This is the mercifully final 2025 Ontario provincial election edition of Doorstep Postings, the periodic political commentary column written by Josh Lieblein for The CJN.

Premiers’ Performance: Re-election rebounds for Moe and Houston, Legault finishes year on downward trendhttps://t.co/vDIF9rU7l0 pic.twitter.com/SQVPywj8Cs

The man who just led his party to a third consecutive majority government in Ontario is not actually popular. He just got his highest number of seats ever, but in no way, in no respect, could he be called popular. Literally every other premier in Confederation is more popular than Doug Ford! Don’t confuse the issue by pointing out that what matters is whether Doug Ford is more popular than other politicians in Ontario, not how he stacks up next to premiers of other provinces. Doug Ford may be first in the seat count, but he’ll always be last in our hearts.

I got this attack ad on IG which I thought was in really poor taste…definitely doesn’t reflect well on her or the OLP pic.twitter.com/vKbpE1FAnR

And because Ford is not, has never been, and never will be popular, the election that just passed was not a slam dunk for Ford all the way through. Just because the polls refused to budge no matter how many bozo eruptions passed Ford’s lips, no matter how many times the still-unelected Liberal leader Bonnie Crombie commented on the premier’s balls or his lack thereof, no matter how much Ford cynically avoided the media, doesn’t mean that political observers didn’t rise each morning full of renewed hope that this was the day Doug’s rising negatives were going to catch up with him. And even after it became too obvious to ignore the fact that his negatives were not going to catch up with him during this campaign or anytime in the near future, these selfsame observers switched effortlessly to the narrative of the ‘progressive primary’, spinning out wild narratives about which ridings would be retaken by the forces of good through extremely strategic vote splits.

“This is not an inexperienced team,” one insider said. “They all have either had historic losses at the federal level, or they’ve been around the party for a long time. There’s no excuse for the mistakes they’re making" #onpoli

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