Ontario Premier Doug Ford returns from a news conference in Toronto on in this Nov. 27 file photo.Photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

Randall Denley: Doug Ford emerges from 2023 house poor but still popular

Ontario premier's accomplishments overshadowed by the Greenbelt fiasco

by · National Post

For Ontario Premier Doug Ford, 2023 was a grim year politically, but perhaps not as bad as it might have seemed in the midst of the Greenbelt land development fiasco. Despite that mess, Ford still finished the year in a commanding position in the polls, with 39 per cent support.

The magic, as it turned out, consisted of apologizing for the plan to develop 0.3 per cent of the two-million-acre Greenbelt, then subsequently reversing just about every useful housing policy his government had put in place.