Scott Stinson: Doug Ford says he’s not endorsing Olivia Chow for mayor, and if it sounds like he did, he’s taking it back

What are words, anyway, and what do they mean?

We are left to ponder these existential questions after the events of this week, when Ontario Premier Doug Ford almost-but-not-quite endorsed Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow in her re-election campaign and then, a day and a half later, said he had done no such thing.

By Friday morning, Ford had found a predictable source for the confusion: the media, which had incorrectly interpreted his words as meaning what they are generally accepted to mean.

Along the way, we received some insight into the curious politics of the Toronto mayoral race, where various Tory operatives are helping Brad Bradford in his campaign to defeat Chow, who Ford once feared would be a “disaster” for the city but who he has since come to like. So much so that it seems to have gotten him into some trouble.

Let us recap: On Wednesday morning, at a press event at a biomedical facility in North York with a passel of politicians present, Mark McAllister of CityNews asked Chow about progress on a new funding deal between the city and the province and also asked Ford for his thoughts on the mayoral race, while noting that he “had not endorsed anyone to this point.” (Questions are limited at these events, so the double-barrelled query is a veteran move.)

Ford responded that he had “a phenomenal relationship” with Chow. He said phenomenal again, in case anyone missed it the first time. “We’re going to continue supporting the mayor. She’s doing an incredible job,” he said. “So, read between the lines.”

This was dutifully reported as an effective endorsement or a quasi-endorsement, and other things along those lines. (I wrote in that day’s column that it was “not an endorsement, exactly,” but “close.”)

Perhaps some media outlets dropped some of those qualifiers in follow-up reports, but you know who definitely did? The campaign for Brad Bradford, which hissed in a statement that “of course the premier endorsed Olivia Chow” because “she’s the easiest negotiation he has ever had.” It went on to say that she “handed over on a silver platter” things she had vowed to oppose.

Hmm. The Bradford campaign, having positioned itself as the conservative alternative to the left-wing Chow, would naturally be dismayed by Ford’s enthusiastic statements in support of the mayor. For that matter, so might be Chow’s campaign, whose NDP backers and donors could not have been thrilled by the notion that Ford thinks she’s such a great partner. The premier, after all, has views on a range of policies — bike lanes, speed cameras, bail reform, harm reduction, homeless encampments — that would send many NDP supporters straight to the fainting couch.

And so, by Thursday evening the Premier’s Office was out with a statement, attributed to a spokesperson: ““We would like to clarify that Premier Ford did not endorse Olivia Chow and will not endorse any candidate in the Toronto mayoral race,” it said. 

I mean …. What?

While his answer to McAllister’s question was not technically an endorsement, and, again, widely reported as such, what else was “read between the lines” supposed to mean? The premier might as well have said, “I’m not endorsing Ms. Chow” and then given a theatrical wink while pointing in her direction.

I’ll confess that in the moment I was surprised by Ford’s effusiveness on the Chow question. While he’s often said he gets along well with her despite their obvious partisan differences, she did oversee a steep Toronto tax hike of the kind that usually gets smoke coming out of his ears. And there’s much less policy daylight between Ford and Bradford, even setting aside the crossover between some of their advisers and aides. Talking up the phenomenal relationship with, and the bang-up job being performed by your ideological opponent was, at the very least, curious. He could have just said some version of “I wish them all luck and look forward to working with whoever voters choose.”

But by Friday morning Ford was ready to offer yet more clarification to follow his Thursday disavowal. Appearing on Newstalk 1010, where he was interviewed by guest host John Tory (yes, that one), Ford said that he wasn’t endorsing anyone in the mayoral race and if he did he would come right out and say it.

The media, the premier said, took that “read between the lines” thing that he said and just, you know, “ran with it.”

Which is true, if you take “ran with it” to mean “interpreted the phrase as it is commonly interpreted.”

Apologies for using the hoary old device of citing a definition, but the Cambridge Dictionary says the idiom “read between the lines” refers to finding “meanings that are intended but not directly expressed.”

And so, “we support the mayor” and “she’s doing an incredible job,” amid a mayoral campaign. What meaning could possibly be intended here but not directly expressed? 

It remains a mystery, I guess.

National Post

sstinson@postmedia.com