Doug Ford is Ontario’s Trump

Let me prove it

Since 2018 Premier Doug Ford has repeatedly sold himself as a “common-sense” defender of ordinary Ontarians. Yet a step-by-step audit of his record shows a pattern far closer to U.S.-style strong-man populism: smash the guardrails, reward insiders, walk it back only when caught. What follows is a documented timeline of the premier’s most Trumpian manoeuvres and their concrete fallout for Ontario’s people, land, and public purse.

Governing by Override: The Notwithstanding Clause

2018 - Bill 5 – Toronto Council Slash

When a judge ruled Ford’s mid-campaign cut of Toronto’s council unconstitutional, he vowed to ram it through anyway using the Charter’s “nuclear option.” globalnews.catoronto.citynews.ca

Constitutional norms shredded; municipal freedom of expression rights violated.

2022 - Bill 28 – ‘Keeping Students in Class’ Act

Pre-emptively outlawed a CUPE education strike, fined workers $4k/day, and stuffed a contract down unions’ throats—again with the notwithstanding clause. Mass protests forced a full repeal within a week. en.wikipedia.orgola.orgogletree.com

Labour-movement unity unseen since the Days of Action; public trust in Queen’s Park plummeted.

Why it’s Trumpian: power is exercised as spectacle—blast past courts, then retreat only when the street pushes back.

The $8 Billion Greenbelt Giveaway

• What he did: Removed 7,413 acres of protected land, hand-picked by lobbyists, generating an estimated $8.5 billion paper windfall for a handful of PC-donor developers. thepointer.com

• Fallout: Housing Minister Steve Clark and two other ministers resigned; RCMP now leading a criminal probe; Ford was forced into a humiliating reversal in Sept 2024. en.wikipedia.orgtvo.org

Pattern: Promise transparency, hold fund-raiser with land speculators, spring a sudden boundary change, blame “bureaucrats” when busted—classic crony capitalism.

Ontario Place: A 95-Year Mega-Spa for the Few

• Therme Spa deal: Secured a near-century lease through a procurement the Auditor-General labelled “not fair, transparent or accountable.” kitchener.citynews.catoronto.citynews.ca

• Public price-tag: Provincial cost ballooned from <$400 M to $2.2 B plus $400 M (and counting) to uproot the Ontario Science Centre. globalnews.cacanada.constructconnect.comstalbertgazette.com

• Environmental hit: 850+ mature trees already felled; local First Nation suing over failure to consult.

• $250,000 Penalty every 6 months: for not having the parking garage ready. A parking garage that is 5 stories, and holds 3,500 spaces and won’t be ready until 2029 according to Ford. Chris Glover, NDP MPP, said “they’re covering up a boondoggle”. The building’s concept drawing shows a humongous, ugly, monstrosity but Ford said, it “will have a berm hiding it” and it will be “spectacular, barely even seen” and that it will “blend in with the environment.”

  

  Concept Drawing of Parking Garage https://www.vmcdn.ca/f/files/trillium/0610-p2-parking-final-rendering-angle-1-high-res.png;w=960

  Why it’s Trumpian: promote a vanity mega-project, wave off cost overruns as “none of my business,” and grip-n-grin with foreign luxury executives while public assets are gutted.

Bill 23 – More Homes Built Faster (for Developers)

• Guts Conservation Authorities & Wetlands Offsetting: strips experts of veto power on flood-plain developments. ontarionature.org

• Municipal cost shift: AMO pegs lost development-charge revenue at $5.1 B over nine years—money cities will recoup by cutting services or hiking property taxes. ohba.cabaywardbulletin.ca

• Translation: socialize infrastructure costs, privatize profit. A familiar playbook south of the border.

Highway 413 & Bradford Bypass: Asphalt for Donors

Eight heavyweight developers who donated to the PCs own over 3,300 acres along Highway 413’s route; similar holdings ring the Bradford Bypass. nationalobserver.comnationalobserver.com

• Price tag: > $10 B in public funds for sprawl roads the Auditor-General says deliver “minimal” congestion relief.

• Climate cost: Locks in car dependence while undermining Greenbelt buffers.

Echo of Trump: infrastructure as a land-value-lift gift to friends, marketed as “jobs, jobs, jobs.”

Bill 60 – Your Health Act: Two-Tier by Stealth

• Opens door to for-profit surgical & diagnostic centres licensed under a new “Integrated Community Health Services” regime. ofl.caola.org

• Nurses & patient-advocacy coalitions warn of upselling and queue-jumping, pointing to cataract clinics already charging patients illegally. ontariondp.cactvnews.capolicyalternatives.ca

Net result: public hospitals lose staff to higher-pay clinics; patients with means skip the queue—exactly what Canadian Medicare was built to prevent.

Pandemic Panic & 48-Hour Flip-Flop (April 2021)

• Friday: Ford shuts playgrounds and grants police power to stop anyone outside and demand papers.

• Sunday: After mass outrage—including police forces saying they’d refuse—the measures are scrapped. ctvnews.cactvnews.caangusreid.org

The swing showed a governing instinct for punitive theatrics first, evidence later—another MAGA hallmark.

Record-Shattering Use of MZOs

• 169 Minister’s Zoning Orders issued 2019-24—a 17-fold increase over previous decades. Auditor-General finds “appearance of preferential treatment” and an average +46 % land-value spike for recipients. en.wikipedia.org

Municipal democracy sidelined; wetlands paved while councils watch helplessly.

Why This Matters Heading into 2026

1. Precedent: Each norm Ford breaks becomes a blueprint others — Poilievre federally, local wannabes — can copy.

2. Fiscal Straitjacket: Mega-spa, highways, and health-privatization contracts pile billions onto future provincial budgets.

3. Democratic Erosion: Routine use of exceptional powers (notwithstanding clause, MZOs) conditions voters to expect rule-by-fiat.
   

Conclusion

Doug Ford’s tenure shows a consistent through-line: accelerate deregulation, centralize power, and funnel public wealth to a narrow circle of allies — then reverse course only when public outrage outweighs donor cheer-leading. Recognizing the pattern is the first step to breaking it. The next is relentless, evidence-based spotlighting — because corruption flourishes most when we look south at louder chaos and forget the fires in our own backyard.

Use this dossier, share it, cite it, and keep the heat on. Ontario’s future depends on it.

I need to add a recent incident that is really telling.

May 1st, Chris Glover, MPP in Spadina-York for the NPD, reports that Doug Ford said he “wants judges to obey him; and he wants to control the judges.”

This is so Trumpian, it’s ridiculous. This one thing, violates our Charter of Rights, because if he controls the Judicial Branch, there is no impartiality in our law.

He’s already changed the process enough to appoint more conservative judges.

Listen to Representative Chris Glover’s video here.

Doug Ford want’s to remove our rights, he wants to turn the government into his personal money-making enterprise, and he doesn’t care who or what he destroys in the process. He’s a ‘strong-man’ — and he made himself look really good “standing up to Trump”. Except he didn’t. He backed down on all his threats to ‘turn off the power’. Does that sound familiar?