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SARA MACINTYRE

Going into the first leaders’ debate, it was certainly PC leader Doug Ford’s to lose.

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And that was clear right of the gate, with both Liberal leader Kathleen Wynne and NDP leader Andrea Horwath taking aim at Ford. They expected him to be bombastic, condescending and patronizing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YniSrD1EiF4&feature=youtu.be

Instead, Ford was calm deliberate and measured.

This was the first inside look at Ford that most Ontarians got. It was a showing that rose above the noise, the rhetoric and spoke to the real values of Ontario voters: Less waste, lower taxes and better services.

The bogey man in the closet, the scary conservative, did not emerge.

However, a reason and measured Ford debuted for Ontario. It was his to lose, and he won hands down.

— MacIntyre is a Conservative commentator and was a strategist and press secretary to former prime minister Stephen Harper