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GUELPH — Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Thursday he does not condone his Progressive Conservative party sending someone to a resort in Jamaica where then-newly minted Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie was vacationing.
But he did not harshly condemn the actions, saying he wouldn’t do it but “things happen.”
“I don’t approve of it, but (that’s) neither here nor there,” Ford said in response to questions at an unrelated press conference in Guelph, Ont., adding that he just learned of it the previous day.
“I wouldn’t do it, but again, things happen.”
Media outlets the Trillium and Policorner report that the Tories spent nearly $3,000 in 2023 on two resorts in Jamaica, citing sources saying someone was sent there as part of opposition research when Crombie was there for a short stay after winning the Liberal leadership.
Opposition parties say it amounts to spying and stalking.
Liberal ethics critic Stephanie Smyth said it is a disturbing privacy violation and could have a chilling effect on women considering entering politics.
“It really raises serious questions about the political culture inside the PC party, and there appears most definitely to be a willingness to make politics intensely personal, especially when women in politics are challenging this government,” she said.
“This, to me, and I know personally how it feels, is nothing more than a way to intimidate women.”
At the same time as the Jamaica trip, the Progressive Conservatives were attempting to paint Crombie as elitist, suggesting she drove fancy cars and owned a home in the upscale Hamptons region of New York.
Smyth said the party’s goal was to “demean” Crombie.
“(Ford) sees her as a threat,” she said. “There’s a beef there and it runs deep and it knows no bounds. If I were Bonnie I’d be looking over my shoulder.”
A spokesperson for Crombie did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Former premier Kathleen Wynne said on NewsTalk 1010 that it crossed a line and she questions whether the PCs would have followed Crombie’s male challenger on vacation if he had won the leadership instead of her.
“I really believe right now that we’re living in a period of increased or renewed permission for misogyny,” she said.
NDP Leader Marit Stiles said the PC party’s actions are “creepy” and more questions need to be answered.
“Women already face enough barriers in politics without this kind of behaviour,” she wrote in a social media post. “Somebody signed off on that expense, and (Ford) knows exactly who. Heads need to roll.”
Ford defended the financial aspect of the expense as coming from party money, but critics were quick to point out that political parties in Ontario get taxpayer-funded per-vote subsidies, on top of their donor money.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 13, 2026.
Allison Jones, The Canadian Press
