Doug Ford, pictured on the front lawn of the Ontario Legislature at Queen's Park in Toronto on Friday, June 8, 2018, will be sworn in as Ontario's premier this morning. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn

TORONTO— The Liberal era in Ontario ends today.

Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford’s swearing-in on Friday morning starts a new chapter in Ontario politics and is the final step in an unprecedented path to power in Canadian politics.

In the last 151 days, Ford announced his bid to replace Patrick Brown as Progressive Conservative Leader, won his party’s leadership, and got the Progressive Conservatives elected after 15 years in the political wilderness.

The improbable turn of events culminated with Ford winning a bigger majority mandate than outgoing premier Kathleen Wynne’s 2014 triumph. The Progressive Conservatives are staying tight lipped about who will replace the outgoing cabinet and how many ministers there will be in the new government.

[READ MORE: Pomp and circumstance to greet Doug Ford at swearing in]

One thing that is clear though are the priorities of cutting costs and improving affordability that he promised voters. His platform focused on five key areas that he would act on in government but left gaping questions about how many of the promises will get done.

“He was cut a lot of slack by voters,” University of Toronto associate professor Chris Cochrane said, pointing to how late Ford came into the race and the limits that put on his ability to put a full platform together.

“He was able to promise to spend more money […] while also promising to cut government spending in general, while also promising to reduce taxes,” Cochrane said. That worked during the campaign, he said, but will be a lot more difficult to manage now that Ford’s in government.

“Something will have to give,” he said.

Difficult, yes. But not impossible, according to the Ford camp. Campaign manager Kory Teneycke told a post-election panel that the bar set by the opposition parties’ attacks is so low that it won’t be difficult for Ford to step over it.

Still, a source close to the campaign who wasn’t authorized to speak on the record acknowledged the work ahead.

“Elections are easy compared to governing, so putting together a policy agenda is a much more straight forward task than implementing it,” they said.

‘For the people’

To stay focused on delivering on those promises, the new government’s mantra will be the message Ford pitched to voters. His “for the people” slogan was about more than a campaign jingle, said Ford’s campaign’s director of field operations.

“‘For the people’ is not just a catch phrase, that’s what drives Doug,” Fred DeLorey said. “He is a real people person and he wants to do what’s best for Ontarians.”

DeLorey, the managing partner of DesLauriers Public Affairs, said the “driving force” for the government and Tory MPPs will be to “make sure they’re in touch with the realities of Ontarians.”

Ford has echoed that message in his public comments since his election. Telling reporters after his first caucus meeting that he told the new MPPs to “never forget” who put them there. He even gave the Tory’s former interim leader a gift with the same reminder.

Thanks to Premier-designate Doug Ford for the desk plaque. We must always remember the people who put their trust in us as we get this province back on track. We will always put the people first. pic.twitter.com/FODOSGRv5u — Victor Fedeli (@VictorFedeli) June 20, 2018

“Anyone who doesn’t take it seriously and treats it like a slogan is completely underestimating and misunderstanding the premier and his understanding about his own mandate and what he got elected to do,” said Ginny Roth, a senior consultant at Crestview Strategy.

Delivering on the five key promises he made that fit into the ‘for the people’ frame will be crucial, Roth said. They include lowering gas prices, lowering taxes, lowering hydro rates, ending hallway health care, and cleaning up Ontario’s finances. And Ford doubled down on them at a press conference with reporters after he won the election.

“We keep our promises,” he said. “What we say, we’re going to do. We’re not going to flip-flip, we have a clear mandate from the people and we want to make sure that over the next four years our mandate gets fulfilled.”

But how those all get done is far from clear.

“There’s lots of unknowns and far fewer knowns at this stage,” Cochrane said.

Trump and tariffs

While there’s a short but hefty list of challenges of his own making that Ford will have to tackle, likely the biggest one will be the one outside of his control.

Midway through the Ontario election campaign, U.S. President Donald Trump raised the spectre of imposing auto tariffs on Canada. That move would hit Ontario particularly hard and Trump doubled-down on the threat in the week after the election.

