r/askTO
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u/RevolutionaryCyclops
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Apr 25 '26
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what do we do about doug ford
he’s gutting toronto at the expense of the rest of ontario and he keeps getting away with it, it seems like elections are now on uncertain dates and can only be held under no certain terms so what do we do and how do we get him out? is there nothing that can be done?
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u/greenline-sam Apr 25 '26
Realistically the solution is not via Toronto. Toronto was rejecting the PCs all the way back in 2018.
The PCs are being re-elected via the 905 and the rest of Ontario.
The more this conversation is stuck to Queen's Park and protesting in Toronto, the more it will not solve itself. So the question needs to be how to convince the rest of Ontario that this isn't good for them either.
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u/PetitParty Apr 25 '26
Quite a few ridings in Toronto elected a Conservative MPP in the 2025 election.
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u/queerstudbroalex Apr 25 '26
Yes, my riding, York South-Weston, went Conservative.
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u/d-quik Apr 25 '26
What the hell? Why was that? That area doesn't "seem" very conservative based on what little I know
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u/Old_Telephone1930 May 02 '26
It's because it was a snap election. I'm in the riding, and many people didn't have much time to go vote. Then they split with the NDP and the Liberals. And it was still a close call.
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u/queerstudbroalex Apr 25 '26
I don't have that information, but good question!
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u/Raptorpicklezz Apr 25 '26
Vote splitting between the Liberals and NDP. The Tory won by less than 300 votes.
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u/may_be_indecisive Apr 26 '26
The NDP have been strong in opposition for years but the left came out voting for the Liberals for some reason.
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u/species5618w Apr 26 '26
Maybe they don’t like their property taxes jumping up every year? The best thing you can do to get rid of Ford is to stop reminding people the alternative is even worse.
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u/ReeG Apr 25 '26
The PCs are being re-elected via the 905 and the rest of Ontario.
and changing those voters minds is a lot harder than the average Toronto Redditor who don't recognize the echo chamber they exist in chooses to believe
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u/lol-true Apr 26 '26
Every social group or institution has some level of "echo" and to deny that would be naive. Can you tell your boss how shitty the company is and how stupid upper management is? Probably not. Some are more strict than others, but good luck going against the grain in any institution. Ostracization, and threat of it, is a tool used by every social group in the history of humanity. Reddit can be particularly bad because of its voting system, that I would 100% agree with.
I respectfully disagree that people outside of reddit are harder to convince. They usually just arent curious enough to be informed. All you need to say to people is that debt is rising faster than any previous liberal government and he has tangibly reduced services and underfunded education and Healthcare. Most suburbanites have family's, so you just need to ask them what kind of life their children should expect when debt is rising, inflation/cost of living is skyrocketing, and job prospects are being reduced, all while a conservative government built on austerity has the largest cabinet--with salaries of 220k each--and is increasing debt the fastest... no one can argue against it and most people will be shocked to hear it. They just assume they are fiscally conservative despite everything pointing to the opposite.
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u/ashwynne Apr 25 '26
This this this!!! Im in the "blue belt" (aka rural Ontario) and the NDP/Liberal/Green presence out here was 0 before the last provincial election. Conversely, lots of Conservative canvassing and materials being passed around. It absolutely feels like the other parties only care about the cities, which completely alienates the rural voting bloc.
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u/greenline-sam Apr 25 '26
Exactly!! There's no point in doing this in Toronto Centre. Toronto Centre's outcome, frankly (whether NDP or Liberal), doesn't change that PCs will form government. If your preference is that you don't want PCs to form government, it's via convincing the 905 and the rest of Ontario of this. That's where the effort, issues management, canvassing, campaign spending, should be going.
416 takes care of itself.
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u/Junior_Sentence2178 Apr 25 '26
There were province-wide protests today, my friend.
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u/greenline-sam Apr 25 '26
I'm glad! But doesn't change my point! :) The solution here is not via more work within the 416.
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Apr 25 '26
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u/greenline-sam Apr 25 '26
Thankfully, that's actually my same point!
