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Video: What does Premier-elect Doug Ford lack? Competence, says former Tory cabinet minister Jim Gordon

Sudbury's former mayor sits down for no-holds-barred interview with Sudbury.com

Well, the provincial election is behind us and Doug Ford, leader of the Ontario PCs, is Ontario's premier-elect.

Ford's candidacy was divisive, both for his party and for voters. His personal popularity barely broke 40 per cent during the campaign, but those who like him, like him a lot. Those who don't, well ...

Not only did Ford campaign as a populist candidate, but also after being named leader following the outsting of Patrick Brown, who tried to drag the party to the centre before being brought down by allegations of sexual impropriety, he pushed the party farther to the right.

And it's his dragging of the Tories farther to the right that didn't sit well with some old-school PCers, those more in the Red Tory vein of former Ontario premier Bill Davis.

One of those old-school PCers is former Sudbury mayor Jim Gordon. Gordon was government services minister in the Frank Miller's short-lived PC government in 1985. 

Sudbury.com editor Mark Gentili sat down with Gordon before the June 7 election to talk about the Tories, the direction Doug Ford has taken the party and how the former cabinet minister feels when he looks at his party.

Gordon doesn't pull any punches. Questioning the competetence of Ford as a leader and politician, and the competetance of those who chose him, Gordon argued that what's best for Ontario, best for voters and best for business is a strong centrist government, not one that leans to far one way or the other.

Check out Gordon's comments in the video.


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