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Ford AbomiNation
They’re laying off teachers at your child’s high school. The sex ed curriculum is right out of Father Knows Best. Health care workers are toast and folks who once worked with autistic kids are now Walmart greeters. Your local MPP has turned into a robot spouting whatever the Dear Leader tells her to. And trees and libraries are officially Public Enemies One and Two.
But hey, you can go to your corner store and get beer for a buck, so who cares, right?
Welcome to Doug Ford’s Ontario.
So many things Ontarians have held sacred are under attack from the province’s new premier that sometimes the only thing you can do is laugh. That’s going to be slightly easier with a copy of Ford AbomiNation.
Bestselling author Linwood Barclay’s satirical sendup of Ford Nation will put a smile on your face while you contemplate the end of everything that’s made Ontario such a great place to live.
But hey, you can go to your corner store and get beer for a buck, so who cares, right?
Welcome to Doug Ford’s Ontario.
So many things Ontarians have held sacred are under attack from the province’s new premier that sometimes the only thing you can do is laugh. That’s going to be slightly easier with a copy of Ford AbomiNation.
Bestselling author Linwood Barclay’s satirical sendup of Ford Nation will put a smile on your face while you contemplate the end of everything that’s made Ontario such a great place to live.
128 pages, Paperback
Published November 5, 2019
4 people are currently reading
122 people want to read
About the author
Linwood Barclay
81 books7,216 followersLinwood Barclay is the #1 internationally bestselling author of seventeen novels for adults, including No Time for Goodbye, Trust Your Eyes and, most recently, A Noise Downstairs. He has also written two novels for children and screenplays.
Three of those seventeen novels comprise the epic Promise Falls trilogy: Broken Promise, Far From True, and The Twenty-Three. His two novels for children – Chase and Escape – star a computer-enhanced dog named Chipper who’s on the run from the evil organization that turned him into a super-pup.
Barclay’s 2011 thriller, The Accident, has been turned into the six-part television series L’Accident in France, and he adapted his novel Never Saw it Coming for the movie, directed by Gail Harvey and starring Eric Roberts and Emily Hampshire. Several of his other books either have been, or still are, in development for TV and film.
After spending his formative years helping run a cottage resort and trailer park after his father died when he was 16, Barclay got his first newspaper job at the Peterborough Examiner, a small Ontario daily. In 1981, he joined the Toronto Star, Canada’s largest circulation newspaper.
He held such positions as assistant city editor, chief copy editor, news editor, and Life section editor, before becoming the paper’s humour columnist in 1993. He was one of the paper’s most popular columnists before retiring from the position in 2008 to work exclusively on books.
In 2004, he launched his mystery series about an anxiety-ridden, know-it-all, pain-in-the-butt father by the name of Zack Walker. Bad Move, the first book, was followed by three more Zack Walker thrillers: Bad Guys, Lone Wolf, and Stone Rain. (The last two were published in the UK under the titles Bad Luck and Bad News.)
His first standalone thriller, No Time for Goodbye, was published in 2007 to critical acclaim and great international success. The following year, it was a Richard and Judy Summer Read selection in the UK, and did seven straight weeks at #1 on the UK bestseller list, and finished 2008 as the top selling novel of the year there. The book has since been sold around the world and been translated into nearly thirty languages.
Barclay was born in the United States but moved to Canada just before turning four years old when his father, a commercial artist whose illustrations of cars appeared in Life, Look and Saturday Evening Post (before photography took over), accepted a position with an advertising agency north of the border. Barclay, who graduated with an English literature degree from Trent University, in Peterborough, Ontario, was fortunate to have some very fine mentors; in particular, the celebrated Canadian author Margaret Laurence, whom Linwood first met when she served as writer-in-residence at Trent, and Kenneth Millar, who, under the name Ross Macdonald, wrote the acclaimed series of mystery novels featuring detective Lew Archer. It was at Trent that he met Neetha, the woman who would become his wife. They have two grown children, Spencer and Paige.
