The trail of harm of the policies of the Doug Ford government has regrettably touched many Ontarians, finds a new and timely book, Against the People.

As Ontarians face an early election with Ford playing the role of ‘Captain Canada’ against the threat of U.S. tariffs, contributors to the book - academics, economists, health care workers, human rights lawyers, housing researchers, NGO specialists, teachers, Indigenous and community leaders, including CUPE members and staff – prioritize the voices of those most directly impacted by the destructive policies of the Ontario PC government. 

Against the People finds deteriorating health and educational outcomes, a growing housing and cost-of-living crisis, all made worse by privileged insider access that harms regular Ontarians.

“The contemporary Ontario Conservatives, the party of Ford Nation, is a vehicle to move Ontario toward a deep market fundamentalism and thereby remake how citizens relate to their government,” says editor Bryan Evans, Professor Public Administration, Toronto Metropolitan University. “The effect is to ultimately accept there is no such thing as a social contract binding different components of society to one another. It is, in many ways, an Ontario version of Margaret Thatcher’s proclamation that “there is no such thing as society” but there is always business.”  

The book finds that there is lower provincial government funding of hospitals in Ontario today than in any other province. If Ontario hospitals were staffed at the same per capita levels as other provinces, Ontario would have close to an additional 35,000 extra full-time staff to deal with the health care emergency in this province. And had the Ford government kept spending consistent with population growth, that would mean close to an additional 1,900 hospital beds.

The book cuts through the Ford slogans and advertising to look at his government’s aggressive assault on social programs, labour and tenants’ rights and environmental protections and instead identifies real solutions to the complex problems facing Ontarians.

“While the $10-a-day child care plan has been rolling out in every province and territory, here in Ontario the Ford government has been an unwilling and stagnant partner at best, and, at worst, has actively subverted the federal program’s goals to create affordable non-profit and public child care for Ontario families. Instead, they continue to push for unlimited privatization.” Said Carolyn Ferns, Public Policy Coordinator Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care and contributor to the book.

Between 2021 and 2024 housing costs in Ontario increased by 23% and food costs 24%. In 2018, tenants waited 40 days for a hearing at the Landlord and Tenant Board. Today the average wait is 277 days. One in ten people in Toronto routinely visit a food bank.

Ford Nation has put tens of billions of dollars back into the pockets of the business community, often directly out of public coffers that puts Ontario at the bottom of all ten provinces on per capita program spending. Few ministries and programs have been left unscathed. Most people have not benefitted.

Against the People is available from Fernwood Publishing in February 2025.