Ontario Premier Doug Ford is acknowledging that the Progressive Conservative party spent $3,000 on travelling to Jamaica to spy on Bonnie Crombie shortly after she became leader of the Liberal party in 2023 but he says he was not aware of the plan and doesn’t approve of it.
POLICORNER and The Trillium reported on Thursday that the PC party paid for someone to go to the resort Crombie was staying at during a three-day vacation as part of “opposition research work.”
The outlets both cited sources who agreed with the characterization that the trip was undertaken to “spy on” Crombie, just six days after the Ontario Liberal party selected her as their leader.
“The Ontario PC Party, like other political parties, conducts opposition research. In this instance, that work included travel to Jamaica in December 2023,” said a statement from the party sent to CTV News.
Asked about the expense during a press conference in Guelph on Thursday, Ford said he was only made aware of it on Wednesday.
“I just found out yesterday. You would have to talk to the party about it. It was $3,000 of the party’s money, and I did not know until yesterday,” he said. “But talk to the party. I don’t approve of it, but that is neither here nor there. That was $3,000 of the party’s money.”
Ford said during the press conference that he wanted to “emphasize” that the $3,000 expense was “the party’s money.”
However, in Ontario, political parties do receive a per-vote subsidy, meaning that a portion of their budget is made up of taxpayer dollars.
In 2023, the Progressive Conservative party received more than $5.1 million in taxpayer dollars.
“You would have to talk to the party. I wouldn’t do it but again things happen,” Ford said.
The PC party issued a statement on the day Crombie became Liberal leader in which it said that she “doesn’t get the concerns of everyday people” and “drives fancy cars and vacations at her home in the Hamptons.”
The party then launched an attack ad campaign that portrayed Crombie as an “elite.” Crombie, for her part, later told The Canadian Press that the campaign showed a “lack of civility” on the part of the PC party.
Crombie formally resigned from her role as Liberal leader in January and is currently running in the Mississauga mayoral election.
In a statement posted to social media on Thursday, NDP Leader Marit Stiles called the reported trip to spy on Crombie “disgusting.”
She added that Ford should “not get to shrug it off.”
“Spying on a woman who is one of your political opponents on her private vacation is creepy Trump-style politics that has no place here,” Stiles said. “Women already face enough barriers in politics without this kind of behaviour. Somebody signed off on that expense, and he knows exactly who. Heads need to roll.”
Meanwhile, on Thursday afternoon Liberal MPP Stephanie Smyth slammed the tactics as “deeply disturbing” during a press conference at Queen’s Park, likening it to a “violation” that potentially amounts to “stalking.”
She suggested that the matter should ultimately be investigated by “the appropriate bodies,” whether that is Ontario’s integrity commissioner or “maybe it is the police.”
“I see this as not only disturbing but an absolute violation of someone’s privacy. It goes beyond ordinary political opposition research that we know that parties do. When we see someone actually physically following someone to observe a political opponent is just the lowest of the low and Ontarians deserve answers about this,” she said. “Who authorized this? Who approved this spending? Who was directing this operation and what exactly were they looking for?”
Ford was asked on Thursday whether similar tactics would continue to be employed in Ontario and replied “I hope not,” though he added that “stuff happens during elections.”
He also suggested that the matter is “no different” than “when the media has followed” him to a handful of U.S. cities, including Chicago.
While it is not entirely clear what Ford was referring to, he did embark on a trade mission to Chicago while a Toronto city councillor that was widely covered by Toronto media.
Smyth, for her part, said that following Crombie to Jamaica raises questions about what other measures may have been taken by the Tories in the name of opposition research.
“If they were willing to follow her, Ms. Crombie, to Jamaica, surely they were probably following her across the province during the campaign. What else did they know? Was she followed everywhere she went, everything she did? What about other candidates? What kind of oppo (opposition) research are they doing on those people?”
CTV News has reached out to the Ontario Progressive Conservative party and Crombie for comment on this story but has not heard back.
