Doug Ford’s 2025 re-election wasn’t a triumph of democracy—it was a clear reminder that our electoral system protects power, not people, by design.

The re-election of Doug Ford in 2025 isn’t a surprise—it’s a confirmation. Not just of his political strategy, but of the deeper reality behind electoral politics in Ontario and across Canada. Despite low voter turnout, widespread dissatisfaction, and mounting crises in health care, housing, and affordability, Ford secured another majority government. But this outcome shouldn’t be read as a reflection of popular support. It should be understood for what it is: a case study in how the system is designed to work—for capital, not for us.

Once again, First Past the Post delivered a landslide in seats with a minority of votes. The actual number of people who cast a ballot for Ford’s Progressive Conservatives barely changed from the last election. Yet the way the electoral math plays out—through riding boundaries, vote splits, and turnout disparities—allowed him to lock in a powerful mandate. This isn’t an error. It’s the intended outcome of a system built to create the illusion of legitimacy while protecting elite interests.

Elections in settler colonial capitalist states like Canada aren’t about empowering the people. They’re about managing discontent, channeling it into safe, predictable outcomes that pose no real threat to the economic order. Every few years, we’re invited to pick which flavor of manager will oversee the same fundamental priorities: privatization, austerity, resource extraction, and the preservation of wealth and power for a select few.

Doug Ford exploited that dynamic skillfully. By calling the election while opposition parties remained fragmented and public frustration lacked a unified outlet, he took advantage of the system’s built-in weaknesses. But he’s not alone. Politicians across the spectrum—John Horgan, Blaine Higgs, Justin Trudeau—have all used similar tactics. Because the real political divide in Canada isn’t left versus right. It’s the political class versus those who actually want systemic change.

Even reforms like proportional representation wouldn’t alter the core function of the state: to manage capitalism, not to challenge it. Electoral politics, even at their most democratic, are designed to absorb, deflect, and neutralize threats to the status quo. You can’t vote capitalism away. The system is built to contain radical energy, not to empower it.

That doesn’t mean elections are meaningless. They can be useful. But they’re not sufficient. Real change comes from building power outside the ballot box—through strikes, protests, mutual aid, and organizing in workplaces and communities. It’s slow, deliberate, often unglamorous work. But it’s the only kind of power that can’t be dissolved with the next snap election.

Ford’s win isn’t just a problem of bad math or political apathy. It’s a reminder that the system is doing exactly what it was designed to do: consolidate power, protect wealth, and block meaningful change. If we want a different outcome, we need to stop playing by its rules—and start building the power to break them.