Kennedy-Glans: The Doug Ford Doctrine: 'We really have to flex our muscles'
Ford is also effusive about the need to get rid of the tanker ban on the West Coast and revamp the impact assessment act. 'Those days are done. They're gone,' he says. 'We have to start moving forward and create the conditions for the rest of the world to look at investing in not just Ontario but other jurisdictions across Canada, from coast to coast to coast.'
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I moved from Ontario to Alberta in the early 1980s — a time when Alberta premier Peter Lougheed was struggling with prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau's National Energy Program — and can still recall the bitter disappointment of Ontario premier Bill Davis's unwillingness to support Alberta's interests.
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I admit to being impressed by Ford's visit to the recently concluded Calgary Stampede, and not just by his commitment to flip pancakes alongside Smith, whose griddle experience is legendary. Ontario's premier also inked two MOUs with Alberta, to advance freer trade between the provinces and publicly endorse mutually beneficial national-interest projects, including an oil pipeline from Alberta to Ontario (fabricated with Ontario steel).
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Although Ford's not sure if Carney will be specific about the nation-building projects selected to move forward, in the upcoming discussions around the table in Muskoka, he's optimistic provincial leaders — and their constituents — recognize this unique opportunity to move forward on national infrastructure projects.
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'We're moving forward and we're going to see another $200 billion going into our economy, increase our GDP anywhere upwards to six per cent,' Ford says.
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He expects his fellow premiers will have to hop on this train. 'The residents of each province are going to demand that they get on that train as we're moving forward,' he says, 'because they want to prosper as well.'
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