Chris Selley: Ron DeSantis dunks on Doug Ford

One common feature of Ontario political commentary in recent years has been hearing people moan that they can’t understand why Premier Doug Ford is so popular — the idea being that he’s so beyond the pale, so self-evidently unelectable, that only some mass delirium or psychosis could explain his government’s three very comfortable majority election wins.

There is an easy answer to this: Doug Ford isn’t popular. Just 34 per cent of Ontarians approve of his performance, according to the Angus Reid Institute’s latest poll, released early this month. Only Quebec’s François Legault is less popular, at 25 per cent, while Manitoba’s Wab Kinew leads the pack at 58 per cent.

Ford’s popularity rebounded to nearly 50 per cent during the “elbows up” period, when the premier adopted his absurd Captain Canada persona and it actually seemed to impress some people (speaking of mass psychoses). But that bump collapsed as quickly as the narrative that drove it: Ford is every bit as much an “Ontario first” premier as Danielle Smith is “Alberta first” and Legault is “Quebec first.”

Ironically, another common feature of Ontario political commentary in recent years has been people , which, again, he is not — though it is certainly true that his opponents seem perennially mystified by his success, or that he hasn’t been chased out of Queen’s Park by a baying mob.

Look, the man has some populist skills, no question. What he doesn’t have is a particularly impressive record of governance. He’s a muddle-along, big-spending Ontario premier just like his two Liberal predecessors were. But the main reason no one has laid a glove on Ford at the ballot box is very simple, and it lives in the offices of the NDP official opposition and the third-party Liberals — who will, at some point in the future, govern Ontario again. His opponents are as inept as his predecessors were opposing Dalton McGuinty’s and Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal governments in Toronto.

I wouldn’t suggest that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis did Ford any lasting damage this past week. But he certainly handed the premier his rear end. Whenever Ford’s comeuppance comes, I think it might look something like this.

Ford had extemporized some folksy thoughts about how badly Florida tourism was faring thanks to Canadians staying away. He would normally spend part of the winter in Florida, he told reporters this week, but couldn’t bring himself to do so this year on account of President Donald Trump’s general unfriendliness.

Trouble was, as the governor pointed out, Florida tourism isn’t struggling. “Actually,” DeSantis responded to Ford on social media, “we continue to break tourism records (and win Stanley Cups).”

Oof.

True enough, international visitors to the Sunshine State in 2024 were down 12 per cent over 2019 levels, before the pandemic. But domestic overnight visitors to the state in 2024 were 12 per cent more in 2024 than in 2019. And there are obviously a lot more domestic visitors to Florida than international visitors: 131 million Americans stayed overnight in 2024, versus 12 million foreigners.

No doubt Florida businesses would like Canadians to return. (The boycotters are far more numerous and committed than I thought they would be.) But we aren’t the be-all or end-all of Florida tourism. Ford could have asked an intern to ChatGPT up some tourism statistics before he ran his mouth, but that’s not really his style. So he got dunked on by Ron DeSantis, who isn’t much less reviled among Ontarians and Canadians than Trump himself.

I’m not saying DeSantis left any kind of mark on the premier. But if I were the NDP or Liberals, I would perhaps take notice of how calmly and pithily the governor put the premier in his place. There were no histrionics, no hyperbole, no accusations of ruining society forever. There was just a quietly savage takedown based on facts.

And while this story isn’t about hockey, it’s worth considering that knife-twisting line about the Stanley Cup. Florida’s two NHL teams have won the trophy five times in their 30-odd years of existence. Tampa’s first season in the league ended with the Montreal Canadiens’ most recent Cup victory, and no Canadian team has touched the metal since.

Canadians will often claim injustice in this respect: Florida’s very favourable tax environment for pro athletes, and the weather, and the free stadiums American sports teams get from the taxpayer, and the fact NHL players can go about their lives in anonymity while making lavish sums of money. Who would play in Winnipeg or Edmonton, or put a team there, over Miami or Tampa?

Stanley Cup-winning teams might call that “loser talk.” And Canada has had quite enough of that, thank you very much. What we need from our politicians is a plan to suck it up and succeed despite our dependence on the United States, not uninformed populist kvetching.

National Post
cselley@postmedia.com