Doug Ford clearly subscribes to Adlai Stevenson’s maxim: “If they will stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling the truth about them.”

It’s unlikely Ontario’s Premier and one-time U.S. Presidential nominee ever met: Stevenson slipped the mortal coil when Ford was still in nappies, somewhere in deepest Etobicoke. But has Ford ever had a late-night encounter with the waifish ghost of Stevenson in the stately halls of Queen’s Park? Likely. Almost certain.

Ford’s ad featuring Ronald Reagan tilting against tariffs, in his modulated, resonate baritone, is straight out of the Adlai Stevenson ad playbook: it tells the truth, and nothing but the truth, and it works.

Ford scrummed about it the other day, and he told my colleague Brian Lilley his 60-second spot was “the most successful ad in the history of North America.” That may be a bit of an overstatement, but not by much. The resulting Lilley-Ford exchange is one for the ages, like Ali-Holmes, but with less bloodshed.

“If this is the most successful ad in North American history, what does failure look like?” a bemused Lilley hollered at Ford after Question Period.

“I’ll tell you, Brian, that we had over a billion impressions around the world, and what we did, we generated a conversation that wasn’t happening in the U.S.,” Ford said, without breaking stride.

“Now, every single local media, every large media, medium-sized media, in the U.S. is talking about it. So is every governor, senator and congressman and woman, not only nationally, but statewide. And the message was very clear, protectionism does not work.”

Not everyone agreed. Ontario Liberal MPP John Fraser, now in contention for the Stupidest Political Critique of 2025, said Ford concocted the now-legendary ad to “make him look good,” and that it was “doing damage.”

But that’s the point of political advertising, Johnny: to do damage. Trust me on this – I’ve actually written a book about political advertising (The War Room, now in its third printing and helpfully available at all fine booksellers near you, etc. Remember Christmas/Hanukkah is coming, folks.).

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Mark Carney has been Prime Minister of Canada for more than seven months, now. In politics, that represents several lifetimes.

So, the past few months have given us lots of time to learn about the political strengths and weaknesses of the former banker.

His main strengths are obvious: he’s intelligent, he’s experienced, he’s calm, and he’s not Justin Trudeau or Donald Trump.

But Carney’s personal shortcomings have become evident, too. There are five. Arrogance; under-delivering; contradictions; fuzziness; Ottawa-washed. All five weaknesses were seen in his Wednesday night State of the Union-style speech to the nation (which reminded us of another failing: he has a fetish for glitzy American-style governance.)

My take, as a former speechwriter to a guy who became Prime Minister: much of the speech reads like as first-year university history lecture. But much of it tells a story – about the man.

Arrogance. Arrogance, conceit, solipsism, condescension: whatever you call it, it all represents the thing that always defeats Liberals. In his 3,000-word and too-long speech, Carney showed flashes of that: on the future, Carney actually said he and his government are “going to give it back to you.”

Really? We don’t have a future unless and until Mark Carney “gives” us one? The forthcoming budget, meanwhile, “will be about…winning.” Charlie Sheen might approve of that sort of mission statement, but history is littered with the metaphorical remains of politicians who promised “winning” – and then only delivered the opposite.

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I have to say the antisemites still have the capacity to surprise me.

I thought I could usually predict what they’d do next. But, since the ceasefire brokered by Donald Trump, they’ve surprised me.

Writing a book about their global campaign (The Hidden Hand, out in February) and being the centre of a documentary about that (The Campaign, ditto), I had studied them enough to know they didn’t love Palestine. In truth, they hated Israel.

But, I give them grudging credit: they were pretty good at disguising that. They probably seemed authentic to a lot of witless people – in the media, in government, in unions, in academia, amongst Gen Z and Millennials.

But I know what campaigns look like – and it was a campaign. And, like just about every campaign, it had a glossy and impressive exterior, designed to obscure a darker and uglier objective at the center. In their case, it was isolating, delegitimizing and then eliminating the Jewish state. Destabilizing Western democracy, too.

They’d slip, occasionally. Lying about casualties, lying about famines, lying about what Hamas and its legions really are. But, most of the time, their campaign was very effective and efficient. They didn’t make a lot of mistakes.

You can see the proof in public opinion research. Throughout the West, polls now show majorities or near-majorities believe Israel is a genocidal, fascist, white supremacist state, bent on the utter destruction of a powerless dark-skinned minority. Like apartheid South Africa.

They were greatly assisted, of course, by Israel’s total inability to tell its own story. Too many Israelis have convinced themselves that their lot in life is to be hated by everyone, so they just take it. They shouldn’t, but they do.

And, so, the global antisemitic campaign was winning – exceeding the expectations of even those who were behind it (Iran, the campaign manager; Qatar, the banker; a web of NGOs, charities and non-profits staffing it all – and Hamas and its cabal, of course, providing muscle.)

Anyway. All that changed with the (unlikely, unexpected) Trump-devised ceasefire. The curtain was pulled back on the evil Wizard of Oz. We got to see who they really are.

Around the world, however, the protests have continued – even though there was a real, actual ceasefire in place. Even though Israel did everything they demanded.

The haters didn’t celebrate that. They just kept on hating Israel.

And, of course, they said nothing – literally nothing – about the orgy of murder Hamas has unleashed on the innocent Palestinian people they had once professed to care about. They said, and did, nothing.

So, like I say: I didn’t expect to see them get sloppy. I didn’t expect a campaign as disciplined and as well-organized as theirs to stumble, and for the mask to slip. To show everyone who they really are – which is Jew-hating bastards who don’t give a sweet damn about Palestinians.

That’s who they are, that’s who they’ve always been.

But now they’ve revealed themselves, so that all can look ant them and see.

So: look.

It’s important.

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“Know the star you are. And see yourself as part of a galaxy.”

So sayeth the Mother of All Influencers, the Hashtag Highness, the Rich Stick Insect, Paris Hilton. Paris – who I met at a Super Bowl Playboy party in Texas once, full disclosure, and who couldn’t put two words together without a team of ghost-writers – is right, says a new report.

Influencers – at least in Canada, and at least in respect of politics – are the new galactic stars, says a report written by assorted tall foreheads. Influencers rule, dude. They slay.

The detailed, 80-page report, which had many big words in it, was authored by the Canadian Digital Media Research Network, with the assistance of some brainy people at the McGill University and University of Toronto-led Media Ecosystem Observatory. Its main conclusion can be stated thusly:

Influencers had a bigger impact on the 2025 Canadian federal general election than the mainstream media and the politicians and political parties put together.

Like, way more.

The report found that influencers produced almost half, 47 per cent, of the political content that pinged around the Internet during the election. News organizations made up only 28 per cent, and politicians a piddly 18 per cent. Ouch.

Way back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, and when Stockwell Day allegedly interacted with them, the mainstream media dominated the discourse. So, too, politicians and political parties, who spent truckloads of dough on ads. Not anymore.

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Here.

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My Daisy Group email has been hacked. Please don’t open it. Apologies.

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