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In the popular imagination, Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s favourite negotiating tool is a sledge hammer, but it’s interesting to see the successful and relatively subtle way that he managed to spike a plan by Google to grab much of Toronto’s undeveloped waterfront and turn it into a test lab at significant taxpayer expense.

Google subsidiary Sidewalk Labs wanted to develop up to 190 acres of waterfront land. Considering that the company had originally responded to a Waterfront Toronto request to develop only 12 acres, it was a pretty nervy ask.

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tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Randall Denley: Doug Ford’s taxpayers-first approach saved Toronto from Sidewalk Labs' grandiose plan Back to video

It’s fair to say that the much more modest proposal approved by Waterfront Toronto this week would not have become reality had Ford not replaced the province’s representatives on the board and taken a strong public stand against Sidewalk Labs’ grandiose plan.

Andrew MacLeod, the chief executive of Postmedia Network Inc., which owns the National Post, is a member of the board of directors of Waterfront Toronto.