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Protesters angry at Doug Ford gathered at Ottawa’s human rights monument and elsewhere in Ontario on Saturday as the premier faces scandal and record low polling numbers.<\/p>\n
The demonstration was one of dozens scheduled to take place across the province, part of an ongoing movement dubbed \u201cFight Ford.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t go out and protest a lot of things when I was younger,\u201d said Johane Hamilton, who carried a placard calling Ford “Canada’s Lil’ Trump” on one side and saying he was “more crooked than this sign” on the other.<\/p>\n \u201c[Ford] made me angry enough that I felt the need to go out now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n A new poll by Liaison Strategies shows just 24 per cent of Ontarians approve of Ford\u2019s performance, which the polling firm said is the lowest approval rating it\u2019s recorded for the premier.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lois Pond, who helped organize the protest as a member of the Ottawa Harm Reduction Collective<\/a>, said it was a surprise that number isn\u2019t lower.<\/p>\n She said she was sad that Ontario voters have had to \u201csee how bad it can get.”<\/p>\n \u201cBut here we are. I mean, all I can do is hope that we learn from this, right?” said Pond, who was an outreach worker at one of the province’s now-closed supervised drug consumption sites.<\/p>\n “And hope that we grow \u2026 because frankly, once people have died, you can\u2019t bring them back.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n CBC reached out to Ford\u2019s office Saturday for comment on the protests but did not receive a response by deadline.<\/p>\n Ford has criticized the unfavourable polling, including the latest numbers, which his office said in a statement Friday<\/a> wasn\u2019t consistent with its own findings \u2014 though they didn’t say those findings were.\u00a0<\/p>\n His low approval comes on the heels of two major scandals.\u00a0<\/p>\n In April, the Ontario government purchased a private jet<\/a> and then sold it after public outcry<\/a>. <\/p>\n Earlier this month, news broke that some of Ford\u2019s caucus members representing Toronto ridings were billing taxpayers for hotel stays<\/a>, prompting now-former tourism minister Stan Cho to resign from cabinet<\/a>.<\/p>\n Doug Ford’s approval rating hits record low amid hotel expense scandal<\/p>\n Peter Graefe, a professor of political science at McMaster University, said that Saturday’s protesters may have been thinking about recent scandals and perceived failures of government.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBut behind that is a deeper set of concerns that we\u2019ve seen recurring,\u201d he added, including \u201ca lack of funding for health care, [a] failure to invest in social services and social assistance and concerns about privatization.\u201d<\/p>\n Signs and speakers at the Ottawa protest reflected the variety of concerns.<\/p>\n![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1785031150_963_default.jpg\")
People hold signs at a ‘Fight Ford’ protest in downtown Ottawa on Saturday. (Gabrielle Huston\/CBC)\u2018Deeper set of concerns\u2019<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1785031151_215_default.jpg\")
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Signs at Saturday’s rally criticize the Ford government’s decision to pull funding for supervised drug consumption sites. (Gabrielle Huston\/CBC)<\/p>\n