Doug Ford smiled weakly as loud boos rained down on him on Monday from many of the 80,000 people at the Raptors’ victory celebration at Toronto City Hall.

The Ontario premier maintained his stoic grin a minute later as huge cheers greeted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who Ford despises.

It was the third time in recent weeks that Ford has been the target of widespread booing. The first occurred at the opening of the Special Olympics at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, an event filled with children, and the second at the Collision international high-tech conference, an event filled with entrepreneurs and business people.

For Ford, the jeers are particularly unnerving because, despite his reputation as a tough guy and a bully, he’s really a man with an insatiable hunger to be liked — or even to be loved.

Importantly, Ontarians need to understand Ford’s desire to be liked because it has a profound impact on how he governs, how he reacts to criticism and how he deals with people.

You see it in his need to have young Queen’s Park staffers rounded up to applaud his utterances, in his need to feed off his political rallies, such as this weekend’s “Ford Fest” and in his erratic decisions to first implement, then suddenly reverse, some of his unpopular political decisions.

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Ford’s deep desire to be liked is in sharp contrast to the character of former Ontario premier Mike Harris and former prime minister Stephen Harper, who seemingly didn’t care at all what voters thought of them.

Ford’s late brother Rob, the former mayor of Toronto, was a big, lovable type of guy who was liked by wide segments of Toronto residents despite his personal issues with drugs and booze. Doug Ford has never reached that level.

Hundreds of people booed Premier Doug Ford at the opening ceremonies of the Special Olympics at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

Ford’s need to be liked is strikingly similar to the personality of U.S. President Donald Trump, who seeks the love of the crowd, especially at his political rallies, and seeks the blessing of major media and New York society, much of which can’t stand him.

Like Trump, Ford’s hunger to be liked is a defining element of his personality. That can be a good thing, but it can also be a bad thing when times get tough, which they clearly are now for Ford.

In an article in Psychology Today magazine, Ryne Sherman, a former professor of psychology at Florida University, analyzed Trump’s personality and behaviours, which closely mirror those of Ford. Sherman looked at the bright and dark sides of Trump’s personality and described how they play out in day-to-day interactions.

For Trump, it means he can appear calm under pressure and won't take criticism personally, but actually is reluctant to listen to criticism. He likes to be the centre of attention and to talk a lot, but is also unwilling to listen and is overbearing. He has lots of ideas, but has trouble implementing them and can be unpredictable.

Already Ford is displaying such signs of unpredictability. His flip-flops on issues ranging from housing on the Green Belt to autism funding, safe injection sites and immediate cuts to public health funding are indications of a politician not so much as listening to public criticism of his policies, but rather to criticism of him personally.

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Sherman also says people with this type of personality are impulsive, are self-promoting, easily angered, intimidate others and overestimate their abilities. Describes Ford, don’t you think?

Like Trump, Ford’s political rallies are critical for him. He thrives on the love of the crowd, as he will at “Ford Fest” on Saturday at the Markham fairgrounds.

His hunger for applause contributes to his need to believe that while his poll numbers are down — and they show his popularity plunging and now lower than even those of former premier Kathleen Wynne on the eve of last June’s election — he still rules a huge, loving base of followers, namely Ford Nation.

That’s why Ford’s office is “urging” all Conservative MPPs to promote the event widely so it will be packed with adoring Ford fans — and become a safe space for the man who hungers to be loved.

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