No one expects an election campaign to be a lovefest. And it’s normal for language to get heated in the last days of a campaign with charges and counter charges, many of them exaggerated. But exactly three weeks before the formal campaign begins and seven weeks before the vote in Ontario the leader of the Liberal party, Kathleen Wynne, today predicted a “vicious” campaign.
She launched into her own vicious attack on Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford. She had a prepared statement - this was no “off the cuff” comment – for Ontario.
Standing at her podium she read it out. I am going to quote it at some length because it is a no holds barred attack and these words were carefully chosen:
Let's just call this for what it is – out for what it is. Doug Ford sounds like Donald Trump, and that's because he is like Donald Trump. He believes in ugly, vicious brand of politics that traffics and smears and lies. He'll say anything about anyone at any time because just like Trump, it is all about him. It's not about our people. It's not about their families. It's not about Ontario's success. It is about him.
That's how Trump campaigned in 2016 and that's how Ford is campaigning right now. I guarantee you that it will get worse before it gets better. We saw it this week when Doug lied, flat-out lied, about his appalling comments about families living with autism, lacking the courage to admit the truth and own up to his own words. He took the coward's way out and he denied the undeniable.
Yesterday, he did it again when he all but chanted, “Lock her up,” talking about me. The reporters know what I'm talking about because they reported it and it's just been repeated here. I want to emphasize this is not about me. I've got a pretty thick skin and I'll take anything that he dishes out, but I want people to notice what's going on here.
Doug Ford stands for nothing other than Doug Ford. Just like Donald Trump, there is only one way to deal with this kind of behavior. You have to stand up to him and you have to name the behavior for what it is because that is how you deal with a bully. Michelle Obama, whom I admire greatly, recommended that when they go low, we should go high. I loved that idea when she said it, until we ended up with Donald Trump in the White House.
So, I'm sorry, but not again. Not here, not in Ontario. I'm not going to go high. I'm not going to go low. I'm going to call that bullying behavior out for what it is. I will fight him on behalf of the people, the families, the babies, the moms, the dads, the grandmas, the aunts and the uncles all over this province. I will fight him on the principles that I believe in. Those are principles that I referenced at the beginning of this statement – that we have the capacity in this province and in this country to be a caring society, that we understand that what government exists to do is to put those conditions in place for us to care for each other and to be able to look after ourselves and our families. That is what I will fight for because he may be Donald Trump, but I'm not Hillary Clinton, not in Ontario and Ontario is not the United States of America.”
Let’s pull out some of the extraordinary language in this. Wynne states Ford “flat-out lied” and tags Ford for “bullying behavior” saying Ford “is like Donald Trump.” Her promise in this campaign is to “fight him on behalf of the people of Ontario.” Well, yes, this pitbull attack on Ford was coming. It was just a matter of when. The first Liberal ads released last Friday made it clear the Liberals intend to make Ford the issue in the campaign. Today’s attack by Wynne will reverberate and makes her prediction of a “vicious” campaign a certain reality.
The trigger for this outburst comes after Doug Ford said Tuesday he would call for an outside audit of spending by the Liberal government. Alluding to the court sentencing last week of Liberal David Livingston, Ford said, “If Kathleen Wynne tried to pull these kinds of shady tricks in private life, then there would be a few more Liberals joining David Livingstone in jail,” For the Liberals those words echoed the Donald Trump 2016 campaign “lock her up” chanting against Hillary Clinton.
And how did the Progressive Conservatives respond to today's attack? First, the party arranged a quick conference call for reporters with Lisa Macleod, a prominent member of the Conservative caucus. Macleod picked up on the Ford – Trump comparison saying Wynne is choosing “to run against another candidate in another country.” She repeated that line a few times and called the tactic “bizarre.” Then, at a campaign stop in Coburg, Doug Ford tried very hard to take his version of the high road. He said, “I’m not going to get personal…I don’t need to get personal.” Then he followed that up attacking Wynne for leading the “most corrupt government this country has ever seen” adding “she’s done nothing but destroy this province.”
The Liberal strategy is to make Doug Ford the issue and the Progressive Conservative strategy is to make Kathleen Wynne its issue. So, where does that leave Ontario’s third party, the New Democrats? Andrea Horwath uses the word “hope” a lot trying to stake out a bit of positive territory in what is shaping up to be one of the most heated, negative election campaigns seen in Canada. But journalists tend to glom onto a spat like this one. The question is will voters get fed up with the name calling between Wynne and Ford and listen to Horwath?
