Premiership of Doug Ford
is the 26th and current premier of Ontario, Canada. He won a majority in the 2018 Ontario general election, as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario caucus in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario and was sworn in as premier on June 29, 2018. He was re-elected with an increased majority in 2022, and again after calling a snap election for February 27, 2025.
Elections
2018 Ontario general election
Ford won the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario leadership election on March 10, 2018. He represented Etobicoke North.In the 2018 Ontario general election held on June 7, 2018, Ford won a majority government with 76 of the 124 seats in the legislature with approximately 56.67% of potential voters voting.
2022 Ontario general election
Ford led the Progressive Conservatives to another majority government in the 2022 provincial election. The PCs gained seven more seats than they had won in 2018.2025 Ontario general election
Ford won an 80 seat majority in the 44th Ontario general election. Originally scheduled by election date laws to be held by June 4, 2026, Ford triggered an early provincial election, called a snap election, for Feb. 27, 2025 after meeting with Ontario's lieutenant-governor.Policies
Economic policy
Ford's government cancelled the basic income pilot project. He opposes the laying off of government workers. He supports the use of attrition to eliminate government jobs that he believes are not needed. Ford believes in hiring independent auditors to audit government spending. Jay Goldberg of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation labelled Ford's spending excessive and noted Ontario's large debt increases under his government.In June 2019, Rod Phillips, who served as Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, replaced Vic Fedeli as Ontario's finance minister. Andrea Khanjin was appointed as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks in June 2018.
Starting in January 2019, those who are working full-time and earning less than $30,000 a year would pay no provincial income tax, in the new LIFT program but minimum wage would be frozen at $14 per hour. They eliminated 3 legislative offices including the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, child and youth advocate and French language services commissioner positions. The surtax on the highest earning Ontarians that would have generated about $275 million in revenue, was cancelled. The proposed French language university was cancelled as were three university satellite campuses.
Fedeli served as minister until he was moved to economic development in June 2019 in a major cabinet shuffle. According to CTV News Queen's Park Bureau Chief, Colin D'Mello, Premier Ford removed Fedeli as Finance Minister on June 20, 2019 in the "wake of a disastrous budget rollout that's left the Progressive Conservative government drowning in negative publicity."
Minister Fedeli tabled the Ford government's first budget on April 11, 2019. According to the Sault Star, Fedeli was demoted from "highly-touted finance post" and "blamed" for the "failure to sell voters on the $163.4-billion budget and the cost of breaking a 10-year deal that ultimately expands beer and wine sales in grocery stores, costing taxpayers $1 billion." NDP Timiskaming-Cochrane MPP, John Vanthof, said that the 2019 budget failed northern Ontario by not providing funds for Highway 69, the Ring of Fire, expanded broadband access, and cuts to Indigenous Affairs, Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs, and more. Vanthof said that there "will be beer in corner stores, drinks at 9 in the morning, tailgate parties, and blue licence plates, but when the fog is cleared, there is also an over $500 million cut to the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines."
In the fiscal year 2019, the publicly funded Legal Aid Ontario will receive $133 million less than previously, representing a funding cut of 30 per cent, as part of the Ford government's deficit cutting plan, presented in the April 2019 budget. On September 11, 2019, Chief Justice of Ontario George Strathy said that the "cuts to Legal Aid Ontario will force many people to self-represent...What we judges can say is that reducing legal representation for the most vulnerable members of society does not save money. It increases trial times, places greater demands on public services, and ultimately delays and increases the cost of legal proceedings for everyone."
The deficit
From about 1989 to 2018, Ontario has reported a deficit almost every year; the province's net debt increased to approximately $311.6 billion ; and Ontario's net debt‐to‐GDP ratio grew from 13.4% to about 40.5% in 2018–19.According to an April 11, 2018 Royal Bank of Canada report, which was based on figures provided by the Ford government, the revised estimate of Ontario's deficit was $11.7 billion in 2018-2019 and it was projected to decrease by $1.4 billion in 2019-2020 mainly because of "the removal of the $1 billion contingency reserve." At that time it was projected that the deficit would be "completely eliminated in 2023–2024 with a small surplus of $0.3 billion." By October 2019, the Financial Accountability Officer, Weltman, said that the FAO had been in error when they—and the Ford government—had projected a $11.7-billion deficit that was reported in the spring 2019 budget.
By June 2018, Ontario had "Canada's second-highest public debt per person and a growing budget deficit", according to The Economist.
The Ontario Finance Department reported in October 2018, that Ontario's public debt per person at $23,014, had surpassed that of Quebec at $21,606 in the fiscal year 2017–2018. Newfoundland and Labrador public debt per capita at $27,761, was the highest in Canada.
By 2019, the Ontario Chamber of Commerce reported that Ontario's debt was over $348 billion—representing about 41% of provincial GDP of almost $850 billion. Ontario's GDP is much larger than any of the other provinces and is almost half of Canada's GDP. "When combined with the federal debt, the debt-to-GDP ratio for Ontarians nears 80 percent."
In October 2019, Financial Accountability Office said that the deficit had increased from $3.7-billion deficit in 2017—at the end of the Liberal administration—to $7.4 billion in 2018 under Premier Ford. The deficit had almost doubled partly because of "cancelled climate-change initiatives and subsidizing hydro bills" according to the Hamilton Spectator.
Economic Development and trade
Minister Smith tabled Bill 47: Making Ontario Open for Business Act, 2018, which was passed on November 21, 2018. According to the Toronto Sun, Bill 47 strips "part-time workers of two paid sick days a year and prevent a rise in the minimum wage to $15 an hour on January 1, 2019." NDP critic said that this "will incent employers to turn full-time positions into cheaper part-time work".The Ontario government abruptly cut all its provincial annual funding—representing $5 million—to the Ontario Institute for Regenerative Medicine in May 2019. Minister Smith, said that the "private sector will step up and fund stem-cell research." Scientists told CBC that the private will only invest in the stem-cell field when "their studies reach a late phase", until then "government funding is crucial." OIRM scientists who are "working on treatment of premature babies" said the cuts were "extremely short-sighted and uninformed".
In June 2019, Vic Fedeli was appointed as Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade. Prabmeet Sarkaria is Associate Minister of Small Business and Red Tape Reduction in the economic development ministry. Michael Parsa and Donna Skelly were appointed as Parliamentary Assistants to the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation, and Trade in June 2018.