Certainly there is a financial element to Ford's popularity for some; be it speed cameras, road tolls or removing the annual license plate fee.
But I will argue its more than that.
The license plate fee/renewal has been a sore point with many not just because of the money, but because it was a hassle. For most of its existence an annual trip to the local Service Ontario where one needed to remember one's insurance, and then get to the front of the interminable line before realizing you hadn't checked the odometer as required.... it was a 1/2 day off work, unpaid for many, or giving up a Saturday morning.
Was it some awful burden? Nah, but it was a hassle that most felt achieved little. Ford didn't just make the fee go away, your plate now renews every year, by itself, no stickers.
That's frankly good retail politics. It may not be the best for government coffers, but I would argue road tolls while unpopular made more sense in the era of automatic billing by cameras.
Regrettably, they did away w/that too. But again, that's not just money, that's "I can the fastest route that works for me without thinking about the money"
This is the same logic as handing out 'personal' cell numbers to the general public..... Doug nixed that stunt after a short bit, but his his late brother Rob employed it to great effect. Did he really make the wheels of gov't go faster for most? Nah.
Did he address any systemic flaws be that under-funding or organization/prioritization in situations he addressed? Nope.
But a handful of times, he got someone's snow cleared, he got work orders for public housing tenants that had languished for months addressed within a week, and people remember those things and talk about them no end to others.
He's also frankly good at reading the public mood, when he goes off on a rant about Trump/The U.S. or how long it takes to get something done (even if he isn't fixing that), or puts booze in corner stores.... there are people going "Finally, some common sense" here, there and everywhere.
Many of his policy remedies are 1/2 baked, or ill timed, and the appearance of large scale grift is yet another profound concern.
But other politicians needs to pay attention just the same. Solve a problem, in clear, understandable language, where the benefit will be widely felt.
It doesn't have to be lowering taxes; but it does have to be lifting some irksome regulation of low value that annoys people; or simplifying something people hate ( there's a real winner to be had in a one-page tax return for someone, and better still, universal auto-filing, so no more tax returns.)
At the provincial level that could be lowering the drinking age to 18 (just like Quebec), and a 3AM last call (more booze, I know) but the virtue here is that no really thinks either of those would cause mass harm or have in Quebec, but a large constituency (teens), but also bar owners and club owners would love it; and it costs nothing.
Provincially, there are lots of policy ideas that are more substantive, but its finding a way to cut through the BS. Lets take healthcare. One thing people experience wait times for and in some cases geographic hassle is diagnostic imaging.
This is an important one simply because is comparatively easy and cheap to address. When you look at machines of these types CT, MRI and PET, Ontario has too few relative to peer jurisdictions on a per capita basis.
The one-time capital cost of buying another 100 CTs is ~100M, another 50MRIs ~75M, and another 50 PET Scanners ~200M, so all-in 375M, or 187.5M per year for two years. Its a rounding error in the provincial budget. You need more trained staff to run them, that takes about 2 years, training an additional 600 staff over 3-4 years is viable, and some incentives that delay retirement or cover some overtime can finish the job.
Your sustained cost for operating the additional machines and additional hours is maybe in the range 100M per year.
But thing is if you can clearly say 'Within 2 years no one will ever wait more than 2 weeks for a scan, ever' You'll be popular.
If every Toronto hospital had a PET Scanner, and you filled in some of those gaps in the province that involve multi-hour drives by adding them in NB, Timmins, the Sault, Sarnia, Ptbo, Belleville, Niagara and Owen Sound
boy will you be popular with a slew of patients, caregivers and medical professionals.
Clarity, and understandably communicating "This benefits YOU" is key.