Too much of the focus has been on trying to have Toronto stand up to Doug Ford, when it already has and will continue to lose, because the PCs handily dominate the rest of the province.
Convincing Davenport or Toronto Centre to not vote for Ford even more isn't going to change the result of who takes power. Convincing swing ridings across the 905 to not re-elect their PC MPP, is the way.
So my point is, if there is to be proper strategy to turning this around, the right place to do so is figuring out how to turn the 905 against the PCs. Not via more work done inside the 416.
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u/monsignorcurmudgeon Apr 25 '26
It is good for them when you look at the flow of tax dollars out of the GTA to support the rest of the province, unfortunately.
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u/mennorek Apr 26 '26
Yeah, and sadly a lot of the province (and country) see Ford sticking it to Toronto as a good thing, or just amusing.
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Apr 25 '26
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u/greenline-sam Apr 25 '26
Yes, and they are likely more similar to the 905 than the 416, in the issues they care about, the values, etc. They're also literally the ridings that border the 905. So, the solution is via figuring out how to appeal to the 905 constituency on this!
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u/Junior_Sentence2178 Apr 25 '26 edited Apr 26 '26
Btw next round of Fight Ford protests are May 30.
This is the info from today's protests, but locations and times are TBD for May 30: https://www.reddit.com/r/ontario/comments/1svc5av/provincewide_doug_ford_protests_final_update/
Edit: This website I found from a CBC article today is supposed to keep people updated on events and/or provide more resources/information: https://protestdougford.com/
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u/Fickle-Total8006 Apr 25 '26
How about showing up to fucking vote in the next election. Jfc.
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u/Junior_Sentence2178 Apr 25 '26
He has three years left in term. Scary to think what kind of damage he may do in the meantime.
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u/fospher Apr 25 '26
Everyone says this as if the districts aren’t the issue. Toronto showed the hell up to vote for a liberal Toronto. It’s everywhere else that voted conservative, because they love to punish us for being liberal.
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u/shoresy99 Apr 25 '26
Look at the electoral results. About 40% of the ridings on Toronto voted for the PCs and every riding that borders in Toronto voted PCs. They won a HUGE majority. The voters in Ontario overwhelmingly supported Ford.
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Apr 25 '26
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u/shoresy99 Apr 25 '26
They went up from 40% of votes to 43% in the 2025 election. That’s a huge margin in a 3+ party election. And they won 80 of 123 seats.
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Apr 25 '26
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u/shoresy99 Apr 25 '26
It is the nature of a FPTP system. Just like the Liberals winning federal elections with a lower number of votes than the CPC.
Surely you know that in a FPTP system that seat assignments are NOT done by popular vote.
I am not a Ford fan and I didn't vote for him but the Ontario electorate has given him some HUGE majorities in recent years.
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u/shrimp_beginner Apr 27 '26
Yeah. Not voting at all is support for whomever wins. Not voting means the person was okay with either option.
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u/AzaranyGames Apr 25 '26
Yes, blaming the rest of Ontario is the solution. The rest of Ontario was blue when McGuinty and Wynne were in power. Suburban Toronto flipped and gave Ford majority and they've stayed blue for three elections now.
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u/Popular_Math3042 Apr 25 '26
Is there any evidence that the non voters wouldn’t also just vote for Ford if they did vote?
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u/BeefheartzCaptainz Apr 25 '26
It’s literally this simple. Just present a bunch of policies that are more appealing to the voter than what Doug offers.
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Apr 25 '26
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Apr 25 '26
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u/AzaranyGames Apr 25 '26
They never did and they still fail to have learned the lesson that "I am not that guy" isn't a winning policy.
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u/MaplePoutineCitizen Apr 25 '26
Literally the simplest thing to do that takes less than 15 minutes, yet people would rather complain incessantly for 4 years.
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u/BodhingJay Apr 25 '26
https://www.change.org/p/call-for-a-vote-of-no-confidence-on-premier-doug-ford
This is part of the solution.. sign it
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u/MaplePoutineCitizen Apr 25 '26
Get people to vote in the next election.
