Doug Ford touts PC record as MPPs head off for summer break

As the Progressive Conservatives mark five years in power, Premier Doug Ford is revving up the rhetoric to tout his government’s record.

Battered by controversies swirling around the opening up of protected Greenbelt lands to housing development — and apparently rattled by a reviving Liberal party — Ford is pivoting to the offensive.

On the final day of the legislative session before the summer break, the premier, who routinely ignores opposition questions, came out swinging as he was being grilled by NDP Leader Marit Stiles.

“Can I get an extension of about an hour to show all our accomplishments?” he asked Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday.

While Arnott did not accede to that request, Ford — whose Progressive Conservatives ended a 15-year Liberal dynasty on June 7, 2018 — still tried to run out the clock to his advantage.

“There’s 670,000 more people working today than there was five years ago … 670,000 people are putting food on their table, paying a mortgage or buying a home, because we created the climate and the conditions,” the premier thundered.

“We landed a historic Volkswagen deal to build the largest manufacturing plant in the history of Canada,” he said, leaving the tense negotiations to keep Stellantis in Ontario unmentioned.

“We are the EV capital of the world … with six of the largest car manufacturers right here producing automobiles and the batteries.”

That’s a reference to Volkswagen, Honda, General Motors, Ford, Toyota and Stellantis, the parent company of Chrysler, Jeep and Fiat.

To heckles from the opposition parties, Ford went on to list what his Tories are doing when it comes to health.

“There’s no government in the entire country that has invested more in health care than we have: $81 billion,” he said.

“We’re building … or upgrading 50 new (hospital) sites to a tune of $50 billion. We had more nurses registered last year than in the history of this country, 12,000 of them … we added 3,100 beds.”

Getting warmed up, Ford reeled off statistic after statistic to bolster his contention that things are going well as Ontario continues to rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This year, education spending is at an all-time high of $34.7 billion … we’re building the largest transit project in North America — $30 billion with four new lines getting people out of their cars into transit.”

But, just 12 months after the Tories were re-elected with an even larger majority, Stiles, who took over as Official Opposition leader in February, believes the rot is setting in.

“This government has really delivered — if you’re a wealthy developer with insider connections,” the New Democrat said, referring to Ford allowing development on 7,400 acres of the two-million-acre Greenbelt in exchange for protecting 9,400 additional acres elsewhere.

“We saw this government prioritize carving up protected Greenbelt lands to the benefit of deep-pocketed friends of the premier and his party, lands that help Ontario mitigate the effects of climate change, lands of ecological significance and crucial farmland,” she said.

“Emergency room closures are happening right across this province, some of them permanently … and 2.2 million Ontarians don’t have a family doctor.”

Stiles noted that “after five years of this government’s transit policies, the Eglinton Crosstown project is completely off the rails, years behind schedule, way over budget” and “doesn’t even have a deadline” for completion.

Against that backdrop, Ford is expected to call three byelections this summer — in Scarborough-Guildwood, Kanata-Carleton and Kitchener Centre.

They are to fill the vacancies left by Liberal Mitzie Hunter, Tory Merrilee Fullerton and New Democrat Laura Mae Lindo, who is expected to finally step down at the end of this month.

Those contests will be held as the Liberal leadership race, which will be decided Dec. 2, is heating up.

Liberal MPs Nate Erskine-Smith (Beaches-East York) and Yasir Naqvi (Ottawa Centre) and Liberal MPP Ted Hsu (Kingston and the Islands) have already registered as candidates.

MPPs Stephanie Bowman (Don Valley West) and Adil Shamji (Don Valley East) are also pondering bids.

But it is the potential candidacy of Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie that has most rankled Ford — if his public comments are any indication.

“My question is, what took so long? She’s been campaigning for five years,” the premier told the Star on May 23.

“My other message to Bonnie is, bring it on.”

Robert Benzie is the Star’s Queen’s Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie