Premier Doug Ford may not have been on vacation when he met with business leaders in Washington, D.C., recently. But he sounded like a guy at a resort bar all the same: the kind who shares success stories about his life back home that are almost certainly pure fiction.

Last week, Ford sat down for an interview with the Canadian American Business Council in Washington (a non-profit business organization), where he regaled that organization’s CEO, Maryscott Greenwood, with tales of a booming Ontario open for business.

“Economics is very simple,” he told Greenwood. “You cut red tape, you cut regulations, you lower business taxes and taxes for the people, and new revenue will come up to the coffers, as we say. And with that you can reinvest it into other areas, into health care, into education. Our economy right now is absolutely on fire.”

What the Premier didn’t tell his foreign hosts is that those “other areas” are not reaping the reward of his “simple” economic proposal; they are hurting as a result of it. Teachers are protesting major cuts to education, and the provincial government and the unions are at an impasse. Kids are missing school and their parents are not putting the blame squarely on teachers, as Education Minister Stephen Lecce might have hoped. According to a new internal poll commissioned by the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, a little more than half of residents polled in PC ridings strongly disagree with the government’s championing of larger class sizes.

As for that other “other area” (health care) — it’s hard to believe Ontarians are comforted by the notion that trickle-down economics will fill the holes carved out by cuts made to their health care system, when the world is frantically trying to stall coronavirus.

According to a Leger poll from late last year, Ford is Canada’s least popular premier. But if you listened to him speak down south recently, you’d think he was our crown jewel. When Greenwood asked him how he “gets out of the bubble” of politics, he told her a story about driving around at Christmastime in Ontario when he came upon a Walmart.

“I told my detail, ‘pull over,’ ” he said. When Ford’s driver objected, telling him he would go into the Walmart instead and buy the Premier whatever he needed, Ford allegedly countered: ‘I’m not going in there to buy something, I’m going in there to talk to the people.’ I made it about 10 feet into the door and people are coming up and sharing ideas. The number one comment is ‘just keep going.’ ”

Go where exactly?

Because if Ford’s destination is a second term at Queen’s Park, he may want to revise his route. Folksy anecdotes will charm certain Americans but they aren’t going charm the thousands of Canadians who did not “share ideas” at last year’s Raptors victory parade, but who booed him instead.

Obviously the Premier is going to describe his platform and his record in the best light possible no matter who he is speaking with. But his comments in the United States this month suggest that a) he is in denial about how he’s perceived at home or b) he doesn’t care how he’s perceived, as long as American conservatives look kindly on him.

Ford certainly told the truth about one thing during the interview in question: his fondness for President Donald Trump. Not only did the premier describe Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders as “scary,” he gushed about the sitting president.

“I loved listening to the president on the State of the Union address the other night,” he told Greenwood. “I was disappointed when I saw Nancy Pelosi get up there and start tearing the speech up. That’s uncalled for. But let’s move forward. Let’s see what happens in the (U.S.) election. The economy is booming (in the States), it’s booming in Ontario. We hope the (U.S.) election is going to turn out the right way, literally the right way.”

Who’s we?

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Few politicians, if any, are able to govern “for all,” but it would be nice if the premier of Ontario at least pretended to govern Ontario as it is, not as he wished it to be: America-lite.

But reality isn’t Ford’s vibe and, like a guy on vacation, he’d rather tell tall tales while things fall apart back home.

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