Three of those seventeen novels comprise the epic Promise Falls trilogy: Broken Promise, Far From True, and The Twenty-Three. His two novels for children – Chase and Escape – star a computer-enhanced dog named Chipper who’s on the run from the evil organization that turned him into a super-pup.
Barclay’s 2011 thriller, The Accident, has been turned into the six-part television series L’Accident in France, and he adapted his novel Never Saw it Coming for the movie, directed by Gail Harvey and starring Eric Roberts and Emily Hampshire. Several of his other books either have been, or still are, in development for TV and film.
After spending his formative years helping run a cottage resort and trailer park after his father died when he was 16, Barclay got his first newspaper job at the Peterborough Examiner, a small Ontario daily. In 1981, he joined the Toronto Star, Canada’s largest circulation newspaper.
He held such positions as assistant city editor, chief copy editor, news editor, and Life section editor, before becoming the paper’s humour columnist in 1993. He was one of the paper’s most popular columnists before retiring from the position in 2008 to work exclusively on books.
In 2004, he launched his mystery series about an anxiety-ridden, know-it-all, pain-in-the-butt father by the name of Zack Walker. Bad Move, the first book, was followed by three more Zack Walker thrillers: Bad Guys, Lone Wolf, and Stone Rain. (The last two were published in the UK under the titles Bad Luck and Bad News.)
His first standalone thriller, No Time for Goodbye, was published in 2007 to critical acclaim and great international success. The following year, it was a Richard and Judy Summer Read selection in the UK, and did seven straight weeks at #1 on the UK bestseller list, and finished 2008 as the top selling novel of the year there. The book has since been sold around the world and been translated into nearly thirty languages.
Barclay was born in the United States but moved to Canada just before turning four years old when his father, a commercial artist whose illustrations of cars appeared in Life, Look and Saturday Evening Post (before photography took over), accepted a position with an advertising agency north of the border. Barclay, who graduated with an English literature degree from Trent University, in Peterborough, Ontario, was fortunate to have some very fine mentors; in particular, the celebrated Canadian author Margaret Laurence, whom Linwood first met when she served as writer-in-residence at Trent, and Kenneth Millar, who, under the name Ross Macdonald, wrote the acclaimed series of mystery novels featuring detective Lew Archer. It was at Trent that he met Neetha, the woman who would become his wife. They have two grown children, Spencer and Paige.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
January 18, 2020
Ford AbomiNation by Linwood Barclay is a humorous look at what Ontario Premier Ford is doing to his province. The audio version is narrated by the author who, when he is not skewering politicians, is a bestselling author of fiction. One feels, upon listening to this, that if the situation was not such a disaster, it would be comical. All aspects of Ontarians’ daily lives have been targeted: healthcare, education, the environment, special needs students, wind farms, etc. Premier Ford hates marijuana but loves cheap beer. This was a quick and enjoyable book and I recommend it to all Ontarians who, by now, are feeling a wee bit nervous these days.
February 9, 2020
My experience with Linwood Barclay has solely been with his stellar novels of fiction and intrigue. Before he became a bestselling author, Barclay was a humour writer for a Toronto newspaper. This piece, full of dry wit and sarcasm (my language!), has Barclay using his sharp pen (and tongue) to offer some analysis of what is going on in Ontario with Premier Doug Ford. While readers are best to have some foreknowledge of the Ford Nation and Ontario politics, the humour-filled narrative is enough to fill in many of the gaps any outsider has in their understanding. Barclay, pulls no punches as he mocks, teases, and lightheartedly dismantles the current Progressive Conservative leader’s ideas and acts, listing all those who are on the hit list for reasons unknown. As autistic students suffer his budgetary pen and vehement speeches, the sex education curriculum would have Ward Cleaver tipping is pipe towards Ford. Ontario’s forests beware, as there is a massive extension to Toronto’s subways needed to get to the Ford summer cottage, and books... who reads them and so why should we offer publishing incentives? Barclay shows that Ford is Canada’s Trump (and yes, the premier has a degree from Trump University), willing to do what he thinks and with sycophants lapping up his every word. With a similarly indoctrinating premier here in Alberta, we are surely on our way to a similar demise, set to be the laughing stock of left and centre-right Canadians before long. Recommended to those who need a humorous boost, as well as the reader who wants to explore some of the lighter parts of Canadian provincial politics.
