10 things Doug Ford said the morning after cruising to another majority government
Doug Ford addressed reporters at the Toronto Congress Centre on Friday morning, fresh off being handed a second majority government by voters.
The premier reflected on his big electoral win, which saw his part improve upon their seat count from 2018, and then delved into what Ontarians can expect from a re-elected Progressive Conservative government.
Here are 10 highlights:
His message to Andrea Horwath and Steven Del Duca following their resignations
"To Andrea, thank you for your years of service to the people of Ontario. Let there be no doubt that you wake up every day ready to fight for what you believe in. You have the courage of your convictions. And to Stephen, you have dedicated your life to public service and while we may not have agreed on everything I know you want nothing but the best for Ontario’s future."
On the budget that his government tabled in April but never actually passed
"I think when it comes to the budget, you're going to see something very similar, if not almost identical. We worked hard on that budget and we're going to move that forward. Maybe there will be a couple of tweaks here and there but for the most part we put our budget in front of the people and we ran on our budget and we're going to stick to that."
On the Liberals making gains in their share of the popular vote while only capturing one new seat
"I think this system has worked for over 100 and some odd years and it is going to continue to work that way. But I'm just so proud of the coalition (that voted PC). There's a lot of people that never voted for us that voted for us this this time. I know the makeup of our party right across the province and the Progressive Conservative Party, we've changed the landscape. We've changed the landscape across the country. I'm so proud of getting endorsed by the private sector unions. You know, you look at our party today versus four years ago, it's very, very different."
On whether he will reconsider legislation capping public sector wage increases at one per cent
"I'm a strong believer when you get inflation, we have got to treat people fairly. I guess a couple of these agreements lapse and I think it's August is the first one so we're going to sit down and negotiate fairly with no matter what union it is. But I'm a strong believer of being fair with the people. They're out there working hard, doing a great job, and we rely on them. So I'm very grateful for everyone, especially the nurses."
On crafting a new cabinet
"While we're just going to sit down with our with our team and run through all the new members, I think there's 17 new members from different regions, and we're going to sit down and look at every single region, look at every person's skill level. We just have a fabulous, fabulous team. We were able to get to know each other over the last four years and the new candidates I got to know over the last little while. We have a really, really incredible group of women and men and I am just so grateful for all their hard work."
"Well, we have to make sure that we're competitive and before I took office four years ago, we were non-competitive. We chased 300,000 jobs out. You have to create the environment for companies to come here and thrive and prosper and grow. And when companies thrive and prosper make no mistake about it, their employees thrive, prosper and grow. We create this climate where you can be an entrepreneur and open your own business. So we're going to have the most competitive jurisdiction anywhere in North America or in the world. We're competing against our friends in the U.S., over in Europe, over in South America, over in Asia. But we have the brightest and the best people anywhere in the world."
On creating ‘efficiencies in government’ and whether cuts are coming
"I'm a strong believer in lean methodologies, driving standardization process, making their job easier to get things done and getting rid of the red tape and a lot of the unnecessary regulations, duplications and regulations that the province has and the federal government has. There's so much room for efficiencies in government and I really encourage not only the province but the municipalities to drive efficiencies. Any government official that sits in front of this camera or any camera out there and says that they are running an efficient shop, while I'm sorry they aren't. There's always room for continuous improvement. We put a lean team together and what this does, it doesn't cut it drives efficiencies. Every major corporation that exists in the world looks at lean methodologies and there's always better ways at delivering services in a more efficient way at a lower cost. And that money that we save it can go right into healthcare, right into education."
On what Ontarians can expect from his government’s second term
"We're going to make sure we keep our promises going forward. And our promise is very clear. We're building Highway 413, we're building a Bradford bypass, we're building highways right across his entire province. We have 50 hospital projects to the tune of $40 billion that we're going to invest in. We're investing in new schools. We're going out there and spending $14 billion on building new schools. We're focusing on the infrastructure the tune of $158 billion. We're building Ontario."
On his phone call with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday night
"Both of us sat back and reviewed everything that we have got done together. There's so much that unites us, we can disagree on things we both know. But if you look at the largest subway build in North America right now, $30 billion, we worked together with the municipal and federal and provincial governments on that. There is childcare, which was a phenomenal deal, the electric vehicles, the electric batteries, there was just a whole raft of things that we chatted about last night that have been great for the country."
On whether he knows all the words to his now ubiquitous campaign jingle
"Honestly guys, you go to bed (after the election), I think I went to sleep at three or four in the morning – It wasn’t from partying, I was studying these numbers – and you do go to bed thinking of that song. It was pretty catchy. I will get you guys a copy of it."
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