Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles is adamantly refusing to apologize to Premier Doug Ford after she remarked this week that Ford could ultimately end up in prison.
On Monday, Stiles addressed reporters about the Ford government’s changes to Freedom of Information (FOI) laws — something Stiles alleges Ford pushed through in order to hide “dirty dealings” related to the Greenbelt scandal.
The FOI changes, which passed as part of the government’s omnibus budget bill, shield Ford and cabinet members from public access to documents, including the premier’s cellphone records.
“Don’t worry about it Doug, because when I’m premier, I’m going to call a public inquiry into all of this and we’re going to get our hands on all of that, and you know what, maybe you won’t get another mandate because you’ll be in prison, Doug,” Stiles said to aghast reporters.
When one stunned reporter asked, “What?” Stiles didn’t hesitate to double down.
“I think that when we call a public inquiry … I think a lot of terrible stuff is going to come out. Why is the premier hiding all of this information from the people of Ontario, why doesn’t he want anyone to know what’s on his phone? Because there’s dirty dealings around the Greenbelt. The RCMP is investigating him, and I would be very surprised if at the end of this, there might very well be charges laid, absolutely.”
Ford was asked about Stiles’ bold prediction that he’d end up being bars, and responded by accusing her of echoing the sort of immature insults often slung by U.S. President Donald Trump.
“Well, that Trump-style rhetoric is unacceptable as far as I’m concerned,” Ford said.
“She doesn’t have to apologize, whatever she wants to do, but we aren’t going to lower ourselves to the Trump-style rhetoric that she’s spewing right now.”
When Ford was asked if he was also partly responsible for setting a combative political tone at Queen’s Park, he admitted that things can sometimes get heated among rivals, but maintained that Stiles took things too far.
“Inside the legislature words get said,” Ford remarked. “But that one was over the top and yes we go back and forth, but she stepped over the line.”
Stiles, meanwhile, said it was “rich” for Ford to accuse her of being “Trumpian” and replied, “absolutely not” when asked if she owed the premier an apology.
“They are clutching their pearls, when this very government is under RCMP criminal investigation for matters related to the Greenbelt for these dirty deals they made with developers behind closed doors and they’ve gone so far as to change the laws of this province to protect themselves,” Stiles fired back.
In October 2023, the RCMP formally launched an investigation into the Ford government’s decision to open up protected Greenbelt lands for development.
Ford eventually reversed the controversial plan in September 2023, calling it a “mistake.”
Ontario created the Greenbelt in 2005 to protect agricultural and environmentally sensitive lands in the Greater Golden Horseshoe area from development.