That is perhaps the biggest breakthrough in Ford’s rocky premiership — not suddenly smooth-talking journalists, but taking their broader readership seriously. Rather than targeting his message primarily at his base of supporters — from whom he won a healthy majority of seats in the 2018 election with a minority of the popular vote — he is now aiming at everyone.

The premier is acting and talking, at last, like the premier of all Ontarians. Not a political messiah preaching an imaginary Ford Nation incantation.

“There’s no better army than I have behind me than the 14-1/2 million people of this province that are standing shoulder to shoulder united, working with us,” Ford intoned Monday. “We will conquer this, we will defeat this COVID-19.”

It matters not whether Ontarians are truly behind the premier they booed barely a year ago. What’s paramount is that he understands the need for unity of purpose at this point.

Yet even as he belatedly addresses us all, it remains especially helpful that he is heeded by Tories. A remarkable two-thirds of those who voted Conservative (in the last federal election) believe the pandemic threat is “overblown,” compared to a mere 15 per cent of Liberal and 8 per cent of NDP supporters, according to an Angus Reid Institute poll Monday.

In the U.S., Trump’s frequent downplaying of the pandemic threat, echoed by Fox News, has sowed dangerous doubts. Whether or not Ford is winning over all Ontarians to his heretofore hidden charms, it is especially helpful that he has greatest credibility with those who are most credulous about an alleged COVID-19 hoax.

Not only has Ford avoided playing Trump’s rhetorical games, the premier has shown uncharacteristic discipline in avoiding partisan shots. Asked by the Toronto Sun if he would demand that Trudeau suspend a previously scheduled increase in the federal carbon levy, the premier who picked a fight two years ago wouldn’t bite.

Instead, Ford showered praise on the prime minister and his cabinet Monday, as he has throughout the crisis: “We’re on the same team…We’re going to put all the politics aside …and again I want to thank them.”

This from a premier who conjured up a “carbon tax recession” that never came, blaming it on last year’s “job-killing carbon tax.” Today, thanks not only to a pandemic but a price war, gasoline costs almost half what it did a year ago, the carbon recession never happened, and a viral depression looms — which may be why he has given up the fight for now.

Will Ford’s new and improved persona endure beyond the novel coronavirus? Will he revive the old pugnacity when the pandemic subsides?

The crisis has brought out the best in Ford, who is filtering his worst reflexes. But these are early days yet, and there are likely dark days ahead.

Ford is no Winston Churchill taking over from a feckless predecessor in a time of war, he is the politician who was in power for weeks and months leading up to the crisis. Persistent questions about preparations may return to haunt him.

Our populist premier clearly struck a chord by piling on against Pusateri’s, a fine food emporium that was caught overcharging its affluent customers for sterile wipes (it apologized profusely, claiming a pricing error). While guarding against gouging (even of the most privileged shoppers) may be important, setting up snitch lines is easy.

Stitching together a supply chain, knitting surgical masks, securing ventilators, protecting vulnerable workers in hospitals and construction sites, maintaining morale but also public order — those will be the true tests of leadership when the final chapter is written on this pandemic. Repairing a frayed social security net, waiving sick notes in good times (not just bad times), reinstituting paid sick days (cancelled by Ford), unfreezing the minimum wage (he cancelled a scheduled increase to $15) — those too will be the tests of Ontario’s post-pandemic politics.

But today, in the midst of a crisis, amid shortages and suffering, it is a relief that Ford has struck a tone that speaks to all Ontarians. Give him credit for being the best premier he can be when his province needs him most.