PC Leader Doug Ford took the "Yes Express" to a car dealership in Pickering—Uxbridge Thursday morning, where he was joined by PC candidate Peter Bethlenfalvy and Uxbridge Mayor Dave Barton.

Ford mainly talked about building highways and removing tolls. Bethlenfalvy, who reps Pickering—Uxbridge and serves as Ford's finance minister, nodded along in agreement.

The two men were flanked by minivans and a huge Ontario licence plate (sticker included), but with Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PCPO) decals. The prop plate had crowns and a white background, like the Ontario licence plates of old — before Ford's government switched to a blue background. No visibility issues to speak of, even with the blazing sun.

Ford's eastern GTA swing came a day after NDP Leader Andrea Horwath held an event with local candidate Khalid Ahmed. Ahmed ran for the NDP in Don Valley West in 2014, and Don Valley East in 2018.

Ahmed is trying to unseat Bethlenfalvy after a single term, who beat his NDP challenger in 2018 by over 10 percentage points.

The PCs are expected to keep Pickering—Uxbridge, according to Mainstreet Research, which lists the riding as a "likely hold" on the iPolitics polling dashboard.

Ford is confident his finance minister will get a second term in the legislature.

"'I'm not worried (about Ahmed)," Ford said. "There's no better representative for Pickering ... (Bethlenfalvy's) one of the best finance ministers I've ever worked with." Ford has had three finance ministers during his four years in office.

Ford was asked who he views as his primary opponent in the 2022 election.

"I don't look at the opponents," Ford said. "I look at what we're going to do to move the province forward by making sure we put money back into people's pockets and we build infrastructure."

The transition garnered a nod and smile from Amin Massoudi, Ford's principal secretary, who has been standing next to the main camera at events giving Ford real-time feedback on his answers to reporters.

While Ford said he doesn't even "look at the opponents," he's attacked Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca and Horwath in every availability thus far in the campaign. Green Leader Mike Schreiner hasn't been name-dropped — yet.

Ford said selling the 407 was a mistake, akin to the Liberal's selling part of Hydro One.

"I would have never sold it," he said.

Ford thanked the reporter for the question and proceeded to not answer. Massoudi had performed some kind of hand-rolling gesture after the question was asked that QP Briefing believes might be a hand signal that means "don't answer and move on."

Like many Ontario towns, Pickering has seen housing prices swell over the last few years. Houses in Durham region, where Pickering is located, saw the average house sold for $1.1 million in March 2022. That's a nearly 30 per cent year-over-year jump, according to statistics from the Canadian Real Estate Association.

Ford said he's still committed to building 1.5 million new homes to solve Ontario's housing woes.

"We're going to make sure that we increase housing starts," he said. "We had more housing starts than we ever had in 30 years."

2021 was a record year for Ontario housing construction. Nearly 100,000 homes were built, the most since 1987. Despite Ford's rhetoric and his More Homes For Everyone Act, the 2022 budget said housing starts are going to fall to around 86,000 per year from 2022 through to 2025.

"And we're just starting. We're working again collaboratively with all 444 municipalities to streamline the process, to standardize the process until we get the permits out the door," Ford said.

One of the issues plaguing Ontario's housing market is communities not being too keen on turning existing infrastructure into housing.

In 2021, the owner of Oakville's Glen Abbey golf course wanted to build 3,000 units on the course grounds. Residents and council did not, and appealed to the Premier and Housing Minister Steve Clark to intervene. Clark got the owner to back down. Ford and Clark were praised for the move.

When asked if moves like that are welcome in his Ontario, Ford said "that Glen Abbey debate was going on forever. I listened to municipalities. I listened to the people," and then praised Oakville Mayor Rob Burton.

The Pickering stop was Ford's only public event of the day. He and his team then headed off to other, closed-to-media campaign events and door-knocking. Before getting on the road, the bus stopped at the Pickering Town Centre parking lot. Some passersby stopped to chat while staff threw a football.

Tight spirals all around.

Ford follows Horwath to Pickering—Uxbridge

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