Social media users claim Ford vacationed in Florida as trade war loomed. Here’s what we found

Social media users continue to claim that Ontario Premier Doug Ford flew to Florida on Feb. 28, the day after his election victory — but CBC News has confirmed that Ford was in Ontario when that flight took off.

The claim originally surfaced after social media users pointed out that a charter plane that was used by the premier’s Progressive Conservative campaign was scheduled to fly to a Florida airport on Friday from Toronto at approximately 1:30 p.m. Flight tracking data confirms that the plane did fly to Florida, returning on Sunday morning. 

Social media posts spread the original flight claim and many others, including one shared by former NDP MPP and federal NDP candidate Joel Harden on Monday, boosting the idea that Ford was on vacation. 

Many suggested the alleged trip was hypocritical since Canada and the U.S. are currently at odds over tariffs and U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats of annexation, with Ford being one of the loudest voices in the fight.

But CBC News’ visual investigation’s team has found that Ford could not have been on that Friday afternoon flight. Numerous visuals posted by users on various social media platforms place him in Toronto that evening attending a WWE event, hours after the flight to Miami had already left.

Harden did not reply to CBC News’ request for comment on his social media post by deadline.

Reached for comment, the premier’s team said Ford was in Ontario the entire weekend, and did not fly to Florida.

Ford’s office also shared an original image of Ford attending the WWE event in Toronto that was posted to X, and the image’s metadata — information automatically appended to a photo by digital cameras — shows it was taken after 5 p.m., about an hour before doors opened to the general public.

Ford also appeared in a recorded live stream of a funeral service for the late Paul Bronfman held on Sunday afternoon in Toronto, showing he was in the city at that time as well. While the charter plane did return to Toronto earlier that morning, all available evidence indicates that Ford remained in Ontario and did not somehow fly to Florida after the WWE event. 

CBC News doesn’t have visual evidence of Ford from Saturday.

Ford’s deputy chief of staff, Ivana Yelich, had already earlier in the week denied the claim that Ford had flown on the Friday charter flight.

“The campaign is over, and so is the Ontario PC Party’s use of the charter services. The end,” she said.

During the provincial election, Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie’s war room account posted a screenshot of the charter plane’s flight log, saying that the premier’s “private jet” had flown to Florida during the campaign.

The plane did go to Florida twice during the campaign, but Yelich said Ford and the campaign were elsewhere and that the charter company “continued to serve other customers” during the campaign.

CBC News reached out to the charter company but no one responded for comment.

Ford owns at least two condos in Florida near Miami, property records show, and the premier has spent time off there before.

On Monday, Ford — who has been among the harshest critics of Trump’s tariff and annexation threats — said he “can’t tell people to restrict their travel” to the United States.

Pushed on his own plans, Ford said “If I’ve gotta go down on business, I’ll go down on business. If I have to go to Washington, I’ll go to Washington, if I have to go visit governors, I’ll go visit governors.”