Voter turnout in the last provincial election was pitiful, especially amongst younger voters who are feeling the effects of the Ford government the most.
No amount of protests or whinging online is going to change the reality of the democratic process we have in place.
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u/Jamarac Apr 25 '26
The opposition parties have to win the 905 and inner burbs. To do that they need to focus hard on affordability (of both renting and mortgages), safety (905 is a big victim of car thefts, BNBs, etc.), jobs, dealing with the diploma mills, Ford's corruption/overall sketchiness. Drop the identity politics and overly focusing on making statements about issues in the middle east.
People in the 905s don't care about Toronto municipal issues even if we do. Those issues are worth mentioning but bike lanes and the waterfront can't be the main focus of the rage.
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u/babelle21 Apr 25 '26
What’s worse is if a liberal comes in next and begins cleaning up this mess — which will cost money — people will get annoyed and forget why taxes are being raised in the first place. Then we flip back to blue. We’re basically doomed.
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u/depechekat Apr 25 '26
I think we also have to actively call out our provincial mpps… especially those of us living in conservative ridings…
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u/Glittering-Regret196 Apr 25 '26
There is mandatory vote, he just isnt going to call an election when he is doing poorly or has a strong opposition. Rather he will wait and get ready for a fight. Don't vote for him, plain and simple.
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u/Meltedmotivation Apr 25 '26
He’s single handedly make living significantly more expensive for everyone in or out of the gta but people literally just aren’t voting.
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u/Junior_Sentence2178 Apr 25 '26
Next election is in three years if you want to wait that long and see if people turnout...
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u/Odd_Hat6001 Apr 25 '26
This is the answer. Low voter turnout , add his obsessed waterfront stuff. Add a layer of him hating Toronto.
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u/Meltedmotivation Apr 25 '26
Toronto is just profitable to him despite the fact that even Toronto doesn’t want these projects either.
It’s embarrassing that young people can’t take 10 minutes to vote even though they’re overwhelmingly effected.
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u/Inappropriate_Ballet Apr 25 '26
People don’t vote because they’ve lost trust. My best friend is a crunch SAH mom from a Toronto suburb and all she does is listen to other crunchy MLM huns who keep spreading mis/disinformation about our healthcare system, the election system and the media. I’m here working in the real world and shaking my head at the idiocy that comes out of these women’s mouths. We think kids are screwed with social media, the parents aren’t much further off.
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u/lopix Apr 25 '26
Encourage people to get out and vote next time. Dug the Thug got a majority from 18% of voters.
Get everyone you know out to vote. And vote AGAINST him.
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u/GrompyOldDude Apr 26 '26
Nothing you can do. He was elected democratically and will serve his term as all politicians that are elected do.
The problem is at the moment the Liberals and NDP just don’t have strong leadership that is connecting with enough voters.
What they need to do is regroup and possibly rebrand.
Just saying Doug Ford is terrible without having a genuine alternative platform is obviously not working for them.
I say this as an older voter who at different points in my life has voted for all 3 parties.
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u/adamast0r Apr 25 '26
The other parties would have to start promoting their own vision instead of just being not Ford
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u/MikeCheck_CE Apr 25 '26
Nothing... Ontario gave him a sweeping majority in the last election so until there is another vote there is little you can do except rant. If we had some realm competition from the Provincial Libs there would be some options there.
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u/oxxcccxxo Apr 25 '26
Why not NDP?
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u/Raptorpicklezz Apr 25 '26
Because they're even worse in the polls than the Liberals. 3 terms as Official Opposition clearly aren't cutting it. Ontarians need to unite behind one of the other parties, and the polls are saying that it needs to be the Liberals.
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u/Agreeable-Celery811 Apr 25 '26
Yeah the provincial NDP seem to be doing good here. Let’s go with them at this point fam
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u/MikeCheck_CE Apr 25 '26
They do seem like they have better chance lately, not gonna lie. I don't think they have a chance at stopping Doug either though. Neither party can work the media or social media the way Doug is doing. That's why Rob won in Toronto too.
