'Catastrophe' for Poor and Vulnerable as Trumpian Climate-Denier Doug Ford Wins Ontario Election

In what critics are lamenting as a “disastrous” outcome for Ontario’s poor and vulnerable, Doug Ford—the Trumpian, climate-denying brother of late Toronto mayor and self-avowed racist Rob Ford—will become the premier of Canada’s most populous province after his Progressive Conservative Party emerged victorious in Thursday’s closely-watched election.

“Doug Ford’s plan is billions in cuts that will directly hit the poor, mental health and social services, doctors, nurses, and teachers, social workers, women’s legal clinics.”
—Luke Savage, journalist

Ford’s right-wing Progressive Conservative Party (PC) ultimately won 76 of the 124 seats in Ontario, despite the fact that over a quarter of its candidates “are currently facing lawsuits, probes, and police investigations.”

“Doug Ford’s plan is billions in cuts that will directly hit the poor, mental health and social services, doctors, nurses, and teachers, social workers, women’s legal clinics,” Canadian writer and journalist Luke Savage wrote on Twitter following Ford’s victory. “This isn’t a laugh, it’s a social catastrophe that’s going to put vulnerable people’s lives in danger.”

Others responded similarly to Ford’s victory, denouncing him as a “climate-denier” and highlighting the fact that his candidacy was welcomed by white supremacists hoping a Ford government would “give people permission” to be racist.