This is a short piece, just over 100 printed pages (and close to 2 hours of audio). For the reader who needs to sit back, the audiobook is read by Linwood Barclay himself, who injects all the humour from off the page. In a zippy narrative, Barclay lays out all his arguments and wraps them in sarcasm, such that any Ford officials would be tied-up for days to see that they are the brunt of jokes. Short chapters handle a variety of topics that allows this to be read in a single sitting, while leaving them feeling better educated, or at least protected from all the dastardly ideas that spew from Queen’s Park (Ontario’s legislature) until the Ontario electorate is able to offer their voice on what is going on. While Barclay might have penned this to offer staunch mockery, his seriousness cannot be lost on the attentive reader. Proof positive why I enjoy Linwood Barclay’s writing so much. Fiction or non-, I cannot get enough!
Kudos, Mr. Barclay, for giving me a few giggles as I shake my head from out West! God help us if you, or another, seek to develop something about our Jason Kenney!
Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
A Book for All Seasons, a different sort of Book Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
This is a short piece, just over 100 printed pages (and close to 2 hours of audio). For the reader who needs to sit back, the audiobook is read by Linwood Barclay himself, who injects all the humour from off the page. In a zippy narrative, Barclay lays out all his arguments and wraps them in sarcasm, such that any Ford officials would be tied-up for days to see that they are the brunt of jokes. Short chapters handle a variety of topics that allows this to be read in a single sitting, while leaving them feeling better educated, or at least protected from all the dastardly ideas that spew from Queen’s Park (Ontario’s legislature) until the Ontario electorate is able to offer their voice on what is going on. While Barclay might have penned this to offer staunch mockery, his seriousness cannot be lost on the attentive reader. Proof positive why I enjoy Linwood Barclay’s writing so much. Fiction or non-, I cannot get enough!
Kudos, Mr. Barclay, for giving me a few giggles as I shake my head from out West! God help us if you, or another, seek to develop something about our Jason Kenney!
Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
A Book for All Seasons, a different sort of Book Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
January 21, 2020
Before he became a bestselling writer of thrillers – like Trust Your Eyes and A Noise Downstairs – Barclay was a humour columnist for the Toronto Star. This book is a very funny, and clever, reminder of that.
The book critiques Ontario's current Premier, Doug Ford, brother of Rob (Toronto's late, crack-smoking mayor) and hater of libraries, the environment, autistic kids, progressive sex-ed in high schools, robust city councils, health care, carbon tax, you name it.
What does Doug like, you might wonder? Political patronage appointments to completely underqualified people. "Buck a beer" in corner stores. Oy, gevalt.
Some of this short book was indeed funny, but some jokes were groanworthy and some things were just too painfully real.
Which I suppose is the purpose of satire.
The book critiques Ontario's current Premier, Doug Ford, brother of Rob (Toronto's late, crack-smoking mayor) and hater of libraries, the environment, autistic kids, progressive sex-ed in high schools, robust city councils, health care, carbon tax, you name it.
What does Doug like, you might wonder? Political patronage appointments to completely underqualified people. "Buck a beer" in corner stores. Oy, gevalt.
Some of this short book was indeed funny, but some jokes were groanworthy and some things were just too painfully real.
Which I suppose is the purpose of satire.
October 28, 2019
Reminds me of reading Barclay's columns back at the Star- super funny, and Doug can't help but keep providing more material to mine every day.
I also love that the publisher offers a free digital copy of the book with the purchase of the physical copy - I wish every publisher did this.
I also love that the publisher offers a free digital copy of the book with the purchase of the physical copy - I wish every publisher did this.
Read
January 17, 2020This was the book I needed to read. Satire in fact, yet true in spirit. Thank you, Linwood Barclay, for writing down what we are all thinking (well, all of us apart from the senseless people who voted for Ford; I am still shocked that there were any, let alone enough to get him into power).
January 10, 2022
What a coincidence to read this on election year. Most of the things discussed went over my head, though.
