What to know
- Ontario Premier Doug Ford held a press conference on Monday where he made some questionable comments about the OSAP protesters and the air cadet incident.
- Ford also joked about his inability to do a cartwheel, resting the blame on his big gut.
- The premier is currently in hot water with students and educators after cutting non-repayable grants and ending the seven-year tuition freeze.
It’s been zero days since Doug Ford put his foot in his mouth at a press conference.
While speaking at a news conference in Peterborough, Ont. on affordable housing initiatives on Monday, Ontario’s premier made several off-colour comments regarding issues that Ontarians have faced over the past two weeks.
Ford spoke about the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) protestors, likening them to “sheep” who should be “thanking the government.”
The premier also gave unsolicited parenting advice to the two youngsters who assaulted an Air Cadets supervisor and lamented his inability to do a cartwheel.
Here’s every out-of-pocket comment Ford made during his news conference.
“A big gut like this”
Once again, Ford voiced his frustration with United States President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada and his support for Prime Minister Mark Carney to make “the right deal.” He says he and Carney are in sync that no deal is better than a bad deal.
Ford also expressed his happiness with the U.S. Midterm election results, telling reporters that he tried — and failed — to do a cartwheel.
“I tried to do cartwheels but my arms, they gave out. A big gut like this is very hard to do cartwheels.”
“They all run out like sheep”
Ford clearly isn’t a fan of seeing students protest his government’s OSAP cuts. When asked by a reporter what he thought about last week’s province-wide Hands Off Our Education protest, he called them “sheeps.”
“I think some of these kids, they get on the social media — and we got some bright, bright young people…but some kids, they read the social media, and half of the people are a bunch of looney tunes, and it’s crazy,” he laments.
“They say ‘okay, let’s all run out’ and they all run out like sheep.”
For context, students from more than a dozen universities and colleges — including Toronto Metropolitan University, University of Toronto and York University — walked out of class on Thursday to fight back against cuts to OSAP grants and tuition hikes.
@nowtoronto Thousands of post-secondary students across Ontario, including students at U of T, walked out of class today in a province-wide protest against recent OSAP changes introduced by the Ford government. #onpoli ♬ original sound – Now Toronto
The maximum portion of non-repayable grants were cut from 85 per cent to 25 per cent and the government ended a seven-year tuition freeze, giving schools the green light to increase fees by two per cent a year for the next three years.
“We’re putting in millions and millions of dollars and these kids are so naive,” Ford added.
“Give your heads a shake, kids. Focus on getting a job of the future. Focus on STEM. Focus on healthcare.”
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“A little ass-whooping”
Ford is apparently a supporter of corporal punishment because he suggested an “ass-whooping” for the teen boys who blew an air horn at a group of Air Cadets in Hamilton earlier this month.
The two teens targeted the cadets and their supervisor, 59-year-old Canadian army member Kenneth Kunkel, who were handing out poppies in front of a restaurant. Kunkel was later physically assaulted by a woman and is currently unable to walk.
“These little cadets that want to be future armed forces, that get beaten up for selling poppies? It’s absolutely disgusting. By a bunch of older kids? Where are the parents by the way? The parents should be ashamed they raised their kids to beat up cadets,” Ford exclaimed to reporters.
“You’ve got to be kidding. Disgusting behaviour. I hope the parents are listening, you should give your kids a little ass-whooping in the wood shed as far as I’m concerned.”
