Re: Doug Fords Lack of a Costing Platform:
Dave Hudak pledged in his campaign for the last election that he would cut 10,000 civil service jobs. He tanked in the polls.
So Doug Ford figured that he would be clever and say that he's going to cut $6 billion dollars and it wouldn't cost anybody any jobs.
He can't come up with any specific figures because it can't be done without sacrificing jobs and government services.
To me, issues like this one are things that are the final nudge toward or away from a candidate for many voters, often more confirming their initial suspicions/impressions of a candidate - e.g. "1.4 billion in the wrong column, LOL those NDP, they can't even add! I knew it!" kind of thing.
But in this case, I think Doug Ford isn't someone that people are on the fence about, so I'm not sure the platform issue hurts him. I think he's right that a really big chunk of Ontarians either don't care for platforms (because they only half get implemented) and/or don't trust the Liberals numbers. If you're voting for Ford, you're not doing it because he's got his shit together. You're electing him to on an emotional appeal to show your distrust in the system, or to just smash things.
Doug Ford knows this, and knows why people vote for him. He may, however, have overestimated the ability of his appeal to win a comprehensive majority.
I think the platform issue is only an issue for those who were never going to vote for him anyway. Although polling on this could prove otherwise.