November 24, 2019
Hilarious. And true.
January 22, 2020
Very tongue in cheek but hilariously accurate!
Read
July 21, 2021This was an odd read. I'm glad to see Barclay return to writing political satire! But political satire relies on topicality, and as this came out right before the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems like it was from a million years ago. Topics like getting the police to pay for the premier's new van off the books, or staffers commiting nepotism would normally be a big deal, and Barclay had no way of knowing what was coming, but it all seems like small buck-a-beer compared to our current reality.
November 5, 2019
A fun return for Linwood Barclay to the realm of political satire.
April 2, 2021
Humour and politics from the man of mystery... and yet it works. In Toronto, many of us know first hand of the nightmare that was the Ford brothers on city council.
With a Pandemic upon us and the low bar of 'successful' daily reports from Premier Ford this book could seem a little dated. But the news of what he did and did not do in his first days in office continue to be relevant. Folksy, bumbling charm is not enough to guide the economic engine that is Ontario, Canada in 2021.
Author Lynwood Barclay reminds us of the uncomfortable truth. Fake humble rich guys do not have our best interests at heart when they run for office. And slash and burn cost cutting will not save our health care or our education systems. We can do better than muzzling health teachers to an antiquated set of teaching rules in the age of Aids, Pandemic viruses, cyber bullying and vaccine misinformation. Kids deserve facts and guidance not dated fairy tales and cancelations.
I wish this was not still so important.
But it is. Thanks Linwood Barclay for taking a stab at informing the rest of us.
With a Pandemic upon us and the low bar of 'successful' daily reports from Premier Ford this book could seem a little dated. But the news of what he did and did not do in his first days in office continue to be relevant. Folksy, bumbling charm is not enough to guide the economic engine that is Ontario, Canada in 2021.
Author Lynwood Barclay reminds us of the uncomfortable truth. Fake humble rich guys do not have our best interests at heart when they run for office. And slash and burn cost cutting will not save our health care or our education systems. We can do better than muzzling health teachers to an antiquated set of teaching rules in the age of Aids, Pandemic viruses, cyber bullying and vaccine misinformation. Kids deserve facts and guidance not dated fairy tales and cancelations.
I wish this was not still so important.
But it is. Thanks Linwood Barclay for taking a stab at informing the rest of us.
June 15, 2023
This is my first Barclay read. I was checking him out at the local library because he is a Canadian author. Before I could check out his other material (mainly crime thrillers), I found this book. It is a satire that looks at the controversial leadership of the Ontario Conservative government under Doug Ford.
I found myself laughing out loud (to the annoyance of my wife) while listening to what has happened through the first couple years of the Ford Reign. The summary comprises well known public facts, (Buck-a-Beer was solid legislation) but seen through the quick wit of an accomplished writer. If you have shaken your head at the antics of the Ford government, you’ll definitely enjoy this group of comical (in a sad way) essays. I think it is high time the author brings forth a sequel, because what Ontario voters have done to themselves by giving Ford a second majority. (Man, do we enjoy shooting ourselves in the foot.)
I promise to review a Barclay thriller next.
I found myself laughing out loud (to the annoyance of my wife) while listening to what has happened through the first couple years of the Ford Reign. The summary comprises well known public facts, (Buck-a-Beer was solid legislation) but seen through the quick wit of an accomplished writer. If you have shaken your head at the antics of the Ford government, you’ll definitely enjoy this group of comical (in a sad way) essays. I think it is high time the author brings forth a sequel, because what Ontario voters have done to themselves by giving Ford a second majority. (Man, do we enjoy shooting ourselves in the foot.)
I promise to review a Barclay thriller next.
November 6, 2021
I gave it to you; I rounded up! It’s definitely amused at times I shit you not”! Otherwise, I wish I knew how you would write it today.
I wasn’t a fan of his or his “politics”/ buck-a-beer plans prior to being elected.
