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It’s true, as my colleague Kelly McParland argues, that Doug Ford had a rough first year. The polls alone tell that story. As I noted in a column here just a few weeks ago, Ford has shown a habit thus far of staking out positions he ultimately can’t defend. In the face of sustained blowback, he folds. This is the worst of both worlds — he takes all the damage from the blowback and then compounds it with the embarrassment of the retreat.

But occasionally, this government gets it right — as Ford just did by marching in a Pride parade.

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Ford has long been critical of Toronto’s Pride event, going back to his days on city council. In 2014, when his late brother Rob was running for a second term as mayor — he would be forced to drop out of the race due to failing health, and Doug would unsuccessfully run in his place — Doug Ford said that he and his brother would not attend that year’s Pride event. “Do I condone men running down the middle of Yonge Street buck naked? Absolutely not,” he said then. “Maybe there are some people in this city that approve of that, and maybe they can bring their kids down to watch this.”