Why Doug Ford's election campaign media strategy works for the Ontario PCs
CBC
The decision by the Ontario PC election campaign team to limit Doug Ford's exposure to questions from journalists simply boils down to risk versus reward.
It's a calculation that politicians make in every encounter with the news media, but at election time the stakes for the parties are higher.
As the incumbents, with a comfortable nine-point lead (according to the CBC News Ontario Poll Tracker), the Progressive Conservatives calculate that the risks posed by Ford facing prolonged questioning from reporters far outweigh the potential rewards.
It's why Ford's handlers keep his appearances to the tight "one question, one follow-up" format established during his more than 200 pandemic news conferences. It reduces the chance that Ford gets confronted with an unexpected question and has to venture into unscripted territory.
"What he needs to do, and what his campaign is probably relying on, is to run a disciplined and cautious campaign where you're not making mistakes, where you're not creating some sort of story," said Karman Wong, founder of KPW Communications.
"How do you do that safely? You don't give [the media] any opportunity to watch you fumble." said Wong, who served as a media adviser to former Liberal premier Dalton McGuinty and worked as a TV host and reporter in Toronto.
WATCH| Ford faces questions about why he's not more available to reporters:
Given his lead in the polls, Ford doesn't actually need to be making splashy news headlines every day. In fact, his campaign likely benefits from not being the story.
Ford held no scheduled media events for three straight days this week, including skipping out on reporters' questions after the northern Ontario leaders' debate.
When Ford re-emerged on Thursday and was challenged on ducking the media, he responded with an inaccurate account of his campaign news conferences.
"I've been in front of the press seven times out of eight days," Ford said in Kitchener. "I think that's a pretty good percentage."
Thursday was the ninth day of the campaign, and media covering Ford were given notice of news conferences on just six of those days.
The Progressive Conservatives are "replaying a playbook that worked very well for them last time," said Karl Baldauf, vice-president of McMillan Vantage Policy Group and a former chief of staff in the Ford government.
"They want to have a focused message that they repeat ad nauseum ... and they don't want to be knocked off that course," Baldauf said in an interview.
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