<html><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div class="ApplePlainTextBody"><div class="row" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-right: -15px; margin-left: -15px; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Merriweather Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><div class="tsArticleContainer metroland" data-lpos="asset|body" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div id="asset-content" data-asset-uuid="a7f33704-93d6-5f83-9c0a-f014eb50c38f" class="tsArticle hasSidebar clearfix" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; padding: 0px 105px;"><div class="asset-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; 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border-radius: 0px; border: 1px solid transparent;"><a href="https://www.therecord.com/news" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(104, 104, 104); text-decoration: none;">NEWS</a></span></div></div><div class="card-headline" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><h3 class="tnt-headline" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--font-daily-serif); font-weight: 400; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; font-size: 20px; word-spacing: -0.5px; letter-spacing: -0.25px;"><a href="https://www.therecord.com/news/crime/police-investigating-after-man-dies-in-shooting-and-woman-dies-suspiciously-in-kitchener/article_adc2dee5-62cb-55a2-8a18-62ed42b5a7c0.html?li_source=LI&li_medium=ymbii_top" class="tnt-asset-link" aria-label="Police investigating after man dies in shooting and woman dies suspiciously in Kitchener" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--content-text-color); text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s;">Police investigating after man dies in shooting and woman dies suspiciously in Kitchener</a></h3></div><div class="card-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><ul class="list-inline" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; list-style: none; margin-left: -5px; display: flex; align-items: center;"><li class="card-date" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; padding-right: 5px; padding-left: 5px; font-size: 12px; color: rgb(104, 104, 104); letter-spacing: 0.4px; line-height: inherit;"><time class="tnt-date asset-date text-muted" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">2 days ago</time></li></ul></div></div></div></article></div></div></section></div></div></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 97.169113px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); overflow-wrap: break-word;">Apparently I’m not the only one who’s noticed. Now, Ford seems to be taking the hint — asking and answering the question in his own way, perhaps shaping the preferred response pre-emptively:</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 70.110291px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); overflow-wrap: break-word;">“Mr. Speaker, is it better now than it was five years ago?” he asked rhetorically, before answering hyperbolically.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 124.227936px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); overflow-wrap: break-word;">“It’s not a little better; it’s not 10 per cent better; it’s a thousand times better on all fronts. It’s a thousand times better for the 30,000 homes we’re building in long-term care,” he said, winding up slowly. “We’re building the transit. We’re building 413, the Bradford Bypass. We’re building Highway 7 and Highway 3 …”</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 70.110291px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); overflow-wrap: break-word;">Asked and answered, albeit differently. Or more precisely, one simple question with two very different answers.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 97.169113px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); overflow-wrap: break-word;">If Crombie wants to keep asking the question in public, Ford won’t miss an opportunity to answer the opposition. Again last week he made the comparison to prove his point:</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 124.227936px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); overflow-wrap: break-word;">Ontarians “are going to ask themselves, ‘Is this province in better shape in 2026 than it was when we ran in 2018?’” the premier mused, moments after announcing the reinstatement of protected lands he’d so controversially removed from the Greenbelt last year.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 97.169113px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); overflow-wrap: break-word;">Having apologized for that Greenbelt blunder, he boasted that the province is “in a thousand times better shape for the people of Ontario — in every single aspect in every single ministry — than when we took office in 2018.”</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 101.176468px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); overflow-wrap: break-word;">No matter that two separate legislative watchdogs had condemned his government’s handling of the land scandal. Never mind that his personal ratings are sliding in the polls, while his party’s massive lead is on a downward trend.</p><div id="tncms-region-article_instory_middle" class="tncms-region hidden-print tsArticleRegion subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 20px; height: 0px; position: relative; width: 755px; right: 65px;"></div></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 97.169113px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); overflow-wrap: break-word;">This isn’t just two politicians shadowboxing in a phoney war far ahead of the next election. It may be the ballot question that Ontarians ask themselves when casting their votes.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 43.051468px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); overflow-wrap: break-word;">All that said, it’s not an original question.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 97.169113px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); overflow-wrap: break-word;">Ronald Reagan first raised it in the one and only <a href="https://www.hks.harvard.edu/publications/are-you-better-you-were-4-years-ago" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(5, 80, 200); text-decoration: none; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(216, 216, 216); transition: background-color 0.25s linear;">1980 presidential debate</a> to devastating effect, asking viewers about the presidency and legacy of an embattled Jimmy Carter: “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?”</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 97.169113px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); overflow-wrap: break-word;">Reagan delivered the line with an actor’s practised cadence, thought-provoking yet non-threatening. In its elegant simplicity, it cut through all the sloganeering by imposing a kind of political reckoning on the incumbent president.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 124.227936px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); overflow-wrap: break-word;">Perhaps that’s why Crombie is so enamoured of the question today, four decades later, as she tries to win support from her fellow Liberals in the leadership race that culminates on Dec. 2. The better question is why Ford thinks he can also profit from asking and answering it at one and the same time.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 97.169113px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); overflow-wrap: break-word;">Perhaps, as I suggested earlier, he’s just trying to get out ahead of it with a pre-emptive “reframing” of Crombie’s negative construct. The problem is that while it’s an easy question to ask, it’s an awfully hard one to answer.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 97.169113px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); overflow-wrap: break-word;">Parsing Ford’s words, they feel unpersuasive. It’s one thing to call attention to a single overarching achievement, or to claim a string of small victories or promises kept.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 124.227936px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); overflow-wrap: break-word;">But as Ford’s Tories brace for their third election, burdened by the baggage of broken promises and a Greenbelt blunder of their own making, the premier’s penchant for exaggeration seems extravagant. Rather than claiming measurable improvement, he boasts of immeasurable gains:</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 70.110291px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); overflow-wrap: break-word;">“It’s not a little better; it’s not 10 per cent better; it’s <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">a thousand times better on all fronts.”</em></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 97.169113px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); overflow-wrap: break-word;">That’s raising the bar awfully high. And it rings awfully false for people who are struggling with housing shortages, affordability challenges and declining confidence in the integrity of government after so many damning reports.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 97.169113px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); overflow-wrap: break-word;">Yet the premier will hear none of it, insisting he has achieved all of it: Ford has not just made life a bit better, but “a thousand times better … in <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">every single ministry.”</em></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 97.169113px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); overflow-wrap: break-word;">Would that include the ministry of housing and municipal affairs? Transportation? Environment? Long-term care? Health? Attorney General? Indigenous affairs? Colleges and universities?</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 97.169113px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); overflow-wrap: break-word;">Crombie’s repeated questioning might seem unoriginal, but Ford’s recurring answer is utterly unprecedented. More than mere grandiloquence, it is grandiosity.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 43.051468px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.75rem; font-family: var(--font-daily-text); overflow-wrap: break-word;">If Ford believes he’s that good, it’s not a good look.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 0px;"></div><div id="tncms-region-article_bottom_content" class="tncms-region hidden-print" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; width: 755px; right: 65px;"></div></div><div id="asset-below" data-lpos="asset|footer" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;"><div class="asset-author" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-top-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); padding: 16px 0px;"><div class="authorCard" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; align-items: center;"><div class="card-image" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 60px; margin-right: 15px;"></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>