Does Doug Ford want to be prime minister?
Wait, would Parliament Hill also move to Ontario Place?
Premier Doug Ford’s daughter, Krista Haynes, appeared on the Can’t Be Censored podcast earlier this month, and her chit-chat with hosts Travis Dhanraj and Karman Wong may have divulged some classified Ford family tea.
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“Your grandmother once told us that one day, a Ford would be the prime minister,” Wong said, setting up a high-stakes inquiry. “Which Ford is that going to be?”
“Next question,” Haynes replied, laughing nervously. Dhanraj then jumped in, asking if she thinks her dad will run for the federal Conservative party’s leadership position.
“Yeah,” she replied. “At some point.”
It’s not an entirely new speculation, as many have wondered if Ford might have his sights set on Ottawa, though it’s a possibility he’s denied over the years. In 2022, he told reporters, “No, I have my hands full. I love being premier of this province.”
But hearing it from someone so close to him feels slightly revelatory. Just imagine the rogue anti-tariff ads he could commission without Prime Minister Mark Carney in his way.
Related: The disciplinary tribunal for Doug Ford’s police officer son-in-law is happening now
Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
