Ford's red meat, Cerjanec's crack team, Nav's narrative
"Cluster-duck"
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FORD SERVES UP RED MEAT ON PRIMETIME
ROB CERJANEC is putting together a crack campaign team for the Liberal leadership, while the PCs are going hard on the NAVDEEP BAINS narrative. The House is zipping through due process with just a week (or less!) until summer recess. But first: the PCs’ are getting visceral in their latest tough-on-crime ads.
AD WATCH — Looking to change the channel after a run of bad polling and headlines over the private jet fiasco and gutting of FOI laws, the Ford government is out with a fresh set of Protect Ontario ads that boast law-and-order policies — and serve up red meat for DOUG FORD’s base and beyond.
Airing across TV and radio, including during Jays’ games, the 30-second spot features a voiceover of a woman rattling off a bunch of public safety moves — and the government isn’t mincing words with the script.
“Protecting Ontario means playgrounds with no drug injections sites. It means fewer cars being stolen, thanks to more police officers and prosecutors. New jails, so criminals stay behind bars. Public spaces without encampments, and bail reform that protects our neighbourhoods,” the woman says over quick cuts of kids playing on a swing set, a man confidently getting into his SUV, and a uniformed officer walking purposely in a correctional facility.
Of course, the clip doesn’t mention the convicts currently on the lam, or that Ford has mused about using the nuclear option of the notwithstanding clause to override a ruling on an encampment in Kitchener.
But that type of visceral language plays well with a public that has the perception that crime is out of control.
It isn’t clear how much the government coughed up for its latest ad buy — they tend to keep those receipts under wraps — and while the Public Accounts could offer a few hints at which firms are on the payroll, we’ll likely have to wait for the Auditor General’s full breakdown at the end of the year.
The new ad was also timed with the tabling of Solicitor General MICHAEL KERZNER’s omnibus justice Bill 119, which most controversially gives him power to direct police boards so that they align with provincial priorities.
Big picture: For now, expect more of this sort of talk from Ford and crew as they hit the summer barbecue circuit and lean into the shticks that work for them — Captain Canada, law-and-order Premier, even the wolf of Wellesley — while trying to put the heat of Question Period and rough storylines behind them.
CERJANEC DRAFTS CAMPAIGN CREW, TORIES GO HARD ON NAV NARRATIVE
ROB CERJANEC, the Liberal MPP who poached Ajax from the PCs last year, officially launched his bid for Liberal leader with a slick campaign video and a deep-dive profile in the Star, becoming the fourth candidate in the race and the second sitting MPP. His slogan: “Let’s Build Ontario.”
Who’s who: Cerjanec has enlisted MATHIEU DAGONAS as campaign director. Dagonas is an Ajax native who serves as executive director for the Canadian Centre for Housing Rights, and has plenty of campaign experience under his belt — he was deputy campaign manager and chief financial officer for ex-ministers ERIC HOSKINS and GLEN MURRAY, and was also the Ontario/Toronto regional manager for PM MARK CARNEY’s leadership.
Also: BRIAN KLUNDER, counsel at Temple Scott Associates and ex-national director of memberships and manager of election readiness for the federal Liberal Party, is Cerjanec’s CFO…MPP STEPHANIE BOWMAN and ex-Durham rep GRANVILLE ANDERSON are campaign co-chairs.
Long time coming: I sat down with Cerjanec last summer to talk heckling, hockey and handling Ford — and even back then, he wouldn’t rule out a run for party captain. Read on.
“NO THANKS,” NAV — Meanwhile, more PCs are getting into the coordinated line of attack on perceived Liberal leadership frontrunner NAVDEEP BAINS.
“Nav said yes to every carbon tax hike, yes to every job-killing new regulation, and yes to every woke policy Trudeau ever proposed…TRUDEAU’s yes-man? No thanks,” said SAM OOSTERHOFF…
“The guy who went from regulating giant telecoms to collecting a corporate paycheck from Rogers while it outsourced good Canadian jobs to India now wants to run Ontario. No thanks,” said ZEE HAMID.
Bains seems unfazed for now, flexing his fundraising prowess by announcing he’s already paid the full $150,000-entry fee to the party.
Cerjanec and Bains (whose bid I first told you about) join official leadership candidates LEE FAIRCLOUGH, MPP for Etobicoke-Lakeshore, and DYLAN MARANDO, former adviser in the PMO and PO (also scooped here).
