THUNDER BAY - Even though Doug Ford calls Toronto home and his first visit to Thunder Bay was a brief two hour stop on a northern tour, he is confident that his message resonates with voters of Northwestern Ontario because the people here, like him, are real people.
“I relate to these folks even though I’m in 416, 905, I connect with these people,” Ford said. “I’m real. I’m not some phony politician. These people are real here.”
Doug Ford, one of four candidates seeking the leadership of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party following the resignation of former leader, Patrick Brown, made a brief stop in Thunder Bay Saturday evening to speak with an audience of more than 65 party members.
The talk was part of a Northern Ontario tour that included stops in Sault Ste. Marie and Timmins on Saturday.
During his talk in Thunder Bay, which at times turned into brief one on one discussions with members of the audience, Ford touched on a number of issues, from health care, to the Ring of Fire, to sex education.
Ford called the Green Energy act a scam, said he would repeal the current sex education curriculum because parents and teachers were not consulted, said he would keep the $14/hour minimum wage but place a zero per cent tax on anyone making $30,000 or less, and said he would incentivize doctors practicing in the north by cutting taxes on them.
“If we need doctors up here, they will pay zero per cent provincial tax to get them up here,” he said. “If I have to build a little medical building, I will build a little medical building. We need doctors. We have to give them incentives.”
This was Ford’s first visit to Thunder Bay and he said he is hoping to ask the people directly what is most important to them.
“Here it is jobs,” he said in an interview with local media. “In Timmins they are looking for people. I’m not too sure. I’m going to reach out to the people and ask them today, what are their concerns. I govern through the people. Not through some back room.”
Despite this being his first visit to the city, Ford was not concerned about being seen as an outsider or another Southern Ontario politician.
“My message seems to be connecting with the people up north,” he said. “I know a big concern is infrastructure, building roads, Ring of Fire. But all they are doing is talking about it. I’m going to do things. I’m going to build the roads. We have tremendous opportunity up north. I’m talking in general, right across the spectrum in mining. The roads aren’t there. We have a gold mine, and we need to start mining the gold. If we get to it, we can do it.”
Thunder Bay-Superior North Ontario PC candidate, Derek Parks, who has pledged his support to candidate Christine Elliott, said there is no denying that Ford seems to have a way at reaching out to voters.
“I think it resonates,” Parks said. “You can tell the guy is very passionate about what he is talking about and he feels he can do a good job and there are a lot of people in this room that also think that.”
Prior to Ford’s talk, Parks spoke with him to express some of the major issues affecting the north, including infrastructure, the Ring of Fire, and Bombardier.
“I think one of the things we are really looking at is making sure that Metrolinks, if it’s uploaded to the province, that we maintain those jobs at Bombardier because that is a huge industry up here and I was stressing their importance for that for both ridings,” Parks said.
Parks reaffirmed his support of Elliott, but said Ford may be a close second.
“You can see by the room that he’s up there,” Parks said. “Let’s put it that way.”