Doug Ford doesn’t want any journalists at the Ontario PC Party Convention
What does he plan to say in there and why is it a secret?
The Ontario Progressive Conservative Party Convention is this weekend, and Premier Doug Ford has reportedly implemented a “no journalists allowed” rule. It seems like an odd pivot from a man who days ago uttered the words “We are one country.” He was assuring Canadians that he still gets along with Prime Minister Mark Carney after some trade-related turmoil, but shouldn’t the sentiment apply to everyone?
Related: The provincial government has found a temporary home for the Ontario Science Centre
“The Ontario PC Party Convention is a closed event and will not be open to media attendance,” spokesperson Peter Turkington told CBC News, after the outlet sought accreditation for its journalists to cover the event. Ford is an elected official, after all, and the taxpaying public may be curious as to what he has to say in there.
Attendance at the annual gathering is reserved for Conservative party members. But as CBC points out, journalists were permitted to attend last year’s Ontario Liberal and NDP conventions, and have attended PC conventions in the past. So why the sudden secrecy? Does Ford think we just fell off the turnip truck?
Maybe he plans to workshop a new anti-tariff ad and doesn’t want Carney to find out. Maybe he doesn’t want to be asked about the Brampton defence manufacturer supplying armoured vehicles to ICE. Or maybe he just wants to eliminate the threat of being around “crazy lefties.”
We hate to say it, but briefly stepping inside that Pizza Nova to broadcast a message of openness and unity seems to have not meant very much at all.
Related: Some of ICE’s armoured vehicles were made in Brampton
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.
