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He never actually said “lock her up” and the force of the Liberal attack was muted by the party war machine’s stupidly putting words of Trump’s about “the blacks” in Ford’s mouth, stopping just short of calling him a racist. If your political case depends on convincing people you’re holier than your opponent, you have to actually be holier than your opponent. If you aren’t, you’re just a hypocrite.

Photo by Peter J. Thompson/National Post

Which the Tories happily pointed out right after Wynne was done. They organized a quick conference call starring Nepean MPP Lisa MacLeod. “(Wynne’s) trying to run an election campaign against a different candidate in a different country because she can’t defend her record in Ontario,” MacLeod said.

Then Ford popped up in Cobourg, saying it’ll be so easy to bring manufacturing jobs back to Ontario that a baboon could do it.

“There is no secret to creating good jobs in Ontario,” he said. “It all starts with lower taxes, cutting red tape and regulations, and reducing hydro bills for everyone. We need to attract businesses to Ontario, not drive them away as Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals have done.”

Ford made just one specific promise: He’ll cut corporate income taxes from 11.5 per cent to 10.5 per cent (small businesses already pay less than that: 3.5 per cent). Corporate tax rates have been steady since 2012 after Dalton McGuinty cut them in the late 2000s and corporate-tax revenues have risen quite a bit, suggesting businesses here are doing OK, but perhaps they could be doing better.