Scott Stinson: Where have all Doug Ford’s challengers gone? Exactly where he appears to like them

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Former Mississauga mayor Bonnie Crombie, running this month to reclaim her old job, has landed on a big policy proposal: a subway that would connect the city by underground rail to Toronto. To accomplish this, given the massive expense of such a thing, she would need the help of the Ontario premier.

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The same one, that is, who seemed to dislike her during Crombie’s brief spell as Ontario Liberal leader. He ran negative ads against her that (effectively) branded her as elitist and out of touch with everyday voters, and has informally supported the re-election bid of current Mississauga Mayor Carolyn Parrish.

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While that might seem a difficult obstacle to overcome, the good news for Crombie is that there is precedent for a former Doug Ford rival becoming an ally elsewhere in politics. A lot of it.

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The municipal level, especially in the Greater Toronto Area, has become Doug Ford’s Hall of the Vanquished, a soft landing in local politics where instead of fighting the premier his former opponents join him and his ministers at various ribbon-cuttings and picnics.

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Crombie is just the latest example. Her time at the head of the Ontario Liberals was grim: a third-place finish in an election that came 14 months after she took over the top job, and a failure to even win her Mississauga riding. Some might take that as a sign that her best days as a politician are behind her, but instead she wants to return to an office she won three times, beginning in 2014. She’s taking on Parrish, a long-time rival (both women are also former Liberal MPs), and she might win: a poll published early in the race had her tied with Parrish.

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A Crombie win would be funny for one specific reason: It would potentially put three former Ford foes in charge of cities around the Golden Horseshoe. Andrea Horwath, the former provincial NDP leader who lost two elections to Ford, is the mayor of Hamilton. Steven Del Duca, who preceded Crombie as provincial Liberal leader, is the mayor of Vaughan. (Both are seeking re-election on Oct. 26.)

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Last month, Horwath joined Ford at an announcement in Hamilton where the premier touted his government’s investments in housing. Where once she would have fought Ford at every turn, now she smiles and nods when he alights on her town. Instead of spitting fire across from one another in the legislature at Queen’s Park, the two thank each other for the great work they are doing on this or that file. It does not exactly allay the suspicion that much of politics is performative.

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Nate Erskine-Smith is yet another defeated Ford challenger who could even be joining them one day at the mayoral table. Not long ago a popular MP in a downtown Toronto riding, unafraid to speak his mind instead of toeing the party line, he was an up-and-comer until he wasn’t: dropped from cabinet after Mark Carney took over the Prime Minister’s Office.

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Erskine-Smith decided that he was the man to save the province from Ford, only to discover that the provincial Liberals weren’t nearly as welcoming as he might have hoped. He narrowly lost a nomination race for a Scarborough byelection.

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Having planned to use the byelection to secure a seat at Queen’s Park and give him a platform for a leadership bid to replace Crombie, he then scrapped those plans.