Premier Doug Ford launching campaign-style tour of Ontario

Thestar.com
July 14, 2020
Robert Benzie

Premier Doug Ford is launching an election-style summer tour of Ontario as the province reopens after months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Over the next eight weeks, he will be travelling to seven regions, stopping in 38 ridings, and covering nearly 5,000 kilometres to thank Ontarians and the many businesses across this province for stepping up and doing their part during COVID-19,” Ford’s office said Tuesday.

The premier will be in Cambridge on Tuesday afternoon at Eclipse Automation, a company that retooled its machines to manufacture N95 and surgical masks and other medical supplies.

He will then tour Challenger Motor Freight to “thank workers for continuing to operate throughout the pandemic, including bringing essential products across the U.S. border.”

Finally, Ford will visit Shaver Industries in Kitchener, which is making making 25,000 face shields a week for frontline workers.

The company also makes plastic dividers so golfers can share carts while hitting the links.

On Thursday, Ford will visit Essex County, where he’s said he will get his golden mullet trimmed from a local barber.

The next day, he will be back in Waterloo Region.

Even though the next Ontario election is not until June 2022, Ford’s campaign blitz is designed to boost the Progressive Conservatives’ political fortunes.

The premier had a -49 per cent approval rating this time last year -- when he was loudly booed at the Toronto Raptors’ victory celebrations at Nathan Phillips Square, and Mayor John Tory and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were cheered.

But the latest Campaign Research poll for the Star found Ford now has a 39 per cent approval, a swing of 88 percentage points.

That’s largely thanks to his measured performance during the pandemic that has left Ontario in a state of emergency since March 17.

However, the GTA and Hamilton area will remain in the second stage for at least another week.