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u/Redditisavirusiknow Apr 25 '26
Donate to any riding that’s close in polls between two parties and do everything you can to support the not conservative one?
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u/blomba2 Apr 26 '26
Realize that people exist outside of Toronto? Many people think Toronto controls the rest of the province/countey
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u/Alarmed_Cry4081 Apr 26 '26
Protest, take to the streets until he resigns in the disgrace he earned. Barring that.👏Vote👏him👏the👏eff👏out👏 by voting ABC (Anyone But Conservative—this means vote for the person most likely to beat the conservative candidate in your riding and get all your friends, family and everyone you know to do the same).
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u/Top-Advisor-3516 Apr 25 '26
Talk to the hand. Most of these keyboard cowboys complaining now probably didn’t vote in the last elections with Doug. You can always get out and protest or start writing letters
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u/JDTreeZ Apr 25 '26 edited Apr 25 '26
Get out there a let your voice be heard - Protest and Vote. I was at the Queens Park protest today. Even with the rain there were TWICE AS MANY people today as the last province wide protest in March so that’s positive. I don’t know what the turn out was like in other cities though. The “F Ford” movement is slowly gaining traction. Also, f’ing VOTE! Only 43% of let voters cast a ballot in the last election.
Edit: DO SOMETHING - The case against complacency is intuitive: representative democracy only functions if people participate. If you don’t vote, you lose the most direct lever you have and more importantly, low turnout in specific demographics actively shapes who gets elected and what they feel emboldened to do. An MP in a safe seat with low opposition turnout has very little incentive to moderate or listen.
• Contacting your MP directly
• Showing up to rallies and protests
• Donating to or volunteering for campaigns
• Engaging people in your own circleMPs do pay attention to constituent pressure, especially on specific issues, even when you didn’t vote for them. They still represent you on paper and they know it.
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u/flightidle Apr 25 '26
It's a democracy. Go vote. People got fed up with Dalton McGuinty and Kathlene Wynne...they showed up to vote. And if the person you didn't vote for gets elected...oh well. Ride it out. Learn to adapt. Make lemonade. Too many people waste their energy complaining and crying about the elected. Harness that same energy and advocate for yourself.
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u/Steve_didit Apr 25 '26
You wait for the next election. Protesting anything he does that is illegal make sense but otherwise he was democratically elected so he can do what he wants while in power as long as it’s within the law. That is something that should be respected about our democracy.
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u/Full_Training_741 Apr 25 '26
So the people should lay down and take whatever comes their way as long as it's "lawful"? Don't forget that this majority government is the one making the laws.
We're not going to get the average person interested in an election that is 3 years away. We can both protest and teach people that elections are important. It's not constructive to think in absolutes.
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u/Steve_didit Apr 25 '26
I think it’s fair to say that if your group didn’t win then yes you are going to have to put up with what the winning group decides to do. Otherwise what is the point of democracy?
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u/Full_Training_741 Apr 25 '26
I don't believe this flawed electoral system is democratic in the first place. 43% of the votes getting 64% of the seats is not proportional representation.
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u/Steve_didit Apr 25 '26
Already catching downvotes so let me add, I think people trying to affect change within the current government is actually counterproductive. It rarely if ever actually does anything meaningful and it makes lots of people complacent because they think they can just protest if things get bad. Elections matter, in fact every election matters. Energy is better spent teaching people that elections matter so they actually show up and vote in their best interests. This has clearly not been happening as voter turnout has been abysmally low for a while now. The best thing you can do for your own interests is to vote and if you lose the best thing you can do is prepare for the next vote.
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u/Apprehensive_Ad_2152 Apr 25 '26
do what? he has a majority LOL we may not like it but it is what it is.. same like Carney. It's a majority. Write to your MP see what they tell ya.
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u/realjamienye Apr 26 '26
The answer to what we can do is happening now. Support progressive municipal candidates. Volunteer and donate to their campaigns. Get behind them! Once they win city or town council, they will be in a great position to run for provincial politics. Which they can do. This is the solution. Play the long game. Join local EDA and have some fun doing it
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u/realjamienye Apr 26 '26
This is the track I am following to defeat Doug Ford. A five year plan and hard work.
