Doug Ford hides from reporters after he scraps media bus for campaign
Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford is throwing an Ontario campaign tradition under the bus.
Ford has scrapped plans to have a media bus following his election tour later this spring.
“You guys are more than welcome to come to every event,” said the rookie leader, who did not answer repeated questions from reporters about the reason for abandoning the practice.
“I didn’t think there was any law about having media on the bus,” he said Thursday at Queen’s Park.
Asked why he won’t be with Premier Kathleen Wynne, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, and Green Leader Mike Schreiner at a Black community debate next Wednesday — moderated by former Star columnist Royson James — Ford said he will be in Northern Ontario.
“There’s no other politician in this country — no other politician outside of Rob Ford — who has supported the Black community more than I have,” he said, referring to his late brother, a former Toronto mayor.
“I love them ... they know that,” said Ford, adding he annually buses scores of underprivileged Black youth to his Muskoka cottage for a picnic, which he called “the highlight of my summer.”
The PC leader — who took over on March 10 after Patrick Brown’s resignation due to a sexual impropriety scandal — said he expects to square off against Wynne and Horwath in “two, three televised debates” during the campaign.
But he also signalled he will be campaigning on his own terms with evening rallies to supporters around the province and everything livestreamed online.
Wynne, whose party will have a media bus, said it “looks like there’s some hiding going on.”
https://www.thestar.com/news/queens...ies-want-him-out-of-the-hot-seat-experts.html
Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford is throwing an Ontario campaign tradition under the bus.
Ford has scrapped plans to have a media bus following his election tour later this spring.
“You guys are more than welcome to come to every event,” said the rookie leader, who did not answer repeated questions from reporters about the reason for abandoning the practice.
“I didn’t think there was any law about having media on the bus,” he said Thursday at Queen’s Park.
Asked why he won’t be with Premier Kathleen Wynne, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, and Green Leader Mike Schreiner at a Black community debate next Wednesday — moderated by former Star columnist Royson James — Ford said he will be in Northern Ontario.
“There’s no other politician in this country — no other politician outside of Rob Ford — who has supported the Black community more than I have,” he said, referring to his late brother, a former Toronto mayor.
“I love them ... they know that,” said Ford, adding he annually buses scores of underprivileged Black youth to his Muskoka cottage for a picnic, which he called “the highlight of my summer.”
The PC leader — who took over on March 10 after Patrick Brown’s resignation due to a sexual impropriety scandal — said he expects to square off against Wynne and Horwath in “two, three televised debates” during the campaign.
But he also signalled he will be campaigning on his own terms with evening rallies to supporters around the province and everything livestreamed online.
Wynne, whose party will have a media bus, said it “looks like there’s some hiding going on.”
https://www.thestar.com/news/queens...ies-want-him-out-of-the-hot-seat-experts.html
