NDP and Opposition leader Marit Stiles says Ontario Premier Doug Ford is “not Batman” and should focus on the province’s unemployment, after he told a story about threatening to give an alleged shoplifter “a beating.”
On Tuesday, Ford recounted the tale of how he chased after someone at a Home Depot earlier in the summer, told them to empty their bag and threatened to beat them up if they didn’t return the items they had allegedly stolen.
“I said, ‘Buddy, I’m going to kick your ass all over the parking lot, show me what’s in your bag,’” Ford told a packed room. “I did, I couldn’t help myself.”
He then added, “I went on to tell him if I ever see him in the parking lot, he’s going to get a beating like he’s never got before. That’s what you have to do.”
Stiles said she thought the story may be a “tall tale,” which showed the premier’s focus was elsewhere at a time when unemployment is rising in the province and tariffs from the United States are beginning to seriously bite.
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“He is not Batman, he is not Captain Canada — when is he going to start being premier?” she said.
“We have 7.9 per cent unemployment across Ontario right now, 800,000 Ontarians without a job. Is it going to take one million? At what point does the premier of this province decide to play premier and not Batman?”
Unemployment has been rising in Ontario. In Ontario it rose by 0.2 per cent in September to reach 7.9 per cent, higher than Quebec’s 5.7 per cent and British Columbia’s 6.4.
The month before, Ontario’s unemployment rate stood at 7.7 per cent while the youth unemployment rate, which includes people between the ages of 15 and 24, hovered at 16.5 per cent.
Ontario’s youth unemployment rate has gradually increased from 10 per cent in March 2023, hitting a peak of 18 per cent in December 2024.
“He should be doing his job. He should be chasing down jobs in Ontario, not chasing people across a Home Depot parking lot,” Stiles added.
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