The derogatory label “Fat Trudeau” says less about a direct policy match between Ontario Premier Doug Ford and former prime minister Justin Trudeau than it does about a widening dispute over what counts as conservative government in Canada.
Ford entered provincial office in 2018 as an anti-establishment conservative promising lower taxes, cheaper gasoline, less regulation, and an end to Ontario’s cap-and-trade system. His government revoked the program shortly after taking power and later passed legislation formally cancelling it.
The nickname emerged from critics on Ford’s right who believe that political identity changed once he began governing.
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The adjective targets in ad hominem Ford’s appearance. The Trudeau comparison targets his record.
The first major break
Ford’s response to COVID-19 alienated part of the conservative constituency that initially supported him. Ontario imposed provincewide stay-at-home orders, restricted non-essential activity, and temporarily expanded enforcement powers during the pandemic.
In September 2021, Ford’s government also required proof of vaccination to enter selected businesses and settings.
Those decisions generally followed the same public-health framework adopted by Trudeau’s federal government and several provincial governments. To anti-lockdown conservatives, however, Ford’s party label made his participation more significant. They viewed a Progressive Conservative premier imposing mobility restrictions and vaccine requirements as evidence that the difference between Ford and Trudeau was branding rather than governing philosophy.
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The phrase was visibly circulating in online discussions by the February 2022 convoy blockades, when Ford declared a provincial state of emergency and supported measures against protesters occupying Ottawa and obstructing the Ambassador Bridge.
Ford later supported the federal government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act. The public inquiry’s final report recorded his position and noted his estimate that the Ambassador Bridge blockade had interrupted approximately $700 million in daily trade.
Fiscal spending
Ford’s fiscal record supplied a second rationale. Ontario’s 2026 budget projects a $12.3 billion deficit for 2025–26, followed by deficits of $13.8 billion in 2026–27 and $6.1 billion in 2027–28. The government expects a $600 million surplus in 2028–29.
The Financial Accountability Office projects provincial net debt rising from $427.1 billion in 2024–25 to $529.3 billion in 2028–29. Ontario’s accumulated deficit is expected to increase by $31.7 billion over the same period.
The Fraser Institute, which advocates for smaller government, found that inflation-adjusted provincial program spending per person increased by 5.6% during the Ford-Trudeau period it examined. Federal spending per Ontario resident increased by 14%. The institute characterized the two governments’ fiscal outcomes as more similar than their political branding suggested.
That comparison requires context. Ontario’s Financial Accountability Office found that total provincial spending was $14,470 per person in 2024–25, the lowest level among the provinces and 18.3% below the average for the rest of Canada.
Ford is running deficits, but Ontario is not a high-spending province on a per-resident basis compared with its peers.
Liberal cooperation
The label gained another layer as Ford moved away from confrontational partisanship. During the pandemic, Ford worked with Trudeau and federal officials rather than treating Ottawa as a permanent political adversary.
He later built a cooperative relationship with Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney around the response to US tariffs. Reuters reported in March 2025 that Ford and Carney coordinated the timing of potential countermeasures against American imports.
Ford also remained neutral during the 2025 federal election rather than campaigning for Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre. After the Conservatives lost, MP Jamil Jivani accused Ford of acting as a Liberal “hype man” and turning Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives into something ideologically hollow, Politico reported.
The criticism intensified because Ford’s strategy kept working electorally. His Progressive Conservatives secured a third consecutive majority in February 2025 with 80 of Ontario’s 124 seats and nearly 43% of the vote.
Where the comparison ends
The nickname has stuck and has intensified riding on the anger of constituents amid the issued tied with Ford but not necessarily Trudeau-related. This includes: the controversial Bombardier Challenger 650 bought for $28.9 million for Ford’s government travel, the sweeping changes to Ontario’s freedom-of-information law through an omnibus budget bill, constant public and legal skirmishes with media, and the expansion of the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport.
READ: Who Let The Doug Out? A Rundown Of Ontario’s Ford Government Controversies
Ford has not adopted Trudeau’s broader political program. His government did eliminate cap-and-trade, prioritized highway construction, removed vehicle-licence renewal fees, restricted some municipal bike-lane projects, and continued developing Highway 413. Those policies remain recognizably different from the federal Liberal approach associated with Trudeau.
“Fat Trudeau” therefore functions less as a precise description than as an accusation from the right. It combines Ford’s, pandemic record, fiscal expansion, and willingness to work with Liberal governments into one deliberately provocative label. However, it undermines its logical argument by attaching it to an unfair physical description of the premier.
Nevertheless, its persistence reflects Ford’s unusual position in Canadian politics. He governs as a Conservative but has repeatedly chosen coalition-building, nationalism, and electoral flexibility over ideological confrontation. That has allowed him to win three majority governments while convincing some conservatives that he no longer represents them.
But that also made him the least popular premier in Canada.
