A poll last week showed Premier Doug Ford’s popularity bottoming out. He and his PC government are now in third place.
Timmins New Democratic MPP Gilles Bisson says it’s not the first such result recently.
“But they indicate pretty well the same thing,” he expresses, “that the measures put forward by the Ford government are vastly unpopular, even within Conservative supporters.”
Bisson says Ford’s bravado and blaming others for problems doesn’t sit well with voters.
“(Former Liberal premier Kathleen) Wynne was pretty unpopular at the end of her mandate. This guy’s done it in less than a year, so I guess that’s some kind of record.”
Bisson draws the comparison between Ford and U.S. president Trump. He doesn’t say Ford is a liar, but that he says things that aren’t true.
An example is social services spending. Official estimates say it’s being cut by nine-hundred-million dollars this year.
“They get up and say no, we’re putting $300-million in. But that’s not what the estimates show, which is the actual document of how more money that ministry will spend is down $900-million. So you can’t say those things over and over again and don’t think that people don’t catch on and don’t become infuriated with you.”