When someone recently asked about how I’m spending my retirement, I replied that I write a blog that espouses quixotic causes. Perhaps my most quixotic cause has been trying to defeat Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government in Ontario, which was initially elected in 2018 and has been returned with legislative majorities in 2022 and 2025. I was therefore delighted by the recent publication of Against the People: How Ford Nation is Dismantling Ontario, edited by Professors Bryan Evans (Toronto Metropolitan University) and Carlo Fanelli (York University).

What’s On the Menu

The book is a comprehensive critique of the policies of Doug Ford’s government in virtually every policy area: fiscal policy, arts and culture; primary, secondary, and postsecondary education; justice and human rights; health care; labour policy; food security; indigenous land; childcare; patronage (for its supporters); land development; democratic rights and practices; urban governance; and the protection of tenants. The chapters are all reasonably short, and many of the authors are graduate students, community activists, and people involved in the labour movement. Given my long-standing support for the Ontario Liberal Party, the book’s perspective is adjacent, but not identical, to my own.

The book’s message is that the Ford Government has starved numerous policy areas (education, healthcare, arts and culture), that the least well-off citizens have been particularly hard-hit, and that the rights of citizens and organizations (unions, municipalities, tenants, workers) are being infringed. This wide-ranging critique is a valuable contribution, and I encourage Ontarians of all political stripes to read the book.

The book’s main prescription for those who feel their Ontario is being dismantled is to take to the streets in protest. The most successful protest that was cited was against the Ford Government’s Keep the Students in Class Act (2022), which invoked the notwithstanding clause to impose a contract settlement on education workers. Widescale protests and the threat of a general strike led the Ford Government to withdraw the act and return to the bargaining table. The book’s recommendation is for opponents to do likewise for other egregious pieces of legislation. The Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act (2025) empowers the government to create special economic zones, within which other legislation (for example environmental, species protection, and obligations to indigenous people) does not apply. We will see soon whether this act leads to protests.

What Should be on the Menu, but Wasn’t

I strongly share the desire of the contributors to defeat the Ford Government. To defeat a government, you need a deep understanding of it. I don’t think this book has a sufficiently deep understanding of Ford’s populism. Though the Ford Government attacks public sector unions, it embraces private sector unions, especially in manufacturing and construction. Ford’s focus on building infrastructure and supporting manufacturing can be seen as an attempt to build a political constituency. Whether or not this is the best path for Ontario economically, environmentally, and socially is far from clear. Consider also that private sector unions have a higher proportion of male workers than public sector unions, and Ford’s Conservatives have done much better among male than female voters.

The Ford Government has also prioritized drivers, through policies to lower the price of gasoline, legislating against any form of road pricing, and removing current and restricting future bicycle lanes — all in addition to building highways. While this supports the Ford Government’s electoral calculus, it is also unclear whether this is good public policy.

Another key success factor for the Ford Government has been its use of official Government of Ontario advertising for political purposes. This has been criticized by the Auditor General and should have been part of the book’s discussion of the Ford Government’s attack on democratic norms.

Finally, the book doesn’t discuss political strategies to defeat the Ford Government. The Ford Government loves first-past-the-post, in which it is the one major right-of-centre party confronting a left-of-centre vote that is split three ways. In a post following the recent election, I simulated it to show a united left-of-centre party would have narrowly defeated a united right-of-centre party. The left-of-centre parties should be considering such an alliance, as should authors who critique the Ford Government.

With the legislature recessed for four months – Ontario summer in a changing climate – the Ford Government’s opponents should read this book as they develop their plans to defeat it.