Doug Ford, neoliberal parliamentarism and oscillating majoritarianism

The use of constitutional tools to centralize power and undercut democratic decision-making processes

Abstract

Since becoming Premier of Ontario in 2018, Doug Ford has utilized the Westminster Parliamentary system and invocations of particular types of majoritarian politics to attempt to shield his government from accountability and critique. This article explores the use of majoritarian discourse and the specific legislative tools that the Ford government has used to further the neoliberalization of the Ontario state apparatus. This is represented by, but not limited to, The Better Local Democracy Act (2018) and the use of creatures of the province to impose a total restructuring of the City of Toronto’s democratic-decision making institutions and processes; the Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act (2022), which set an unparalleled centralization of power in municipal mayor’s offices in Toronto and Ottawa; and his unprecedented usage of the Notwithstanding Clause on two occasions, but particularly the Keeping Students in Class Act (2022) which overrode constitutionally protected collective bargaining and strike rights for CUPE education workers in Ontario. Utilizing a combination of what Ian Bruff (2014) describes as ‘authoritarian neoliberalism’ and Thomas McDowell (2019; 2021) refers to as “neoliberal parliamentarism,” this article argues that while seemingly very different cases that these pieces of legislation and the discourses to justify them are indicative of a turn towards an oscillating majoritarian and inverted majoritarian form of neoliberalization rooted in the idea of a specific form of executive parliamentary supremacy at multiple territorial levels of Canadian federalism and governance.