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Doug Ford at the 2025 ORBA convention. (Photo by On-Site Staff)
Ontario Premier, Doug Ford, has been officially endorsed in the upcoming provincial election by the Ontario Road Builders’ Association. Following Ford’s speech at this week’s ORBA convention in Toronto, the association’s chief executive officer, Walid Abou-Hamde, along with 2024 ORBA president Andrew Weltz and 2025 ORBA president Malcolm Croskery, presented Ford with a Lifetime Membership Achievement Award, recognizing the premier’s commitment to building provincial infrastructure.
With the province being in the midst of an election, ORBA’s CEO then went a step further to announce the organization’s official endorsement of both Doug Ford and MPP David Piccini, who has been serving as Ontario’s Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training & Skills Development since 2023, and was in attendance at this year’s conference.
Along with notes about tariffs and the potential cross-border trade war, Ford’s comments during the event focused on construction activity in the province.
“There’s construction happening everywhere in this province… what we are going to do is accelerate it,” he stated, adding, “There’s no better place to spend money than on infrastructure.”
Held at the Fairmont Royal York, the 2025 the 98th edition of the annual ORBA Convention and AGM featured additional commentary from Doug Porter, chief economist from BMO Financial Group, and John Gibson, chief commercial officer at Faculty, a British technology company that provides software, consulting, and services related to AI, along with breakout sessions, awards presentations and panel discussions.
Jon Montgomery auctions off an Amazing Race Canada ticket for charity at the 2025 ORBA convention. (Photo by On-Site Staff)
Keynote speaker, Jon Montgomery, made famous by his historic Olympic gold medal skeleton run at the Whistler Olympics, and host of the Amazing Race Canada, shared insights into preparing for success, as well as the infrastructure that his television career depends upon.
“Roads are Canada’s circulatory system,” he stated. “This infrastructure that binds us is Canada’s lifelines. It’s also what makes the Amazing Race Canada even possible.”
Montgomery, who brought his gold medal and invited attendees to “add their fingerprints to it,” discussed building towards success, finding the confidence to tackle new challenges, and the work that’s needed to become a leader or champion.
“The biggest differentiator between saying something and doing something is believing that it is possible,” he stated. “Our beliefs are our boundaries.”
Perhaps indicating the quality of his forecast, BMO Group’s Porter addressed the pending cross-border trade war, stating, “They might not last until 3 p.m. this afternoon.” Sure enough, by later that day, a 30-day reprieve was announced, but his comments to attendees may yet prove helpful going forward.
“Nobody wins from a trade war,” he stated, adding that the implementation of tariffs on both sides of the border would have a greater impact on Canada’s economic growth prospects than those of the United States, although anticipated growth for Canada would move from a forecasted two per cent growth to zero, or a flat curve.
Moving to more general economic advice, he added that infrastructure spending is a very good way to support long-term economic growth.