{"id":198007,"date":"2026-09-06T11:02:32","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T11:02:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/198007\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T11:02:32","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T11:02:32","slug":"thank-god-we-dont-have-the-media-ford-makes-another-announcement-without-inviting-reporters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/198007\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Thank God we don\u2019t have the media\u2019: Ford makes another announcement without inviting reporters"},"content":{"rendered":"

EDITOR\u2019S NOTE: This article originally appeared on The Trillium<\/a>, a Village Media website devoted exclusively to covering provincial politics at Queen\u2019s Park.<\/p>\n

Premier Doug Ford was caught on a hot mic Thursday thanking God that there were no journalists around to ask him questions.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because they weren\u2019t invited.<\/p>\n

His comments came after a lineup of provincial, federal and municipal officials gathered behind a podium in Mississauga, where they delivered prepared remarks about a major funding decision.<\/p>\n

The speakers each took a turn at the podium to talk about $401.4 million in infrastructure funding tied to the city\u2019s decision to reduce development charges.<\/p>\n

With no press in attendance, there were no questions asked at the taxpayer-funded event.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank God we don\u2019t have the media,\u201d Ford said on the mic at the conclusion of the announcement. \u201cNo questions, no answers. We\u2019re good to go.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\u00a0 \n<\/p>\n

The Trillium asked a spokesperson for Mississauga Mayor Carolyn Parrish\u2019s office who organized Thursday\u2019s announcement and decided not to invite reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cProvince in total control,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

The premier\u2019s office defended the move, saying governments communicate in different ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike every government, we communicate different project milestones to the public and to partners in different ways, this includes through formal announcements, photo ops and through social media,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Federal government spokespeople did not respond before publication to questions about who decided media wouldn’t be invited to the event.<\/p>\n

It is part of a larger pattern<\/a>\u00a0by the Ford government that\u00a0The Trillium\u00a0reported on in early August.<\/p>\n

On at least five dates between mid-May and Aug. 5, Ford or other provincial cabinet ministers posted photos on social media that showed them with government-branded podiums. Each corresponded with provincial\u00a0announcements, and the government shared details about the events with the media after the fact. The premier or cabinet ministers read prepared remarks at at least two\u00a0of those events, The Trillium confirmed<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the time, the premier\u2019s office would not say why reporters were not notified, nor what criteria were\u00a0used to determine whether a media advisory was necessary.<\/p>\n

While photos from those events were posted online, the premier’s office did not post videos of them.<\/p>\n

Inessa De Angelis, a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto\u2019s Faculty of Information, said political events like these \u201cborrow legitimacy from a mainstream traditional media event.\u201d<\/p>\n

De Angelis studies how technology is changing political communication and the relationship between political actors, journalists and the public.<\/p>\n

She told The Trillium that politicians use visuals associated with a news conference \u2014 the podium, backdrop images, and people standing behind the main speaker \u2014 to give \u201ccredibility\u201d to their narrative.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a citizen were to encounter this on social media without the kind of background context that we have here, having seen the lack of media invites and things like that, they would have assumed that this is a regular media event, and that’s obviously going to have implications for the political information that they’re encountering afterwards,\u201d she said, adding that politicians using this communication strategy are \u201cblurring the lines\u201d and \u201cborrowing some of the role that the journalists were playing before.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey’re also kind of becoming media producers in their own right.\u201d<\/p>\n

De Angelis added that these \u201cstrategic communication events\u201d are reconfiguring the relationship journalists have with politicians, as well as the media system.<\/p>\n

Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles described the events as \u201ccosplay.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe shows up at a press conference, stands behind a podium, makes it look like he’s at a press conference, and then actually there is nobody from the media or the public there to hold him to account and ask questions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think though it’s not surprising to me that the premier continues with his disdain for democracy, because I think that’s what this is, disdain for democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stiles also described Ford\u2019s \u201cthank\u00a0God we don\u2019t have the media\u201d comments after Thursday\u2019s news conference as \u201cTrumpian.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, interim Liberal leader John Fraser said a \u201cserious government and a serious premier wouldn\u2019t pull this kind of nonsense.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019d be able to answer questions and defend their record. Apparently, they can\u2019t do either,” Fraser said.<\/p>\n

Ford has held at least a couple of other news conference-like events recently without inviting journalists. On Aug. 28, he announced the Town of Bradford West\u00a0Gwillimbury would receive up to\u00a0$94.8 million from the provincial and federal governments for reducing development charges. Another was on Monday, when the premier visited the Marten Falls First Nation to celebrate breaking ground on an access road to the Ring of Fire. The premier’s office posted videos of both announcements afterward.<\/p>\n

At the end of the Bradford West Gwillimbury event, the premier appeared to express glee after the camera had gone black, but the mic was still on. Referring to the media \u2014 or lack of it \u2014 he could be heard saying, \u201cThat makes my day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EDITOR\u2019S NOTE: This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a Village Media website devoted exclusively to covering provincial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,62077],"class_list":["post-198007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-canada","tag-ontario-politicsdoug-fordford-government-staging-announcementspodiums-no-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}