With the deadline for candidates to sign up fast approaching on July 31, pressure is mounting on NATE ERSKINE-SMITH, who has said his leadership bid is “less likely” given his nomination loss in Scarborough Southwest.
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HAPPENING TODAY
9 a.m.: NDP Leader MARIT STILES is on the picket line in solidarity with striking OPSEU workers at Sistering, a women’s shelter in Toronto.
9:30 a.m.: London NDPers TERENCE KERNAGHAN and TERESA ARMSTRONG will hold a presser at House of Hope, a supportive housing program that’s set to close after the province denied requests for a funding renewal.
11:30 a.m.: Colleges and Universities Minister NOLAN QUINN will address the Empire Club as part of the launch of the Council of Ontario Universities’ AI task force report. The theme: “Talent, Technology and Trust.” RSVP.
12 p.m.: Environment Minister TODD McCARTHY is up in Uxbridge.
1 p.m.: Associate Energy-Intensive Industries Minister SAM OOSTERHOFF is in Thunder Bay. Also on hand: WILL BOUMA, Parliamentary Assistant or Indigenous Affairs, and MICHELLE COOPER, PA at Finance.
FUNDRAISING WATCH — 7:30 a.m.: PCs DOUG DOWNEY and ANTHONY LEARDI are hosting a $500-a-plate breakfast in LaSalle…Saturday at 11:30 a.m.: Ex-Premier Dad DALTON McGUINTY is hosting a money-making event for the Liberals at Niagara’s Ravine Winery. $75 will get you a signed copy of his book, Be a Good One - Words to Live By, a salad starter and a chicken supreme main.
HAPPENING SATURDAY — 10 a.m.: Lieutenant Governor EDITH DUMONT is at Chassagne Farm in Puslinch for annual sheep shearing day.
RECESS RUMBLINGS
The House is out. It’s Friday! MPPs get back at it Monday.
But but but: It may have started as wishful thinking for the burned-out among us — but there are procedural and logistical signs floating around the Leg that suggest they could recess earlier than planned, perhaps on Tuesday instead of Thursday.
THURSDAY’S RUNDOWN:
Passed: Bill 110, the government’s Billy Bishop takeover act, cleared the PC majority 58 to 41. More on that momentarily.
Killed: NDPer CATHERINE FIFE’s Lydia’s Law PMB, to enhance how sex assault cases are handled — and it’s not the first time the PCs have shot it down, prompting Oppo cries of “shame!”
New Democrats continue to blitz the Clerk’s table with private members’ bills as summer recess approaches…
Tabled I: Bill 130, the Adapting to a Hotter Ontario Act, led by NDP PETER TABUNS, to create a worker heat protection standard for employers and a strategic action plan to protect infrastructure from climate change, among other things.
Tabled II: Bill 131, the Menstrual Health Day Act from NDP ALEXA GILMOUR to proclaim May 28 as such. Gilmour is also pushing the government to require period products in all workplaces.
Tabled III: Bill 132, NDP SANDY SHAW’s Nancy Rose Act, to create a paediatric hospice palliative care strategy. It’s named for Shaw’s infant sister, who had a rare form of leukemia and died after being rushed to hospital.
CLIPPINGS
— DE-FENCE! DE-FENCE! “DOUG FORD wants Ontario to cash in on the federal government’s massive drive to rearm the Canadian military, unveiling a new guiding “framework” Thursday to build up the province’s defence industries over the next 10 years.” The Premier got into it at the CANSEC military expo in Ottawa. The Star has the details.
— JET-SETTER: “Ontario’s transportation minister says the province plans to soon designate Toronto’s island airport a so-called special economic zone to expand it faster now that it has taken over the land” and passed the corresponding legislation. More from the Canadian Press.
— HS-TEA: “Almost two months since Ontario’s HST rebate window opened, new home sales data for April is showing how the program’s first month is impacting the GTA market. A total of 1,100 new homes were sold in the GTA in April, according to data compiled by Altus Group for the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD). That’s nearly triple what it was at the same time last year, when 384 new homes were sold.” CBC breaks it down.
— ER CRUNCH: Health Minister SYLVIA JONES cut the ribbon on a new ambulatory care centre at Toronto’s St. Michael’s Hospital that the province says will serve 70,000 walk-in patients each year. It also includes a dedicated entrance, separate waiting area, private exam rooms, a confidential discharge suite and a centralized caregiver pod. Backgrounder.
