So, @finely, here we are in 2022, and we were both wrong. Doug Ford got re-elected, with a majority of seats (41% of the popular vote with a record-breakingly pathetic 44% voter turnout).
And yet I was not wrong about this part:
People “on both sides” will nag him about his handling of Covid, for sure, but refusal to endorse vaccine passports will be a footnote for most people (though some of his right and/or libertarian leaning supporters who will hold it up as an example of his awesomeness, and the more extreme germophobes will try to use it against him, unsuccessfully).
Throughout the campaign, the four mainstream parties scarcely mentioned covid at all, except for the issue of long term care homes (basically the question of whether or not the government was to blame for their high death rate, by way of general incompetence).
It was as if they had a gentleman’s agreement not to debate the mandates/passports, because they all knew they would alienate some voters by appearing to have a “soft on covid” position and alienate other voters by getting vocal about bringing back the mandates.
The more noticeable of the non-mainstream parties made a big deal about this stuff, but of course they weren’t invited to the debates. And they lost, completely.