Standing on a muddy Mississauga construction site, flanked by excavation vehicles and workers, Ontario Premier Doug Ford wrapped up his remarks at a news-conference-style podium.
“Thank God we don’t have the media,” he quipped. “No answers, no questions — we’re good to go.”
The comment was Ford’s last remark at an event which looked like a news conference, but without reporters in attendance.
The 11 a.m. event on Thursday was live-streamed on the Premier of Ontario’s official, taxpayer-funded YouTube account.
Politicians even stood behind the same podium and placard that have been used at Ontario-Canada housing announcements for months.
But the first time newsrooms in Ontario were told about the event was when Ford posted a link to watch it on his X account.
“I’m in Mississauga this morning with an important local update on our plan to lower housing costs and make life more affordable for families,” Ford wrote. “Tune in.”
The event was also attended by the federal government and Mississauga’s mayor.
Both the federal government and the City of Mississauga said the event was organized by the Ontario government, which made the decision not to include media.
The premier’s office suggested it was standard practice to hold announcements without media present, claiming the event was for stakeholders. They did not say who the stakeholders were.
The closed-door event appears to be part of a growing trend for the Ford government, organizing publicly funded promotional events that appear to be news conferences — without inviting the press.
It was back in April, as his government struggled with the fallout of a short-lived private jet purchase, that Ford announced a monument for workers who had been injured or died on the job.
The government issued a news release promoting the announcement, but Ford and his Labour Minister, David Piccini, announced it in front of friendly stakeholders in one of the backrooms of Queen’s Park.
Roughly a month later, the government announced it had broken ground on the Bradford Bypass. Ford and his transportation minister, Prabmeet Sarkaria, travelled to the site, where they stood behind a news-conference-style podium, again without reporters in tow.
The government repeated the move for a groundbreaking at North York General Hospital and again to announce station construction on the Eglinton Crosstown West LRT.
Interim Ontario Liberal Leader John Fraser said the moves were a deliberate attempt to avoid scrutiny.
“A serious government and a serious premier wouldn’t pull this kind of nonsense,” he wrote in a statement. “They’d be able to answer questions and defend their record. Apparently they can’t do either.”
Since coming to power in 2018, the Ford government has moved to make following the premier more complicated.
The party does not release an official itinerary for journalists or the public at the beginning of the week. Changes to freedom of information laws earlier this year mean even retroactive access to Ford’s calendar is now prohibited.
In recent weeks, the premier has repeatedly appeared at events his office his office has not disclosed to reporters.
Ford made an unannounced appearance in northern Ontario to announce the Marten Falls Community Access Road on Monday, appearing in Bradford West Gwillimbury the Friday before, also without reporters present.
Even after winning a legal victory to remove bike lanes from Toronto — a signature policy Ford pushed in 2024 — the premier opted to post a social media video about the move, instead of holding an event.
Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said the shift was anti-democratic.
“He has a disdain for democracy,” she said. “He has tried to escape accountability and transparency. He has gone so far as to change the laws of the province to avoid accountability, now he is shutting out the public and the media. Frankly, that’s very Trumpian.”