Give Doug Ford credit for bold strokes and brazen strikes: In desperation, he has turned to disruption yet again.

But will anyone be deceived? By blowing up his cabinet, and nuking Vic Fedeli, Ford has created a new narrative that it was all the fault of his finance minister.

No, this is not a reset, nor even a restart. In reality, it’s a complete rebuild, starting with the cabinet foundation — Fedeli — demolished, demoted and reconstituted as a middling minister of economic development.

It is almost unheard of to yank a finance minister after barely a year on the job in a new government. But Fedeli must be scapegoated and sacrificed so that the premier might survive to fight another day unscathed, even if undressed.

When the emperor is found to have no clothes, when the truth has been laid bare, when the boos are out in the open, the emperor must run for cover. But damage control can only go so far when a government has reached the point of no return.

The premier’s rapid plunge in public opinion surveys is as unprecedented as his cabinet shuffle. To be credible, damage control must be believable, yet Ford still casts himself as blameless and guileless.

For a year, he has boasted of being served by an “all-star cabinet” — until the shooting stars flamed out. Now, it’s all their fault.

Yet Fedeli has always been loyal — often to a fault — by doing the premier’s bidding on buck-a-beer, on the billion-dollar-Beer-Store-boondoggle, and with an April budget that pleased no one and picked fights with almost everyone. The Ford-Fedeli tag team ambushed municipalities with unannounced cuts mid-year, slashed social services spending by nearly $1 billion, and set the stage for bigger class sizes as education funding lags.

A finance minister doesn’t just go rogue, for he is central to any government and very much controlled by the centre — which is to say, the premier’s office. This was the worst budget roll-out in recent memory, but the buck stops with the premier.

Yes, Fedeli is at fault for not pushing back, for not saving the premier from himself, for telling Ford what he wanted to hear. Like most other cabinet ministers in this government.

Now, one of the biggest shuffles in recent memory has repositioned everyone from Caroline Mulroney (the ex-attorney general is now transportation minister) to Rod Phillips (from environment to finance). It is a disruption of epic proportions, but this cabinet needs more of a shakeup than a shuffle.

These ministers must unmuzzle themselves and find their voice. A frequent refrain from voters in the 2018 election was that Ford wasn’t their preferred choice as premier, but they could hold their noses if a strong cabinet kept him in line or steered him out of trouble.

That never happened. Ford’s lieutenants — Fedeli, Mulroney, Phillips, Health Minister Christine Elliott — quickly fell into line.

Now, the premier wants us to believe there is method to his madness — and that messaging is the missing element. If the government has faltered in the polls, the fault lies not with its intentions or its actions, but its communications — with messaging and the media.

It is a familiar refrain from embattled politicians, but Ford went further with the blame game. In the aftermath of Thursday’s political earthquake, Ford rumbled out of the lieutenant-governor’s suite a bit more subdued, but no less unrepentant.

“Everything revolves around communications,” he mused. “Our message wasn’t getting out.”

For which he blamed the media: “I expect you to be fair and balanced,” he lectured journalists waiting outside the premier’s office.

Never mind that “Fair and Balanced” was the old Fox News slogan, best left south of the border. Apart from shooting the messenger, and refining his messaging, Ford was not in an especially reflective mood.

It’s fair to say that a more balanced approach to government — picking fewer fights and embracing more allies; more managerial and less mercurial; greater discipline and reduced disruption — is what Ontarians prefer. That’s not a communications problem, it’s a governing challenge.

Politics isn’t just about sending messages by staying on “transmit.” It’s also about remaining on “receive” to hear the people’s responses.

Not to worry. Ford has heard what he needs to hear:

Everywhere he goes — that is, when he’s not being booed — “everyone’s telling me: ‘Just continue going, you’re going in the right direction.’”

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Hence Ford’s boast Thursday that “our priorities will never change.” After all, Ontario “is a thousand times better off” than a year ago, and his government’s “accomplishments are absolutely staggering.”

Which is why he blew up his cabinet this week. Not a reset, nor a restart, and perhaps not even reality.

No matter how much messaging he conjures up, Ford needs to stop pretending he is the populist premier of “Ontario’s First Government For the People.” The more unpopular you become, the more it sounds like false advertising.

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