Earlier this month we learned that Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government will adjourn for a very long summer break.

While the legislature usually gets going again after Labour Day, Ford’s government will resume activity in the House in late October, a week after Canada’s federal election.

Why?

Some believe that Premier Ford is trying to make himself scarce in the lead-up to the federal election, so that his unpopularity won’t rub off on PM hopeful Andrew Scheer. After all, a lot of Canadians still don’t know who Andrew Scheer is. The Ford brand, on the other hand, is a strong one.

But maybe Scheer would like to distance himself from a brand that is currently failing.

According to a new poll released by Mainstreet Research, Ford’s favourability ratings sit below “those of Kathleen Wynne’s at the end of her tenure.” The poll indicates the Ontario PCs are currently less popular than both the provincial Liberals and the provincial NDP.

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It turns out our premier may have overestimated how much Ontarians care about beer. Hint: a lot less than they care about health care and education.

This chilly public reception could explain the extended legislative break.

In the words of provincial NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, speaking to media recently, “Either Mr. Ford wants to be available to campaign for (federal Conservative Leader) Andrew Scheer, or Andrew Scheer’s asking Doug Ford to hide under a rock during the federal campaign.”

But if the latter is true, the premier is doing a poor job of laying low.

You may recall that he was present at this week’s historic championship parade, when hundreds of thousands of people flooded the streets of downtown Toronto to celebrate the NBA champions: our very own Toronto Raptors.

Despite a shooting that injured four people and terrified many more, the day was an overall happy one, and the event itself a clear contradiction to the popular myth that Toronto is a cold city in both temperature and attitude. Yesterday we were warm to our team and warm to each other. We were not, however, warm to Doug Ford.

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We booed him. Of course most politicians provoke boos in some number at large public events, but watch the footage of the stage at Nathan Phillips Square on Monday. Ford’s introduction is met with a thundering chorus of boos.

No, Toronto didn’t go wild for Mayor John Tory or Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — but they didn’t overwhelmingly heckle them either. The same can’t be said for Ford, who looked, to me, a little crestfallen as he walked onto the stage. And perhaps, a little surprised.

I don’t mean to suggest he was surprised that there are people out there who don’t like him — I’m sure Ford knows this well. But I wonder, rather, if he was surprised that these people, in particular, didn’t like him.

I wonder if he was startled to get the cold shoulder in a setting in which populists are usually at ease.

After all, this wasn’t a Toronto Pride event or an education conference. This was a sports parade. And at the risk of stereotyping my fellow man, sports parades are not where you find hundreds of thousands of “latte-sipping urban elites” — i.e. the demographic Doug Ford loves to antagonize — and which we would expect to boo him.

A sports parade is where you find, in large numbers, exactly the kind of voter Doug Ford courts: suburbanites, rowdy bros, families who TTC’d from all over to catch a glimpse of the Klaw. Anecdotally, I can tell you that I saw people from every stage and facet of my life post footage of the parade (and yes, I am from the suburbs).

A theme present in Raptors playoff coverage in this paper and others is diversity. The Raptors fan base is an extremely diverse one, we’re told, in every single way a group of people can be diverse.

On Monday we saw the diversity of this group in all its champagne-drenched glory.

And it’s true: a lot of different kinds of people love the Toronto Raptors.

Also true: a lot of different kinds of people don’t like Doug Ford.

For Andrew Scheer’s sake, he’d better get back under that rock.

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