— PROTESTING PRIVATIZATION: Meanwhile up the street, thousands of advocates from across the province boarded trains to rally on the South Lawn in protest of the Ford government’s privatization of the health care system. It was put on by the Ontario Health Coalition. The scene.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Another day, another exit from Public and Business Service Delivery Minister STEPHEN CRAWFORD’s camp: JEROME BENNETT, most recently D-comms, issues and Leg affairs, is leaving his post. Bennett is a longtime staffer who previously did stints in the Premier’s Office, Small Biz, Associate Housing and Environment.
Bennett’s not the first big move. Crawford recently lost his chief of staff JEREMY WITTET (scooped here), and JORDAN ADAIR has since taken up the mantle.
SPOTTED:
Broadcaster BEN MULRONEY goes off on the suggestion of re-naming Queen’s Park to get rid of the colonial vibes…
The beloved giant rubber duck — which the then-in-opposition PCs had called a “$200K-cluster duck” — is returning to Toronto’s waterfront, prompting one cartoonist to suggest it has the much-needed “pizazz” that Ontario’s current opposition leaders lack. NDP Leader MARIT STILES, ahem, quacked back…
Stunning structures across the province awarded by the Ontario Association of Architects.
QUESTION PERIOD
HIGHLIGHTS: “This Premier is throwing taxpayers to the wolves and he’s howling about it” — “How can this Premier be so out of touch with everyday families?” — “Why is this government so obsessed with jets landing on Lake Ontario, that they aren’t building housing in the province?” — “Will the Premier disclose just how much money CARMINE NIGRO’s company got in this air rights scandal?” — “It feels like a favour for a friend…it’s reasonable for people to know how much this favour, or what looks like a favour, costs” — “Are you really going to let this session close without a plan to address the crisis in our hospitals?” — “When will you stop misleading the gracious people of Scarborough and take accountability” for the subway delay? — “How is it that the Premier has $5 billion to land private jets on Toronto’s waterfront, but when it comes to supporting our kids, it’s another cut?” — “When will this Premier realize that his out-of-control spending is doing nothing to improve the dismal state of health care in Ottawa?” — “Why is this government diverting billions of dollars to Billy Bishop while seniors can’t get the care they need at home?” — “After eight long years in government, are they all just tired and feel entitled to luxury?” — “Laws are being ignored and disabled persons living in group homes are being subjected to multiple forms of abuse.”
LOBBY LIST
Here are the new, renewed and amended registrations over the past 24 hours:
Brandon Falcone, ONpoint Strategy Group: Primacare Living Solutions, Triple M Metal, Weldtech Training Inc, Alinea Group Holdings, Verdi Alliance, Fieldgate Land Development, Giampalo Investments, White Owl Properties Limited
Jeffrey Phillips, Dawson Strategic: The Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals
Rob Elliott, Johanna Chevalier and Raymond Chan, Counsel Public Affairs: Ontario Professional Planners Institute
Eshan Naik, Enterprise Canada: MVD X-Ray Technologies, McKesson Canada
Benjamin Lamb, Wellington Advocacy: United Association Local 787-HVACR Workers of Ontario
Duncan Rayner, Temple Scott Associates: Imperial Tobacco Canada
Michael Rychlewski, Nock Technologies: MacKinnon Magnetics Inc.
In-house organizations: Association of Registered Interior Designers of Ontario — ventureLAB — AdvantAge Ontario — Speech-Language & Audiology Canada — McDonalds Canada Corp.
MEA CULPA! Yesterday’s second mention of Bill 127, the Liberal PMB that would give tax relief to young workers, named Stephanie Smyth as a co-sponsor — but as first noted, it’s actually Stephanie Bowman. TGIF, am I right?
🥳 HAPPY BIRTHDAY: NDPer JENNIE STEVENS (St. Catharines)…Ex-PC RICK BYERS…On Sunday — Newstalk 1010 host JERRY AGAR.
🍽️ LUNCH SPECIAL: Smoked turkey pasta alla vodka with salad and garlic bread.
⏳ COUNTDOWN: T-minus 6 days until the House is scheduled to recess…68 days until the Premier has to call a byelection in Scarborough Southwest…176 days until the Liberals name a new leader.