However, early on in the (Ontario-affected) pandemic I felt like he was doing an especially amazing job considering the difficulty and lack of information, and my preexisting expectation of him doing a lousy job! (He’s human, and disagrees on my priorities enough that that was eventually evened out) but I think it’s important to note that despite all of his bad and truly awful Trump-like ideals, at times he was able to look at the big picture, be encouraging, feel the human pain of the lockdowns (when he wasn’t flouting against his own words) and be a believable public face of the pandemic.
I wasn’t a fan of his or his “politics”/ buck-a-beer plans prior to being elected.
However, early on in the (Ontario-affected) pandemic I felt like he was doing an especially amazing job considering the difficulty and lack of information, and my preexisting expectation of him doing a lousy job! (He’s human, and disagrees on my priorities enough that that was eventually evened out) but I think it’s important to note that despite all of his bad and truly awful Trump-like ideals, at times he was able to look at the big picture, be encouraging, feel the human pain of the lockdowns (when he wasn’t flouting against his own words) and be a believable public face of the pandemic.
May 19, 2025
After a 2nd re-election of outright corruption, reading this book was a little cathartic. There were so many things, where I was like, I can't believe people forgot about this too! I guess ruining healthcare, education, transit, auto worker jobs isn't enough; some people just really hate gay people.
Well needed humor with some funny editorial comics on the side. May not be everyone's sense of dark humor.
Well needed humor with some funny editorial comics on the side. May not be everyone's sense of dark humor.
October 30, 2020
If Linwood Barclay wants to make a book like this for all the major politicians I'd be so down.
This was a good time. Bonus, the author narrates the audiobook.
If news reporters wanted to make me aware of things by using wit and humour like this, I'd be much more informed than I already am.
This was a good time. Bonus, the author narrates the audiobook.
If news reporters wanted to make me aware of things by using wit and humour like this, I'd be much more informed than I already am.
January 9, 2021
Fun read. Made me chuckle!
March 14, 2021
Hilarious, in a dark humour sort of way since Ford is still with us.
October 26, 2022
A satirical look at Doug Ford as premier of Ontario & Ford Nation. Very funny.
February 26, 2020
I loved reading Lynwood Barclay’s articles in the Toronto Star newspaper; I would laugh so much! This short book is also full of laughs except that what he points out about our current provincial premier and government is kind of depressing, too. Worth reading.
December 10, 2024
Ford AbomiNation
Linwood Barclay
A tongue in cheek diatribe describing Fat Ford’s government. Related by birth to that clown prince Rob who was mayor of Toronta. Surely they could find a landfill, AKA Dump, to name after both but the proposal is for an Arena in Etobicoke. Well maybe they should be put on ice.
Give the people Buck a Beer and alcohol at the corner grocery store and pot grown in a mine in Flin Flon and maybe they’ll ignore the fact their kid’s schools are underfunded, they can’t find a doctor, and Emergency Rooms are closed. And if they’re drunk enough maybe the pot holes won’t bother them. If you stop tracking the spread of Covid you don’t have to take unpopular measures to stop it.
The Doughboy believes parks and green space are wasted development opportunities. Is it a coincidence his latest pet highway is 4-13. Who else could come up with a tunnel under the 401. Or turn a people’s park into a playground for the rich and famous. Maybe there really is a Santa Clause.
Linwood Barclay
A tongue in cheek diatribe describing Fat Ford’s government. Related by birth to that clown prince Rob who was mayor of Toronta. Surely they could find a landfill, AKA Dump, to name after both but the proposal is for an Arena in Etobicoke. Well maybe they should be put on ice.
Give the people Buck a Beer and alcohol at the corner grocery store and pot grown in a mine in Flin Flon and maybe they’ll ignore the fact their kid’s schools are underfunded, they can’t find a doctor, and Emergency Rooms are closed. And if they’re drunk enough maybe the pot holes won’t bother them. If you stop tracking the spread of Covid you don’t have to take unpopular measures to stop it.
The Doughboy believes parks and green space are wasted development opportunities. Is it a coincidence his latest pet highway is 4-13. Who else could come up with a tunnel under the 401. Or turn a people’s park into a playground for the rich and famous. Maybe there really is a Santa Clause.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews