Ontario Premier Doug Ford attends Question Period as the Ontario Legislature resumes in Toronto on Oct. 21.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
A decade ago, Doug Ford, then a Toronto city councillor, handed Christmas gifts out to his constituents that had the air of a bribe: crisp $20 bills, straight from his pocket to the hands of those waiting in a crowd at a social housing complex. It was a gauche gesture, one that Mr. Ford explained by saying he didn’t have time to stop for gift cards, and one he defended by saying he was not running in the next election. (He would, in fact, run in the next election as a mayoral candidate, but only as a last-minute fill-in for his brother, Rob, after the incumbent mayor was diagnosed with cancer.)
The scene was quintessentially Fordian: tacky and populist. Whatever the interpretation, at the absolute very least (and we’re scraping the pavement here) Mr. Ford was peeling from his own stack of bills in a bid to encourage the support and affection of his constituents. Ten years on, he is poised to repeat the same scene, but instead of reaching into his own pocket, he’s planning on reaching into yours – to give you a gift from your own wallet.
As first reported by the Toronto Star, Ontario’s Premier is planning to send cheques of at least $200 to every one of the 16 million people living in Ontario. It will be announced during the government’s fall economic statement to be delivered next week, and it will ideally land in Ontarians’ hands a few weeks before what is anticipated to be an early election call in the spring.
The cash will be billed as a “rebate”: a way to offset the cost of living even though inflation has slowed and the Bank of Canada continues to lower interest rates. But never mind those things. This is “free” money; money that, Mr. Ford told a crowd at the Empire Club last week, will stimulate the economy. “Put money into people’s pockets,” he said, “and they’ll go out and do something as simple as going out for dinner, maybe buying your kids sneakers or clothes, or maybe putting a little renovation on your house.” Indeed, what better way is there to stimulate the economy than spending $3.2-billion to give every infant and every millionaire in the province $200?
Mr. Ford is not the first political leader to give constituents back some of their own money, but this has typically been done as a reward for fiscal prudence. Former Ontario premier Mike Harris sent out tax-refund cheques of $200 back in 2000, after running the province’s first balanced budget in three decades, and even ending up with a small surplus. In 2006, Alberta premier Ralph Klein also sent out rebate cheques (“Ralph Bucks”) of $400 at a cost of roughly $1.4-billion, though that was only a fraction of the government’s record $8.7-billion surplus. Mr. Ford’s government, by contrast, has projected a $9.8-billion deficit for 2024-2025 (which might be slightly improved because of lower interest rates, among other things), and is thus handing out extra cash it doesn’t have for an expressed reason that doesn’t make any sense (the implicit reason, of course, makes all sorts of political sense).
There is some contemporary precedent for this more bribey version of a government rebate. In 2021, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sent seniors older than 75 who receive Old Age Security a one-time payment of $500 as part of the Liberals’ plan to boost benefits for OAS recipients. Conveniently, the cheques were sent out approximately one month before the federal election. In 2022, Quebec Premier François Legault sent Quebeckers earning less than $100,000 per year cheques worth $500 to help cope with inflation. Mr. Legault’s government was in the red like Mr. Ford’s government – at the time, Quebec was running a deficit of $2-billion.
But this gesture has nothing to do with economics, of course. Indeed, Mr. Ford’s government has no particular strategy or ideology beyond giving people what they like, and taking away things they don’t like. That’s why he scrapped license-plate renewal fees and sent Ontarians rebate cheques (people like money), proposed legislation to make new carbon taxes subject to a referendum (a majority of people don’t like the carbon tax), why he has promised to build a tunnel under Highway 401 (people like plans to ease congestion, even if this is a plan made of fairy dust and good vibes), and banned tolls on new provincial highways (people don’t like tolls).
The purportedly conservative Premier spent $225-million just to get alcohol in convenience stores a year earlier than promised, and has engaged in all sorts of corporate welfare because it makes the government look like it’s encouraging economic growth (instead of just pouring money into the coffers of big business). So it is entirely in keeping with Mr. Ford’s method of governing that he will hand out cash to his constituents – whether or not they need it, whether or not he can afford it, and whether or not it makes any sense – because he’s planning on an early election. A straight-up bribe would have been less obvious.