A theme in this course is how to understand Ontario political events and leaders, in the broader context of the Ontario political tradition. In this light, consider the election of the Conservatives under Doug Ford in the 2018 election. How should Ford’s victory be understood? Students of Ontario politics have offered two different frameworks for understanding Ford’s victory, which inform debates over political events in other jurisdictions such as Europe and the United States. The first framework identifies a cleavage, between 1) suburban/rural areas, 2) versus big cities. This school of thought argues that the 2018 provincial election can be understood in this way, though this cleavage or divide was already evident in Ontario politics, at least as far back as the victory of the Mike Harris Conservatives in 1995. Ford’s electoral base was outside the downtowns of Ontario’s big cities, in the suburbs and in rural areas. In contrast, what was the electoral base of the previous Liberal dynasty (2003-18) Ford defeated? The second framework situates Ford as the Ontario variant in the new populist politics evident in other democratic jurisdictions. The elites which populists attack are based in the big cities, so this framework overlaps with the first framework.