Commentary In 2018, Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives won a resounding majority in the Ontario provincial election. This gave them a strong mandate to implement their campaign promises. One promise was to overhaul the provincial math curriculum. Specifically, Ford promised to scrap “discovery math” and replace it with a strong “back-to-basics” curriculum. Ford’s pledge was both clear and unambiguous. Unfortunately, Ford and his ministers are finding out the hard way that managing education is a lot harder than campaigning. Despite rolling out a new math curriculum with some notable improvements, Ford’s government has found itself caught in a trap laid by his opponents. These opponents, however, were not the usual suspects—opposition politicians, hostile journalists, or organized lobbyists. Rather, the Ford government was tripped up by its own department officials and a bevy of education consultants. Judging by the language used in the new curriculum, the curriculum writers weren’t on the …