It’s weird how Doug Ford brags about supposedly stopping “the gravy train at Queen’s Park,” just like, or so he falsely claims, his late brother Rob did at city hall when he was mayor of Toronto.

It’s just as strange — maybe even funny — how Ford boasts of stopping “the wasteful spending and endless scandals” and “mismanagement” seen under the former Liberal government.

It’s all so odd because Ford, who kicked off his 2022 re-election last weekend, is running arguably the most incompetent, disorganized, patronage-riddled and wasteful Ontario government in decades. And he’s accomplished all that in barely 20 months in office.

Of course, that’s not how our tone-deaf premier sees himself as he sets the stage for an election more than 25 months away.

In a rant to 1,000 loyalists last weekend at a Conservative party conference in Niagara Falls, Ford outlined a re-election strategy that will centre on bashing Liberals, the media, union leaders and anyone else who doesn’t think he’s performed miracles since trouncing the Kathleen Wynne-led Liberals in 2018.

“The people we’re up against, they’re the same ones that ran this province into the ground,” Ford said in attacking the current field of Liberal leadership candidates. “The same crew at the table with Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne making these reckless, reckless decisions.”

Amazingly, Ford believes he can win re-election by running a campaign similar to the one that led to his stunning victory in 2018. He may be crazy smart in choosing such a strategy. But the more likely scenario might be that it’s a losing plan and that Ford is delusional.

That’s because the 2022 election will be totally different than in 2018 — and Ford better face up to that fact soon or else risk losing power to the Liberals. The reason for that is threefold:

First, Ford should fear Steven Del Duca.

The former Liberal cabinet minister is expected to easily win the Liberal leadership at the party’s March 7 convention. Ford and his team are badly underestimating Del Duca. They dismiss him as a dull and uninspiring long-time party hack. But he’s super organizer, well-liked within the party, a terrific fundraiser with an ability to reach out to young voters.

Also, he has put together an experienced team for his leadership bid, which bodes well for his ability to recruit a fair number of high-profile candidates for the 2022 election.

In addition, Del Duca won’t follow Wynne’s path of moving too far to the left, preferring to play more in the middle ground, which has been the historic arena for provincial Liberals. It’s a strategy sure to win back Liberals who abandoned the party under Wynne.

Second, the NDP is a train wreck and in serious trouble as it tries to build on its 2018 second-place showing. Andrea Horwath is now viewed as a weak leader who only had a few great days in the last election. NDP organizers are convinced many Liberal voters who switched to the NDP in 2018 will return to the Liberals in 2022.

Third, Ford is widely disliked, possibly as much as Wynne was during her worst times. His reputation is so tarnished that many swing voters who supported the Tories in 2018 are now admitting to buyer’s remorse.

Under his leadership, hallway medicine is as bad or worse than ever, hydro bills are just as high if not higher, the deficit continues to grow, his new, flawed Tory-blue licence plates have come back to bite him in the behind, his carbon-tax protest stickers don’t stick on gas pumps, he can’t reach a deal with striking teachers, the list goes on.

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As for stopping the “gravy train,” Ford had to fire his close friend Dean French, his chief of staff, amid a patronage scandal that saw the Tories handing high-paid jobs to inexperienced friends and family. Ford himself was directly involved in scandal after trying to get his buddies appointed to top jobs, including as the head of the OPP.

Combined, these are three powerful reasons why Del Duca and the Liberals could spell disaster for the overconfident, dismissive Ford in the election that has already started.

Bob Hepburn is a politics columnist and based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: is a politics columnist and based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @BobHepburn

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