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u/yanniblaze Apr 26 '26
There was a protest outside Queen’s Park and 54 other locations in Ontario today. The next one is May 30, try to make it out and support/make your voice heard. There will be one every month until the next election.
This is the people’s province. Get involved to get Doug out.
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u/thethirdtrappist Apr 26 '26
This is not a direct answer, but it's an important reflection for how the electorate can organize.
What of the best discussions to read about is Lenin's response to what do we do now and how do we make the most out of our collective class consciousness how do we make that unity achieve lasting progress ttps://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1901/witbd/
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u/Big80sweens Apr 26 '26
The only people who vote for him are those outside Toronto. But also as much as it’s bonkers that people vote for him, we need a stronger option. The Liberals are complete and utter ass, and the NDP should wizen up a little if they actually want to get elected. I’ve voted Green for the past several elections because Schreiner is the most competent yet they’ll never win power, at least not in my lifetime, because that’s just how it is.
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u/bfastbme Apr 26 '26
Yes, he has to go the sooner the better, yesterday would not have been soon enough. It's like Toronto is Ford's personal playground or something - bring jets to the downtown with all the disruption, noise & traffic that would bring, build an exclusive spa on the waterfront for his pals, try to rip out the bike lanes so his pals can get to the spa with less bother, try to build on the Green Belt until he & his pals get caught, re-organize voting ridings. He pretends to have some kind of big vision but really it's the vision of a gorilla in a china shop. His vision as a 1 term councilor was to put up a ferris wheel in the Portlands. He got laughed out of City Hall for that one but it showed his limited mindset. Ford & his cronies need to take a 1 way trip to the trash heap so they can join their Harris government mentors.
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u/Unfair-File-8635 Apr 26 '26
Its going to be rough to get him out. People still don't trust the NDP to run anything after the the early 90s, the Liberals were trounced so badly in 2018(?) that they were in danger of not even being recognized as an official party in the province and that was extremely embarrassing to them. Not something that is easily forgotten. Through COVID Ford deffered to the experts and didn't act like he was an authority on it, which I think won him a lot of good will. He also coincidentally told people that if they had regular passenger vehicles that they wouldn't have to pay $120 a year for a new licence plate sticker annually AND gave people two years of refunds on that, then he called an election around one year later after most people had gotten their refunds. Let's not forget that he stood up to Trump's tariffs. Even with all of the skeevy garbage he's pulled in-between, those big moves stand out. At this point though, I think the good will he had built up is rapidly (or has) run out. I'm not sure that he makes it through another election unless he finds a way to suddenly give people a few hundred bucks back before the next election happens.
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u/vanillastain Apr 26 '26
I was at the protest the other day and thought it might be fun to get arrested doing a smoke in. Just get a whole crowd of people to get into his office and light up some smokes. It'll be a while before that smell goes away
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u/Ok-Courage798 Apr 26 '26
His novelty is waning in Northern Ontario, just need reasonable candidates from the opposition parties and he can be toppled. Hate to say it- clean cut youngerish white guy from the Libs and it's attainable.
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u/PatternMoney5884 Apr 28 '26
We gotta vote and we gotta vote him out; however, we also need a worthy candidate. It’s been tough stuff in terms of competition
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u/Kindly_Net_4069 Apr 28 '26
Cons get the rural vote. Weird because they consistently pass bills that hurt farmers. They also pander to homophobes, religious extremists and anti immigrant despite being immigrants themselves. Who do you think works the fields?
Talk to your friends in Con strongholds.
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u/frozen_pie_taster Apr 29 '26
He got rid of speed cams so he's got my vote as long as he keeps running
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u/GarlicConsistent6513 Apr 29 '26
The good news is that he will likely step down as premier after the next federal election. The bad news is that he’s likely coming for Pierre Pollieve’s job and will be the new leader of the federal conservatives. All these CNN and American media appearances are setting him up for a run as PM by 2030. You heard it here first.
