Speed camera cash grab in Ford’s crosshairs
16 cameras sawed down in one night: someone is upset
After 30 more speed cameras were destroyed last week in Toronto, Doug Ford wants them all gone.
He is not alone. In April, Alberta’s United Conservative government moved to phase out photo radar units outside of school and construction zones, explicitly calling them a “cash cow” that gouged drivers without making roads safer. That precedent strengthens Ford’s case.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow insists they must stay. She castes the issue as life-and-death for children crossing busy streets but beneath the moral framing lies a far more basic fight a cash grab for a city that can’t control its spending.
Toronto has issued more than a million tickets since the program began, collecting tens of millions of dollars. For the drivers who get the bills in the mail, it feels like highway robbery, enforcement without warning, and no right to fight it in court.
It’s a fine that doesn’t change behavior. It is not hard to see why Ford smells a racket. Cameras generate steady revenue for municipalities without the costs of real policing. They punish ordinary commuters while doing little to stop the most reckless drivers.
Ford’s position taps into a longstanding resentment in the suburbs and small towns that gave him power. Families already stretched by rising costs are tired of being treated as revenue streams. They expect the premier to defend them from what looks like a quiet tax grab dressed up in political word salad.
By moving to ban the cameras, Ford is siding with motorists who feel that government has stopped solving problems and started monetizing them.
Chow’s message risks looking cynical. Cameras are not a panacea. They do not replace proper crosswalk design, better signage, or police presence. To lean so heavily on the idea that lives will be lost without photo radar exposes a weakness.
The city has become reliant on fines to fund its operations. The politics of fear, tied to revenue dependence, may not be the winning hand she imagines. The premier is betting that most Ontarians prefer fairness over hidden tolls, and genuine safety measures over punitive tickets.
In a fight between drivers and cash-hungry city halls, Ford is staking his claim as the one leader willing to call out the cameras for what they are – cash cows.
Ian Connerty is a former Senior Advisor to Federal and Provincial Cabinet Ministers
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— Tablesalt 🇨🇦 (@Tablesalt13) September 10, 2025
A team of "organized vandals" cutdown SIXTEEN speed ticket cameras
in Toronto last night. WOW
Canadians. HAVE. HAD. ENOUGH! pic.twitter.com/8j8gemfeGW
