Doug Ford

Internal government emails show Ontario completed years-long recovery plans for endangered wolves, butterflies, and bats — then secretly decided not to release them to the public, weeks after passing Bill 5 to eliminate the legal requirement to do so.

As Premier of Ontario, Ford championed Bill 5 and framed endangered species protections as barriers to housing and resource development. His government's legislation eliminated Ontario's 18-year-old Endangered Species Act and created the legal conditions under which the ministry could suppress completed recovery plans for at-risk species without public accountability.

The Ford government has spent $452 million in taxpayer-funded advertising since 2018 — repeatedly refusing to disclose campaign costs until forced by FOI — while the Auditor General found 38% of spending was designed to promote the governing party, and the firm behind the most controversial ad is run by Doug Ford's campaign manager's brother-in-law.

As Premier, Ford's government spent $452 million on taxpayer-funded advertising since 2018 — shattering provincial records — while routinely refusing to disclose campaign costs. The Auditor General found that 38% of spending was designed to foster a positive impression of the governing party. Ford's campaign manager's brother-in-law ran the firm that produced the government's most controversial ads.

Ontario promised $5 billion to protect workers and businesses from U.S. tariffs — then quietly redirected $4 billion of it into a privately managed investment fund with no named manager, no public accountability framework, and no commitment that the money will reach the tariff-hit workers it was meant for.

As Premier, Ford's cabinet approved the 2026 budget decision to redirect $4 billion originally designated for tariff relief into a privately managed investment fund. The Protecting Ontario Account was announced under Ford as emergency protection for workers in steel, aluminum, and automotive sectors; the pivot to a private investment vehicle targeting AI and defence removes the direct link to tariff-impacted workers and businesses the fund was created to serve.

Ford's government legalized speed cameras in 2019, then banned them in 2025 — ignoring peer-reviewed evidence that they cut school-zone speeding by 45% — after his own cabinet ministers' vehicles racked up 23 speed camera tickets and hit stunt-driving speeds.

Ford's government authorized speed cameras in 2019, then Ford personally led the campaign to ban them in 2025. He called them a 'cash grab,' rejected compromise proposals from 22 mayors and police chiefs, and fast-tracked Bill 56 through the legislature. His own cabinet ministers' vehicles were caught by speed cameras 23 times — including stunt-driving speeds of 162 km/h — and the government refused to identify who was driving.

Under cover of a tariff emergency, Doug Ford passed omnibus legislation that repealed Ontario's Endangered Species Act, created law-free "special economic zones" where cabinet can suspend any provincial rule for handpicked companies, and quietly cancelled environmental assessments for a landfill owned by $200,000 PC donors — repeating the exact playbook of the Greenbelt scandal with no limits and no oversight.

As Premier of Ontario, Ford championed Bill 5 and framed endangered species protections and environmental assessments as barriers to economic development. His government introduced the legislation on the eve of a long weekend, repealed Ontario's 18-year-old Endangered Species Act, and created Special Economic Zones allowing cabinet to suspend any provincial law for handpicked companies — repeating the discretionary-power pattern of the Greenbelt scandal province-wide.

The Ford government buried amendments inside the 2026 Budget Bill that would permanently exempt the Premier, all cabinet ministers, and their staff from freedom-of-information requests — retroactive to 1988 — nullifying every pending FOI request and active court case, including those seeking Doug Ford's personal cellphone records and Greenbelt-related emails. Ontario's own privacy watchdog publicly called three of Ford's stated justifications factually incorrect.

As Premier of Ontario, Ford is the primary beneficiary of the FIPPA overhaul — his personal cellphone records, used for government business, were the immediate subject of a December 2025 court ruling that upheld an IPC order for disclosure. The retroactive FIPPA amendments would nullify that ruling and permanently shield his communications from public scrutiny.

On April 2, 2026, Doug Ford introduced Bill 100, giving his Minister of Municipal Affairs power to directly appoint regional chairs across eight Ontario regions — unelected officials who will have the power to hire and fire senior staff, veto bylaws, and set budgets. Niagara's council would be slashed from 32 to 13 seats. Opposition MPPs called it a continuation of Ford's pattern of replacing elected local democracy with provincial Conservative loyalists.

As Premier of Ontario, Ford championed Bill 100, giving his own Minister of Municipal Affairs the power to directly appoint unelected regional chairs across eight regions, with veto powers over local bylaws and staff decisions. The legislation continues Ford's documented pattern of replacing elected local democracy with provincially appointed officials.

Over the objections of more than 14,000 residents, municipalities, and environmental groups, the Ford government is forcing Ontario's 36 conservation authorities — locally funded, elected-representation bodies that manage watersheds, flood control, and natural hazards — to merge into just 9 regional bodies starting May 2026, weakening local accountability and environmental oversight at a time of escalating climate risk.

As Premier, Ford advanced the forced merger of 36 conservation authorities into 9, ignoring over 14,000 public objections. The policy follows Ford's documented pattern of stripping powers from locally accountable environmental bodies — he previously gutted conservation authority review powers via Bill 229 in 2021.

Premier Doug Ford made repeated public attacks on the independence of Ontario's judiciary in early 2026 — calling judicial independence "a joke," suggesting US-style elected judges, calling sitting judges "bleeding hearts," and proposing to livestream bail hearings in potential violation of publication bans. Ontario's three chief justices issued a rare joint statement reaffirming judicial independence as a constitutional cornerstone; the Ontario Bar Association warned Ford's proposed changes would politicize the bench.

