"In French Canada, his reputation now precedes him: francophones throughout the country, including in vote-rich Québec, where the Conservatives already have very few strongholds, will for a long time associate the name Doug Ford (as well as Caroline Mulroney, for that matter) with bad news. Without his knowing, 'Black Thursday' may very well have already marked the demise of Doug Ford’s political ambitions."

Premier Doug Ford’s relationship with Franco-Ontarians has never been an easy one.

For many of them, the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario remains the party of Mike Harris’s “Common Sense Revolution.” Harris’s government decided unilaterally, in the late 1990s, to shut down Montfort Hospital, the only French-language university hospital west of Québec, leading to general outcry, followed by a wave of solidarity from all over French Canada, a massive public demonstration in Ottawa, and eventually, a successful court challenge.

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In the spring of 2018, during the Progressive Conservative leadership race, when asked by a TFO journalist about his plans for francophones, Ford responded candidly that he “loved Quebecers” and thought it was “important to be able to speak to them.” He was seemingly unaware of the 610,000 French speakers in his own backyard who would be off to the polls a few weeks later, and of their fraught history with his party.

Nevertheless, he promised to learn French. He also eventually promised, both during the election and in its aftermath, that the Université de l’Ontario français, an institution advocated for by Franco-Ontarians since the 1970s which had just been green-lit by Kathleen Wynne’s government, would not be one of the projects to disappear in his government’s search for so-called “efficiencies.”

But five months after coming in power, he caught the francophone community off-guard in his economic update, not only by cutting off all provincial funding for this new institution, but by announcing he was also closing down the French-Language Services Commissioner’s office, a decade-old institution that was largely seen as the only effective francophone voice in the provincial civil service. When pressed about these decisions, Ford responded that the province “just didn’t have the money” and compared the status of the Franco-Ontarian community to that of the Chinese or Italians, adding insult to injury for a historic minority with an autonomist streak that considers itself one of the founding pillars of this province and indeed, of the country.

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For many Franco-Ontarians, especially from older generations, what came to be known as “Black Thursday,” felt like history repeating itself: a Progressive Conservative government blindsiding them and targeting one of their cherished institutions (of which there are few). Once again, the community decided to take to the streets, and on Dec. 1, 2018, 14,000 people from across the province showed up to protest the decision. Francophones in Moncton, Winnipeg, and Regina, among other places, also demonstrated their solidarity in sync with the marches taking place in several Ontario communities. Even members of the anglophone community in Québec joined the demonstration, driving from Montreal to Ottawa for the day, as the Québec City and Montréal city halls flew the Franco-Ontarian flag. The sole Franco-Ontarian in government, Glengarry-Prescott-Russell MPP Amanda Simard, begged for the premier to reconsider his decision. Her efforts proving unfruitful, she left the Progressive Conservative caucus with great fracas.

Clearly taken by surprise by the outpouring of sympathy from all parts of the country towards Franco-Ontarians, the Ford government eventually extended an olive branch, granting Francophone Affairs a full-ministry status in cabinet, transferring the French-Language Services Commissioner’s Office employees to the Ontario Ombudsman’s Office and creating an assistant ombudsman position for French-language complaints. This fall, mere days prior to the drop of the federal writs, federal Official Languages Minister Mélanie Joly struck a deal with Francophone Affairs Minister Caroline Mulroney for an eight-year bilateral funding scheme for the Université de l’Ontario français, officially putting the project back on the rails.

Fast forward to this week, a year almost to the day after Black Thursday. Prompted by a journalist enquiring about his French lessons, Ford responded by “Bonjour, comment ça va?” and attested not only that he was committed to learning French, but it would be easy to do so since he had taken classes from grades three to nine. He added that he thought all elected representatives should learn the language as well.

While being able to speak the country’s other official language is indeed a worthwhile and laudable goal, one can’t help but wonder why Doug Ford would pay lip service to the French language now. One hypothesis is that Premier Ford wishes to fulfill his electoral promise and show good will towards his francophone minority. However, it is clear the “Black Thursday” incident has successfully alienated the vast majority of the (already reluctant) Franco-Ontarian vote to his party, for as long as he will remain at the helm. No amount of sweet talking, in either official language, will mend this broken trust.

The other, more probable option is that Doug Ford is preparing his next move, looking away from Queen’s Park and towards Ottawa. He has realized that one simply does not become a federal party leader, and a fortiori prime minister, without at least basic knowledge of both official languages in Canada. His repeated calls for national unity and Ontario’s role to play in mending cross-country divisions, following the results of the federal election and the rise of the “Wexit” movement, belong to the same opportunistic playbook in which he attempts to position himself as a contender for the Conservative Party leadership in a not-so-distant future.

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If such is the case, he has got his work cut out for him, and hitting the grammar books is only the beginning. In French Canada, his reputation now precedes him: francophones throughout the country, including in vote-rich Québec, where the Conservatives already have very few strongholds, will for a long time associate the name Doug Ford (as well as Caroline Mulroney, for that matter) with bad news. Without his knowing, “Black Thursday” may very well have already marked the demise of Doug Ford’s political ambitions.

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