — Until less than two weeks ago, Caroline Mulroney was being advised by Progressive Conservative insiders helping steer her entry into politics that she should take it slow. Worry about establishing herself as a local candidate in York Simcoe, the safe riding into which she’d been parachuted to run for the PCs in this spring’s provincial […]
Jan 29 2018 — Adam Radwanski — Globe and Mail — For a good number of Ontario Progressive Conservatives, the idea of going into this spring’s election with Doug Ford at the helm is almost as much of a nightmare as what they have endured the past week. Less charming than his late brother Rob, the onetime Toronto city councillor is not exactly the fresh face […]
Jan 27 2018 — Adam Radwanski — Globe and Mail — In a span of a few hours on Wednesday night, Patrick Brown went from having an entire party machine at his back to being the loneliest guy in Ontario. The political professionals he had brought in – his chief of staff, campaign director, messaging guru – were out the door before CTV’s report about his […]