As Premier, Ford made repeated public attacks on the independence of Ontario's judiciary, calling judicial independence "a joke," suggesting US-style elected judges, calling sitting judges "bleeding hearts," and proposing to livestream bail hearings in potential violation of publication bans protecting victims and witnesses.

The Ford government is fast-tracking Ring of Fire mining and road construction through its Bill 5 "One Project, One Process" system, overriding the objections of Grassy Narrows First Nation — a community still living with mercury poisoning — bypassing a federally required environmental assessment, and pushing toward a June 2026 construction start that Neskantaga and Attawapiskat First Nations are physically blockading.

As Premier, Ford championed the fast-tracking of Ring of Fire mining and road construction through Bill 5's One Project One Process system, dismissing Indigenous concerns with his "hat in hand" comments to First Nations chiefs at Queen's Park. He apologized after public backlash but refused to repeal Bill 5.

Premier Doug Ford's daughter Kara was quietly hired in 2022 at a provincially funded hospital with a two-year community college diploma and a background as a makeup artist — no healthcare experience. By 2025 she was earning $211,468 as Director of Strategy, outearning her own father's public salary, while her employer received tens of millions in Ford government capital funding.

As Premier, Ford leads the government that provides substantial capital funding to Runnymede Healthcare Centre, the publicly funded hospital where his daughter Kara Ford was hired in 2022 and rose to a $211,468 director role by 2025. The Ford government directed $1M to Runnymede in 2022, $10.7M in 2025, and $15M in 2026 — throughout the period of Kara's employment and rapid salary progression. Ford has not commented publicly on his daughter's employment.

CityNews Queen's Park reporter Tina Yazdani was fired without explanation in April 2026 — days after a confrontational on-camera exchange with Education Minister Paul Calandra, and after at least two of her Ford government stories were quietly deleted from the Rogers-owned network's website in apparent violation of Rogers' own editorial standards.

As Premier of Ontario, Ford leads the government whose coverage Yazdani reported on for eight years at Queen's Park. The firing follows a pattern of the Ford government's documented use of the province's $111.9 million annual advertising machine — a structural financial dependency between large Ontario broadcasters and government goodwill. No direct order from Ford's office has been confirmed.

Doug Ford spent $28.9 million in taxpayer money on a private jet — then reversed the decision 48 hours later after a public backlash, announcing the province would sell the aircraft "as quickly as possible." Ford made no reference to his 2019 boast that he was the only premier in history to refuse a government plane, and the financial cost of the reversal — including any cancellation penalties or resale loss — has not been disclosed.

As Premier of Ontario, Ford is the primary beneficiary and decision-maker behind the $28.9 million Challenger 650 purchase. Ford publicly boasted in 2019 that he was "the only premier in history" to refuse government aircraft — selling Ontario's existing King Air turboprops — before buying an executive jet for nearly three times the combined cost of the aircraft he refused to use.

Doug Ford's government sold off 60% of Wasaga Beach Provincial Park — overriding 98% public opposition via an omnibus budget bill — while Bill 5 stripped the last provincial protections from Ontario's most important Piping Plover breeding site. When the Town began mechanically raking critical nesting habitat in April 2026 just days before the endangered birds return, Ecojustice filed a Federal Court lawsuit warning that failure to act will result in the species' extirpation from Ontario.

As Premier of Ontario, Ford personally announced the $38 million "Destination Wasaga" redevelopment in May 2025 and championed both Bill 5 — which repealed the Endangered Species Act and stripped all provincial habitat protection from Piping Plovers — and Bill 68, which removed 60 hectares of Wasaga Beach Provincial Park from protection via an omnibus budget bill, bypassing the stand-alone MPP vote required by the Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act.

Over 157 inmates were improperly released from Ontario's dangerously overcrowded provincial jails between 2021 and 2025 — six remain at large as of April 2026. Solicitor General Michael Kerzner told the legislature they were all caught "instantaneously." Global News FOI documents proved that was false. Kerzner apologized "unreservedly." At the same Maplehurst facility running at 175% capacity, correctional officers zip-tied 200 inmates in their underwear for two days — and a judge stayed first-degree murder charges as a result.

As Premier of Ontario, Ford is responsible for the correctional and justice system failures that led to 157 improper inmate releases from overcrowded provincial jails. He defended Solicitor General Kerzner after Kerzner misled the legislature about the releases, while acknowledging 6 inmates remain at large. Ford's government was internally briefed on the problem in January 2025 — over a year before public disclosure. His 2019 $133 million cut to Legal Aid Ontario contributed to court backlogs that have produced record numbers of Jordan-deadline stays of proceedings.

The Ford government promised a comprehensive environmental assessment for a proposed landfill directly upstream from Canada's only population of the salamander mussel — then buried the reversal inside omnibus Bill 5 after winning a byelection on the promise, exempting a company whose owners donated $200,000 to the PCs from all provincial environmental review, leaving 33 species at risk in one of Canada's most biodiverse rivers with no provincial protection.

As Premier of Ontario, Ford's government introduced Bill 5, which included Schedule 3 cancelling the previously promised environmental assessment for the York1 Dresden landfill — a decision made after the byelection the promise helped win, benefiting PC donors who contributed approximately $200,000. The Integrity Commissioner declined to investigate Ford's role but explicitly made no findings about why the government chose to advance this particular landfill.