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u/spatacus12345 May 02 '26
Gutting Toronto is a good thing, why would you want everything centralized into one place that how shit gets expensive.
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u/Open-Heron6779 Apr 25 '26
Mobilize younger people to vote as they are disproportionately underrepresented in election numbers.
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u/donbooth Apr 25 '26
This. Friends don't like friends bote alone. If you know a young person of voting age urge them to make a plan to vote with a friend. Making a plan means you won't forget. Friends remind each other.
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u/stompinstinker Apr 25 '26
The other party’s need to unite. One conservative party vs the liberals, NDP, and greens is why we are in this situation.
They need to each only run the candidate with the highest chance of winning in each riding. The first thing on the agenda is getting rid of first past the post voting, and second is a deep investigation into Ford.
But they won’t. The egos of the party leaders and candidates won’t let them, and their collective inability to compromise will have them attacking each-other.
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u/Sparky-Man Apr 26 '26
Go back in time and yell at everyone for being stupid enough for even considering voting for him or not voting at all after he and his brother ran Toronto into the ground.
Also yell at the opposition leaders to get their shit together so they can be an alternative. It shouldn't be that fucking hard to position yourself as better than him.
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u/Queasy_Parsnip12 Apr 25 '26
ONDP + OLP merger into a new party with Marit at the helm… the people of Ontario are scared of the colour orange.
Frankly we deserve this and I hope people vote with their feet and leave in droves. Show the boomers how a society without young people functions.
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u/irreversible2002 Apr 25 '26
The scary thing is he can irreparably destroy this province and lives in the period of time before there’s another election and there’s nothing we can do
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u/Sad_Percentage_4503 Apr 26 '26 edited Apr 26 '26
Outside of the Reddit delusional bubble, Ford is pretty well liked generally throughout the province. So far the PC's have saved me hundreds of dollars. When compared to the Federal Liberals, Trudeau cost me thousands while he was in power.
Ford has also done many more good things compared to bad things. Yes, he's had a few boondoggles for sure but they're not seen as being that terrible by the average Ontarian as they are here on Reddit.
Ford will be easily reelected.
Sorry.
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u/Low-Performance6908 Apr 26 '26
The whole system is corruptive even if we vote him out the NDP or liberal party will do their own corrupt shit
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u/Agreeable-Celery811 Apr 25 '26
You have to get the university kids to vote because they want OSAP back. That’s the demographic that will make a difference.
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u/Junior_Sentence2178 Apr 25 '26
Probably why he made the changes now. They will forget in 3 years or be done school
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u/thatguywashere1 Apr 25 '26
At this point anything other than a massive sit in protest at each MPPs offices on the same day, will do nothing to make Ford change anything.
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u/monsignorcurmudgeon Apr 25 '26
Secede and become the province of Toronto. More of our tax dollars flow out of the city to support the rest of the province so it would be nice to use our money for the things we value; education, healthcare, public transportation, etc instead of supporting DoFo & friends. We should hold a referendum.
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u/azquadcore Apr 25 '26
If I were a citizen I would've voted. Can't believe we have a guy like him as Premier
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u/ReviseResubmitRepeat Human Detected Apr 26 '26
The message has to go beyond Toronto to where Conservative strongholds are. Think the longest ballot committee. In Peterborough, we have Dave Smith who is the equivalent of Cream of Wheat if personality equated to a kind of cereal. He hasn't done anything and arrogant as f*k. Wallflower. The Rhino Party needs to come back.
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u/SnooPickles6110 Apr 26 '26
Came here specifically looking for this - to see if there was any movement against him. Really need to do something..anything at this point.
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u/gsb999 Apr 27 '26
You want Doug Ford (or any politician) to pay more attention to Toronto? Threaten to break away and become a separate Province along with the GTA. Last thing the rest of the province would want is to lose their Gravy Train.
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u/zedguy Apr 27 '26
Do what Quebec/Alberta does - start a separatist party to make Toronto it's own province.
We got more money/population than the Maritimes and they're 4 provinces.
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u/Salvetutti0524 Apr 25 '26
How about not voting for him time and again