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AGAR: Plane old advice was needed for Doug Ford's jet purchase

Premier let his opponents control the narrative by not announcing it in advance

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Ontario Premier Doug Ford scored an own goal — and it was so unnecessary.  

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Every criticism of the province buying a plane was predictable.  

AGAR: Plane old advice was needed for Doug Ford's jet purchase Back to video

Since it was predictable, why weren’t those objections considered and either listened to in the first place, or mitigated against in a planning session?  

It was announced mere days ago that the province had purchased a jet. No one saw that coming. There was no case made ahead of time and before Ford could get out ahead of the story, his enemies framed it as a personal jet for a tone-deaf politician who doesn’t see that people are having hard times financially.  

Could the auditor general have made the case that spending money on charter jets was less efficient than having our own plane?  

Could the government have realized that it was likely to be called the gravy plane?  

Could Ford have predicted that people would drag up the statement he made years ago, saying he was proud that he was the only premier not using a private plane?  

I think the answer is ‘Yes’ to all of that.  

Ford has people on his team who could game-play out that scenario and either have decided not to start that fire in the first place or have taken the time to get the message worked out and announced.  

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So, why was there no defence?  

Why was there not an earlier announcement that they were thinking of it?  

Jet may have made sense from a cost perspective

Could a case be made for the jet?  

Last week, I talked to aviation expert John Tory Jr. about whether it could be cheaper in the long run to own the plane.  

He said, “It can be cheaper. Corporations ask, do we buy a jet or charter one? There also isn’t always one available when you need a charter.”   

He added, “But I do think this was a good purchase.”   

It isn’t up to Tory and me to make the case for Ford. He needed experts lined up ahead of time to make that case and to be there with him at a press conference to do so.  

Now, of course, the premier has backed down, saying he will sell the jet.   

I could see immediately when the plane made the news that my text board was filled with people who did not take a minute to consider whether the purchase was a good one.  

They just hate Ford and he gave them what they wanted — a chance to attack.  

No case was built before purchase.  

Jet purchase probably won’t cost Ford come election time

Will it hurt him politically?  

By the time we get to another election, this may all be forgotten.   

I guess that was the ultimate decision.  

Even if he sells it now at a loss, the story will be three years old and we will have different concerns at election time.  

Ford is a populist politician and that works to some extent.  

But when some political people said from the get-go that the purchase might be a good one, but wouldn’t play politically, I have to wonder why someone in the premier’s office, if not Ford himself, didn’t pick up the phone and call some of them two months ago.  

All he has now is a win by his opponents. 

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