Ford has promised to stand “shoulder-to-shoulder” with Ottawa as the country faces an uncomfortably tense period in the American-Canadian trading relationship. While the steel tariffs already imposed on Canada hit Ontario particularly hard, auto tariffs would push the provincial economy over the edge.

Just as the trade war threatens to derail Ford’s government, it’s also overshadowing his own swearing-in ceremony. At the same time that Ford and his cabinet are scheduled to take the oath of office, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland will be releasing her government’s final list of retaliatory tariffs.

Lowering the price at the pump

During the campaign Ford said a one-two punch of ending cap-and-trade and cutting the gas tax would reduce the price at the pump by 10 cents. From that, 5.7 cents was to come from scrapping cap-and-trade and another 4.3 cents would come from cutting the tax.

Even if Ford successfully pulls Ontario out of the cap-and-trade market without adding costs to companies, the Federal government’s promise to replace it with a carbon tax makes it difficult for gas companies to pass on any savings.

[READ MORE: Ottawa to impose Ontario carbon tax when Ford scraps cap-and-trade]

“People here are going to be paying whether they pay it to the provincial government or the federal government,” Cochrane said.

Ensuring gas companies pass on any savings from the cut to the gas tax is another challenge. And it’s one that Ford has shown he’s aware of. He’s already twice made threats to gas companies that he’s watching them and wants to see them lower prices.

That is where Roth said a strong communications strategy will come into play. His warning to gas companies also served to remind voters about the role they play in the price at the pump.

Cutting hydro rates

Sky rocketing hydro rates were the Liberals’ Achilles heel and a key driver for voters wanting change.

Ford promised to keep the Liberals’ rate cut and add another 12 per cent. To do that he said he would return the dividend — that currently helps pay for government services — to rate payers. And he would cancel unspecified contracts.

Speaking to iPolitics during the election, University of Waterloo professor Jatin Nathwani said cancelling the contracts especially won’t be straight forward, because the Liberals had already taken a stab at that.

“The low hanging fruit on contracts has essentially been picked,” he said.

Roth said the complexity that comes with the Progressive Conservative plan to cut rates means even more focus will be put on the other plank of the hydro promise: firing the board and CEO.

“So long as there’s action” on one front, she said, it would breed goodwill with Ontarians if the government takes longer to lower rates.

But firing the board and CEO also isn’t as straightforward. According to an interview with Gowling’s Paul Harricks during the election, the government can fire the entire board but doesn’t have total control to replace it. And only the board controls the fate of the CEO.

The Ford government will be able to replace 40 per cent of the board, the remaining 60 per cent are appointed by Hydro One’s other shareholders but cabinet would have a veto on them.

If CEO Mayo Schmidt is fired following a change in control at the board his $6.2 million salary will be replaced with a $10.7 million severance.

Balancing the books

Ford promised to take a “modest” and “reasonable” approach to balancing the books, but said the budget would hit the black within his first mandate.

But other than pledging to hire external auditors and guaranteeing that no one would lose their job as a result of the efficiencies that he plans to find, Ford has given few details about how he plans to reach balance.

For Roth, the savings are the biggest unknown. People will be waiting with “bated breath,” she said, to see how Ford starts to balance the books.

Looking at the books was the first order of business Ford gave reporters after his election win. “The most important thing is getting our fiscal house in order,” he said.

The auditor general says the province’s deficit is nearing $12 billion. While Ford reins in that spending, he’s also promised to axe how much the government brings in by implementing a corporate tax cut, middle class tax cut and minimum wage tax cut over the next few years.

Ending hallway health care

Ford’s election promise to “cut hospital wait times and put an end to hallway health care” included a plan to build 15,000 new long-term care beds over five years and invest $1.9 billion in mental health over 10 years.

His spokesperson Melissa Lantsman also said during the campaign that a PC government would increase hospital budgets by at least four per cent each year. That promise was not outlined in the Tory campaign platform.

Add all of those promises up and Cochrane said Ford will be forced to make “tough decisions” on which promises he delivers on and who he ends up alienating. “It’s just not clear yet what folks he’s going to alienate first,” he said.