The Nipissing MPP got off to a very rough start in government, but he’s found his calling as economic-development minister
Five years ago, Vic Fedeli was sure he’d got as high up the mountain of Ontario politics as he could. Yes, he’d run for leader of the Progressive Conservative party in 2015, but he didn’t make it to the finish line. And when leader Patrick Brown was turfed by his caucus in early 2018, MPPs picked Fedeli to hold the fort as interim leader.
But that was all temporary crisis management until party members chose a permanent leader in Doug Ford. After seven years in opposition, Fedeli figured he’d finally landed where he could have the most impact when the newly elected premier installed him as the first Tory finance minister in 15 years, back in June 2018.
It didn’t go well. That was a time when Ford and Co. tried to make their mark as a disruptive populist government pitching “buck-a-beer,” and the majority of Ontarians were less than impressed.
Then Fedeli introduced the first PC budget in April 2019, and it landed with such a thud that Ford shuffled him out of his dream job two months later. No one could remember a more ignominious debut for any Ontario finance minister.
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