Doug Ford’s Call for the Death Penalty Is No Joke — It’s a Dangerous Step Backward

On the campaign trail, at a gala dinner for law enforcement in London, Ontario, Premier Doug Ford made an alarming remark: "send ’em right to Sparky." With those words, Ford casually invoked the electric chair — a method of execution never used in Canada, where hanging was the only form of capital punishment before its abolition. His comments, delivered to a crowd that reacted with audible gasps, were not just a slip of the tongue. They were a deliberate appeal to a tough-on-crime stance that echoes the rhetoric of far-right populists south of the border.

Doug Ford wants Ontarians to believe that his off-the-cuff comment was nothing more than a frustrated quip, a ‘poor-taste joke’ in response to rising crime. But as someone who has stood in an execution chamber, who has held a man as the state methodically ended his life, I can tell you there is nothing funny about capital punishment.

It is not a punchline.

It is not a tool of justice.

It is violence.

And it is wrong.

Ford’s offhand remark about the electric chair isn’t just an example of crude rhetoric — it’s a troubling indication that, in an era of deepening polarization, some leaders are willing to resurrect failed policies from the past to gain political traction.

Canada abolished capital punishment in 1976 because it recognized what Ford seems determined to ignore — state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with justice, with human rights, and with any society that claims to value life.

The Reality of Capital Punishment

I have spent years journeying with people on death row. On June 26, 2024, I was present as Texas executed Ramiro Gonzales. With my hand on his chest, I sang him to death as those who loved him, those who hated him, and those who were indifferent looked on. I was the recipient of his final words. I felt his heart stop as he was killed with a lethal injection of pentobarbital — not because he posed an active threat, not because his execution would bring back the life he had taken, but because the state had decided that his death would serve as some abstract form of justice.

It didn’t.

It never does.

Supporters of capital punishment often claim it deters crime. But decades of research prove otherwise. The United States, one of the few Western democracies that still executes people, sees no reduction in violent crime in states that uphold the death penalty compared to those that don’t. In fact, jurisdictions with capital punishment often have higher rates of violent crime. Why? Because executions don’t address the root causes of violence — poverty, addiction, mental illness, systemic injustice. They are not about public safety. They are about revenge.

Words Have Consequences

Ford may claim that he wasn’t seriously advocating for the return of capital punishment, suggesting instead that his words were merely a fleeting moment of frustration. But language has power. It influences public perception and can make the unthinkable seem acceptable. When a leader casually references executing people, he is not merely expressing frustration. He is paving the way for discussions about reinstating a practice that Canada decisively rejected nearly fifty years ago, one that is legally impossible to restore due to international commitments.

This isn’t just political theatre. We have seen how this kind of rhetoric gains traction. In the United States, leaders like Donald Trump have used “tough-on-crime” posturing to justify harsher penalties, mass incarceration, and even calls for executing drug dealers. This is the playbook Ford is borrowing from — one that has led to grave miscarriages of justice and deepened racial and economic disparities in the legal system.

And if we think wrongful convictions don’t happen in Canada, we’re fooling ourselves. Steven Truscott, David Milgaard, Guy Paul Morin — all men convicted of murder. All men later exonerated. Had capital punishment been in place when they were sentenced, they might not have lived to see justice because the justice system is not infallible. And when you introduce a punishment that cannot be undone, the risk of executing an innocent person becomes a certainty.

The Political Opportunism of Ford’s Comments

Why would Ford say something so inflammatory? Because he knows fear is a powerful political tool. He knows that when people feel unsafe, they look for simple solutions to complex problems. More prisons. Harsher sentences. The death penalty.

But what Ford won’t acknowledge is that the very people most affected by violent crime — low-income communities, racialized communities, Indigenous communities — are also those most at risk of wrongful convictions and unjust punishments.

And while Ford peddles fear, Ontarians are facing real crises he refuses to address. Two and a half million people in this province don’t have a family doctor. Our hospitals are overwhelmed. Housing costs are out of control. The very communities Ford claims to be protecting need social supports, not slogans about “sparky.”

This Is Not Who We Are

In 1962, Ronald Turpin and Arthur Lucas became the last men to be put to death in this country. By the 1970s, Canadians recognized that state-sanctioned killing was not the path to justice, leading to the official abolition of capital punishment in 1976. The final step in bringing this grim practice to an end came in 1999, when the death penalty for military service offenses under the National Defence Act was also abolished.

We must not let leaders like Ford drag us backward.

To those who support the return of capital punishment, I ask this: Have you ever witnessed an execution? Have you ever watched a person strapped to a gurney, breathing their last as the state injects poison into their veins? Have you ever seen the weight prison staff carry, knowing they have been ordered to take a life? Because I have. And I would not wish that experience on anybody — not the condemned, not the executioners, and not the society that must bear its moral cost.

Doug Ford’s words were not just a joke. Either he does not understand the laws of his own country, or he does and is cynically playing to his political base, knowing he cannot be held accountable. In doing so, he is trivializing a system where real people are executed and real families are left to grieve.

We must make it clear: we are not willing to accept this kind of rhetoric. There is no place for the death penalty in Canada.

Not now. Not ever. 🦢