Let’s talk about Doug Ford’s daughter. Or, let’s not. 

Most media covering the premier have decided to give the premier’s daughter’s antivaxx views a pass. There’s a legit reason for that. The sins (or perceived sins) of family members shouldn’t be visited on those in public office – although the rule doesn’t always seem to apply to Justin Trudeau. But where should the line be drawn for politicians on family members?

Krista Haynes (née Ford) is married to a Toronto police officer who was recently placed on unpaid leave, as per city protocol, for refusing to get vaccinated. She’s also an Instagram “influencer,” which is to say she has enough followers on the social media platform (25K and climbing) to sway public opinion—and maybe make some change on the side promoting herself. She has in the past listed personal trainer and event management as areas of employment.

Her account is private, which means only followers can see her posts. But that hasn’t stopped her followers from posting screenshots of some of her more out-there views on vaccines and vaccine mandates on other social media platforms.

Lately, Haynes has made herself the subject of controversy over her posts suggesting COVID vaccines are all a plot by globalists to, well, take over the world. Haynes entertains a number of “One World Government” antivaccine conspiracy theories made popular by QAnon followers of Donald Trump. 

Recently, she published a post on Instagram suggesting those who report others playing fast and loose with new COVID gathering recommendations over the holidays should have their teeth knocked out (only not in those words).

The premier’s daughter has been the subject of controversy before. A former Lingerie Football League player, she suggested on Twitter in 2012 that women not bring sexual assault on themselves by “dressing like a whore.”

Under normal circumstances, the untethered views of the family members of politicians—in this case the second most powerful politician in the land after the PM—should not be the concern of the public or media. 

Not everyone agrees with that. It’s been suggested in some circles, including by NDP leader Andrea Horwath, that Haynes may be influencing government policy with her antivaccine views given her proximity to the seat of power.

It’s hard to know for sure with Doug. But there is no doubt that Haynes’s proximity to the premier is giving her personal profile and antivaccine views a boost from which she stands to profit personally (and possibly financially). Haynes is emerging as a high-profile celebrity of the antivaccine movement (if it indeed can be called a movement).

For example, Haynes was a “special guest” recently along with her husband at a “Christian Fight for Freedom” event held at the Canada Christian College in Whitby, and run by Charles McVety. Tickets to get into the event featuring a number of the usual suspects in anti-vaxx circles were $20 and $5 to watch it online.

McVety jokingly introduced Ford’s daughter as the next premier of Ontario at the event. Perhaps he was only half-joking. But there’s the rub.

McVety has long enjoyed close relationships with powerful politicians and the PC party. He helped deliver the social conservative vote that won Ford the PCPO leadership in 2018. He was among Ford’s in-studio guests at the first televised leaders’ debate of the 2018 campaign.

McVety’s “Jesus in the City” parade received a $12,078 grant from the Ford government in 2019. Ford’s efforts earlier this year to repay McVety’s loyalty by granting his college university status, however, would fall by the wayside amid public backlash over McVety’s well-known antigay and anti-Muslim views. 

Still, he and Ford are said to be “close friends”. In late 2020, a video emerged of the premier sending McVety a birthday wish.

Some might argue there’s a double standard in the hands-off approach of media to Ford’s daughter. Justin Trudeau, for example, has repeatedly been the subject of media scrutiny over his mother’s and his wife’s paid speaking engagements for various charitable and other organizations.

In Haynes’s case, it’s not financial considerations at this point that places the premier in a possible conflict. It’s the fact his daughter is spreading antigovernment misinformation that’s been associated with extremist groups under the guise of “medical freedom” and “bodily autonomy”.

She has compared, for example, the fight against vaccine mandates and public health restrictions to the Holocaust, slavery and the struggle for civil rights. And it’s the fact her father is premier that’s giving those (arguably dangerous) views during a public health crisis added prominence. 

At what point, then, is it incumbent on the premier to distance himself publicly from those views, as he has with members of his own caucus whom he’s expelled for not getting vaxxed? Or are critics right about the premier actually harbouring similar views only he doesn’t want to admit it because that would be committing political hari-kari?

Wasn’t that long ago that Ford referred to anti-vaxx protestors showing up at his house as “psychos” and “yahoos.” On Monday night they were at it again in front of his place.

But just as Haynes’s affiliation with the premier may pump her status in the antivaxx cause, the premier’s affiliation with Haynes arguably gives him a pass with more conservative elements in the PCPO base opposed to vaccine mandates—which it is worthwhile noting that the premier has been reluctant to adopt across the board or enforce. In that sense, his relationship with his daughter is a win-win situation.

@enzodimatteo