The sudden transformation of Premier Doug Ford has been surprising, almost startling.

After taking a five-month break from the legislature and all but disappearing from public view during the federal election campaign, a new Ford emerged in late October, one finally ready to switch his Progressive Conservatives out of campaign mode to focus on governing. It was long past time to scrap the slogans and stickers and self-inflicted wounds that led to a shocking drop in popularity for a new premier and the barely year-old government he was leading.

Gone (for now, at least) is the man conservative strategist Melissa Lantsman, who led Ford's 2018 campaign war room, famously described as "a bull who brings his own china shop." Ford's damn-the-torpedoes first year can also be attributed to the fact the premier is a rookie MPP, and the Tories who elected him leader just weeks before the election spent 15 years in opposition.

Now we have thoughtful Ford, who fired his chief of staff following a patronage scandal and shuffled his cabinet, giving the young government time for a reset. Gone also are the standing ovations that followed every utterance by Ford or virtually any Progressive Conservative in the legislature, along with a lot of the hyperpartisan heckling of opposition MPPs.

A clear change in tone emerged after the federal campaign, during which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vilified Ford daily as evil incarnate, and was re-elected with a reduced Liberal minority. Ford calmly dismissed Trudeau's rhetoric as electoral politics, insisted it's never personal, and pointed out both their families have a long history in the game and developed pretty thick skins.

After their post-election meeting, Ford admitted he didn't raise Ontario's court fight against the federal carbon tax because he and Trudeau wanted to focus their initial talks on issues where they agree. He pointed out a lot of the same people in Ontario voted for both their parties and expect the two governments to get along. He is absolutely correct. Ford also said Canada must present a united face to the world, despite what he described as family disagreements.

Doug Ford as Captain Canada? He clearly sees an opening for a provincial leader to help with national unity following the divisive results of the federal vote, especially a premier from Ontario with its traditional role of playing peacemaker. Ford believes he can help bridge the differences Trudeau faces with other Conservative premiers, especially in the west, and stressed unity when all the provincial and territorial leaders met in Toronto, at his invitation, Dec. 2.

Ford has some very strong cabinet ministers, excellent communicators like Education Minister Stephen Lecce, Finance Minister Rod Phillips and Health Minister Christine Elliott, all of whom now have room to take the lead on key issues, instead of having the premier be the face of every issue the government faces.

He's still the premier who changed the rules of Toronto's municipal election midcampaign while threatening the nuclear option of the Constitutional notwithstanding clause if the courts ruled against him, the same leader who was forced to back down on cuts to municipalities for public health and daycare, and whose government truly screwed up its overhaul of autism funding.

His detractors, and there are many, complain Ford 2.0 still has the same slash-and-burn policies, and little concern for the environment. But, unwisely, they refuse to acknowledge this dramatic change in public persona could make the Progressive Conservatives a lot harder to keep to a one-term government. Being viewed as a player on the national scene while working with Trudeau to get transit built and address hallway health care could put Ford in position to do what Mike Harris did: win back-to-back PC majority governments.

Keith Leslie is a veteran Ontario journalist covering politics

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