Geoffrey Stevens's blog

The majority government that Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservatives expect – and think they deserve – is slipping away as the June 7 Ontario election campaign enters its final leg.

With the Victoria Day milestone behind them, all three parties will be campaigning frantically – the Tories to win the majority they were confident they had safely locked up; the New Democrats to grab the balance of power; the Liberals to survive.

Is there an Honest Broker in the Progressive Conservative party of Ontario?

If so, please take Doug Ford aside, sit him down, and suggest he hush up while you explain some of the facts of political life, Ontario style.

Be patient, Honest Broker. Ford is new and a bit brash. He won’t like it when you recall what happened two decades ago when the province was won by a leader wedded to a platform of rooting out so much waste at Queen’s Park that he could simultaneously slash taxes and eliminate the deficit without, as that leader promised, touching any basic services.

“Thank God, it wasn’t a Muslim.”

That, as veteran journalist and broadcaster Michael Enright told his “Sunday Edition” listeners on CBC radio yesterday, was among his first reactions as the shock and horror of the mass murder on Yonge St. in North York wore off.

By all accounts, the driver of the white rental van that jumped the curb last Monday and ran down dozens of pedestrians – killing 10 and injuring at least 16 – was a lone wolf, a mentally unstable man who may have suffered from delusions of persecution by women who had rejected his advances.

The June 7 election in Ontario can be reduced to one simple question.

Are normally cautious Ontario voters so tired or fed up with Kathleen Wynne and her Liberals that they are ready to gamble on Doug Ford, the closest thing to a Donald Trump that Canada has produced?

The answer appears to be a resounding Yes.

To crib a thought from Justin Trudeau’s late father, the universe did unfold, but not quite in the way it was designed for his son over the weekend.