I’m back in Macleans with a new piece on the art of the flip-flop, published May 17, 2018. As one person said who reviewed the piece before I submitted: “I never thought you would praise Doug Ford… though this piece is about as back-handed as praise can get.”  I’m alright with that.

An excerpt:

Ford’s most prominent flip-flop came on the issue of selling off portions of Ontario’s Greenbelt—an area of protected land closed to development outside Toronto and its surrounding suburbs. With much fanfare, the Liberals released a secret video recording of Doug Ford addressing a closed-door meeting of developers in which he committed to opening up “a big chunk” of the greenbelt for new housing construction so that more supply could drive down the cost of buying a home. “That’s my plan for affordable housing,” Ford said.

When confronted by media, Ford later promised to replace any areas he opened to development with new Greenbelt-protected land.

Faced with a barrage of negative headlines and an outcry from pro-Greenbelt residents in the 905 suburbs—a battleground area this election where all parties are fighting to win a spate of newly created ridings—Ford flip-flopped, saying:

“Unequivocally, we won’t touch the Greenbelt. Unlike other governments that don’t listen to the people, I’ve heard it loud and clear: people don’t want me touching the Greenbelt? We won’t touch the Greenbelt. We’ll figure out how to clean up this housing mess—this housing crisis—that we’re facing in a different fashion. All my friends, I’ve listened to you. You don’t want me touching the Greenbelt, we won’t touch the Greenbelt.”

He released the video statement on Twitter, speaking as if in an interview, into a “Ford Nation Live” microphone—the online news channel created by his campaign.

Just like that, the flip-flop was complete. And Ford seems to have weathered the storm.