Why Doug Ford’s political rivals face steep challenges going up against ‘Captain Canada’

As Harrison Ford, Drew Barrymore and other celebrities hawked trucks, cruises, beer and soda to millions of Americans during Sunday night’s Super Bowl game, the Ontario government made its own pitch.

One of the pricey Super Bowl commercials — with a 30-second spot going for $8 million — featured an ad sponsored by the Ontario government highlighting the positive trading relationship the province has with its southern neighbour.

It was a not-so-subtle rebuttal to the tariffs that U.S. President Donald Trump was set to impose on all imported steel and aluminum, including from Canada, the following evening. And it came from the Progressive Conservative government of Doug Ford, who has been given the moniker “Captain Canada” by some journalists and pundits — and become an unofficial advocate for the entire country.

“I think to an extent he has,” said Lori Turnbull, a political science professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax. “Ford has moved into what some have described as a kind of leadership vacancy.”

This new role comes at an opportune time, at the midpoint of a snap Ontario election campaign that Ford triggered, and allows him to avoid talking about issues where he’s vulnerable, such as health care and education, Turnbull said.

“The argument can be made that he botched those files. Instead of defending his record as a premier, he’s going to the U.S. and acting like a prime minister,” she said. “This is absolutely at the heart of his strategy for a third term.

“If it weren’t for the threat of tariffs … I think that the issues of health care and education would be higher on people’s lists  So I think it would probably be a rocky campaign for him if he wasn’t able to go to Washington.”

Ford has launched charm offensive

On Tuesday, Ford was back at it in Washington, D.C., to make his case against tariffs to U.S. lawmakers. It’s a role he assumed as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau found himself somewhat distracted by internal party squabbling that eventually led to an announcement of his intention to resign as Liberal Party leader.

Since December, in the wake of Trump’s announcement of his intention to slap 25 per cent tariffs on all Canadian imported goods, Ford has launched what appears to be a charm offensive. He’s made the rounds of U.S. media, including interviews on CNN, Fox News and NBC’s Meet The Press, talking about the critical minerals and goods the U.S. imports from Canada and how tariffs threaten the mutually beneficial trading relationship.

Ford wore a “Canada Is Not For Sale” ball cap during a meeting with Trudeau and other premiers in Ottawa last month. He has also preached Canadian unity, saying the provinces need to stick together to combat the threat, and scolded Alberta Premier Danielle Smith for refusing to sign a joint statement the prime minister and all other premiers agreed to about how to respond to Trump.

Some columnists and observers have branded Ford “Captain Canada.” Following the election call in Ontario, the BBC wrote on its website: Ontario’s ‘Captain Canada’ calls snap election as Trump tariff threat looms.

But when it comes to championing Canada, Ford may be uniquely positioned to do so, Turnbull said.

“Ford is able to come at this in a different way. He has that kind of folksy authenticity,” she said. “He’s able to go into a room with a ‘Canada’s Not For Sale’ hat, and people look at him and say, ‘Look at that, like, he’s so patriotic, he’s standing up for Canada.'”

If Trudeau did that, the public wouldn’t have the same reaction, Turnbull said. “He wouldn’t have the same authenticity.”

Ford has taken on this role in part because he chairs the Council of the Federation, an advocacy organization for all of the provincial and territorial premiers, Turnbull said.

“I think because he’s the leader of the biggest province — that’s not nothing,” she said.

Tariff issue ‘clear crisis in people’s minds’

The tariff issue will also make it more difficult for his political opponents, said David Coletto,  founder and CEO of Abacus Data, a polling and market research firm based in Ottawa.

“In a crisis, people often rally around their leader. And this is a clear crisis in people’s minds. So that already makes it harder for the opposition parties to get any oxygen in an arena where Trump is sucking it all up,” he said. “And Ford has the natural advantage of being the guy who has the job right now.”

Coletto said that according to his firm’s polling, if the No. 1 ballot question becomes who is best to take on Trump, Ford and his party run well ahead of the Liberals and the New Democrats, whose leaders have argued that Ford’s trip to Washington is inappropriate during an election campaign.

“When we asked people: Of the party leaders, who’s best to stand up to a bully, Doug Ford wins by a huge margin over the other other two main party leaders. So this is where he wants the election to be about,” Coletto said.

“It’s I think why he called the early election. He saw the opportunity. And his visit to Washington [on Tuesday] is just building on his attempt to try to focus attention on that as opposed to anything else.”

Still, Trudeau remains prime minister, and having more than one political leader as public spokesperson on the tariff issue could prove problematic.

“Multiple Canadian voices dilute the message, giving more space for Trump to dominate the story,” Gary Hufbauer, a non-resident senior fellow at the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics, told CBC News in an email.

“Better for a single strong spokesperson to represent Canada,” he said, adding that Trudeau is “by far the most plausible.”

Meanwhile, Ford’s role as Captain Canada came under some scrutiny when it was discovered he was pleased that Trump, a Republican, had won the U.S. presidential election over Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.

“Captain Canada has no clothes,” former Liberal deputy prime minister Sheila Copps wrote in a column for the Hill Times.

“Doug Ford lost that standing when it was revealed last week in a leaked hot microphone recording that he was a huge Trump fan who celebrated when Donald Trump was victorious.”

(Ford had said that while he was “100 per cent” happy Trump won, “then the guy pulled out the knife and f–king yanked it into us.”)

Coletto, of Abacus Data, said that it could still be a vulnerability for Ford, depending on how many people become aware of it, But Turnbull dismissed the suggestion. “Who did anybody think he was going to support in the presidential election? I didn’t think he supported Harris,” she said.

“I think what he said is exactly what I would have thought had happened. [Ford] supported Trump and then he knifed him with tariffs. So now he doesn’t support him.”