A year ago Doug Ford savoured his role as the belle of the ball.

Weeks after taking the oath of office, still basking in his honeymoon glow, Ford made his memorable debut at a meeting of his fellow premiers.

Today the rock star is falling like a stone. His poll numbers are fading and his star power burns less bright.

Ah, but remember the summer of 2018?

Back then, Ford’s aspirations suggested prime ministerial pretensions. At last year’s summit of premiers in New Brunswick, and later at a federal Conservative convention in Nova Scotia, his mere presence set selfies alight.

Now, Ford’s luminosity has been overshadowed by the new premier on the block: Alberta’s Jason Kenney is the toast of the town while Ford looks like toast.

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The changing power dynamic has been on display all week on the prairies. First at the Calgary Stampede, at a pre-summit sideshow, Kenney hosted Ford and their fellow right-wing premiers flipping flapjacks in classic Stetsons and clingy jeans.

Ford didn’t so much look out of place in his cowboy garb as out of his element next to the more articulate and savvy Kenney. Blunderbuss beside a sharpshooter.

Don’t take it from me. Listen to Postmedia columnist Don Braid:

“Ontario Premier Doug Ford is a fountain of purple political talk, whether he’s riffing in his own province or downtown Calgary,” Braid wrote, citing our leader’s penchant for amnesia — historical and personal:

“This is the first opportunity this country has ever seen ... from coast to coast, from the east to the west, we have like-minded premiers that want their provinces to thrive,” Ford insisted at a photo-op, as quoted by Braid.

Our premier’s rhetoric struck the veteran Alberta columnist as peculiar. Don’t other premiers want the best for their provinces, or does Ford only see Canada through a partisan prism, Braid wondered.

“You’ve seen a clean sweep right across the country — blue, blue, blue, blue, every single election — this is a great opportunity for the nation,” Ford boasted, oblivious to Newfoundlanders re-electing a Liberal government last May, and B.C.’s last election producing an NDP government led by John Horgan.

Caught out, Ford tried to recover from his error:

“We look forward to meeting with Premier Hogirth,” he piped up magnanimously — mangling the name of his B.C. counterpart until Kenney graciously stepped in to rescue him.

“Horgan,” Kenney offered helpfully, as Ford flailed.

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“Premier Horgan — I apologize, Premier Horgan — I met him last year, John’s a great guy,” Ford gushed.

And so goes the Ford Nation road show, with stops in Calgary and then Saskatoon to meet the rest of the gang — our premier not missing a beat, even if he missed an important meeting along the way: For reasons that remain a mystery, Ford skipped a scheduled a summit with Canada’s Indigenous leaders — missing in action.

While the other premiers showed up (except those with delayed flights), Ford stayed away from the first-ever meeting held on a reserve, just outside Saskatoon, at a time when reconciliation — and paying attention — has never been more important. Why the snub?

His office noted dryly that Ford had met Indigenous leaders before, and might bump into them again at an evening reception this week. Catch me if you can — busy busy busy.

In other business, Ford kept telling all who would listen: “Ontario is Open for Business.”

The words are as timeless as they are meaningless. Dismantling interprovincial trade barriers is a worthy perennial — a topic that has dominated every premiers’ conference for decades.

Internal free trade has its own internal logic. Alberta’s Kenney has led the way in fostering the free flow of goods and services across Canada, because he wants more pipelines across the country (over the objections of B.C. and Quebec).

But while Ford is cheerfully chorusing with Kenney, he embodies a glaring contradiction. Proclaiming yourself “Open for Business” doesn’t sell with business if you are busy tearing down the rule of law by ripping up lawful agreements.

Ford’s Tories have used their majority muscle to ram through legislation nullifying a signed contract with big brewers, meddling in the affairs of partially privatized Hydro One and cancelling hundreds of valid green energy agreements. Actions speak louder than words, and cancellations speak louder than slogans.

Which is why the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, representing 3 million American companies, sent a strongly-worded letter to Ford last month warning that “terminating an existing (beer) contract, and doing so without compensation ... risks sending a negative signal to U.S. and other international investors about the business and investment climate in Ontario.”

A year ago, Ford declared Ontario “Open for Business.” Now, despite his rousing rhetoric on the prairies, it’s “Open season on business.”

That was the summer of 2018. This is the summer of 2019.

Same season. Different political and business climate.

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