THE MEANSPIRITDENSS, CHAOS AND CORUPTION IN THE DOUG FORD REGIME IN ONTARIO SHOULD NOT SURPRISES US!

BILL LEE

July 10, 2019

Over the last months there have been a series of eruptions of citizen frustration and anger related to the various confusions, miseries, injustices and questions of propriety related to the mean spirited attacks on, and draconian cuts to, a really startling wide array of social, legal, education, political and health programs by the one year plus Conservative Ontario government of Doug Ford. Starting with radically change of the structure of government in the middle of the Toronto municipal election and then moving on to the cancelling of the experiment with a guaranteed minimum wage program and most recently an alteration of services (and reduction of funding) for parents with children who have autism, Ford and his gang of rippers and tearers have disrupted, confused and dismayed a huge swath of the Ontario citizenry. As well many people have been taken aback by the early and often emergence of evidence of Ford’s and his minions attempts at various acts of malign jiggery pokery (AKA, corruption) to reward his friends, and friends of other conservatives, with juicy public service positions for which most of them are supremely unqualified or under qualified. 

Added to this he has provided the wealthy (corporations and individuals) of the province with generous tax breaks. So it seems that us poor people of Ontario (or at least the one's that voted for Ford and the Cons in the last election) have been taken for suckers and rubes. We have been blind sided once again by those loathsome, sneaky politicians. But let us be honest here, do we really have a right to cry foul, that we have been taken for the proverbial ride? Examining the record of conservatives in general and Ford in particular, this should not be a surprise to anyone who has taken the time to pay the least attention. Indeed Ford himself has achieved rock bottom approval ratings lately and has become the first Ontario premier in known history to have his popularity fall so far so fast. He was recently booed lustily at the event honouring the Toronto Raptors for their winning of the professional basketball championship. None of this suggests that he cannot or will not recover but it is a remarkable decent. DOFO In Toronto

Long before DOFO arrived on the provincial scene he was elected as a one time counsellor in the City of Toronto. He took that opportunity to demonstrate his phenomenal lack of imagination in terms of urban life and an equally profound inability to understand the function of a government in a democracy. His Modus Vivendi never went beyond denunciations of taxes and of the perceived "enemies" of his poor and incompetent drug addled brother, the late Mayor Rob Ford. Oh, and DOFO was also strong proponent along with his brother, of killing a fully funded transit plan for Scarborough and pushing for a lavish subway line (that didn't have the population to support it1 that would not cost the "taxpayers" of Toronto a cent. He has always been a purveyor of snake oil, a flimflam man selling the rubes on ideas of bread and circuses (a gigantic Ferris wheel and a sky train on the Toronto waterfront during his stint on City Council). Indeed he and his brother, delighted in showing downright contempt for any democratic process.

The Slogans and Promises

Ford seems to want to govern by slogans rather than policy. During the last provincial elections in Ontario Ford's use of the cheap slogans - “looking out for the little guy”, "Buck a beer" and “the peoples’ government” - was always, and remains, nothing but a contemptible fraudulence attempting, with some success, to bamboozle the electorate. 2It is important to keep in mind that he and his merry and obsequious band of neoliberal trained seals3 have never had the least commitment or interest, nada, zip, zilch concern for the welfare of the citizens of Ontario. Whatever their rhetoric they clearly care nothing for the responsibility for protecting, let alone furthering the public good, surely the major reason of having a government in the first place. The notion of the public, or common, good is clearly totally foreign to their politics. They are demonstrating every day that their interest is narrow, focused on, and limited to, the enrichment of themselves individually and their friends in the business and corporate sector. Only when some sector of the public raise, over time, their anger, disgust and loud opposition to some vile and ill informed policy or action of this government does it reluctantly reverse itself. The DOFO government is one for the elites and of the elites. All others need not apply. But we should have seen it coming

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1Unfortunately this Scarborough subway fiasco continues with no end in site, but with a huge cost increases. Who knows whether the long suffering part of the farthest east part of the city will ever see a decent transit plan? As this is written he is snipping at the Federal government has not delivered promised money to his "project" for a relief line for the hard pressed TTC which, in fact, so far has no supporting information other than a vague and unevaluated route and a name change. 

2 The somewhat deserved unpopularity of the former Liberal government leader, Cathleen Wynne, and a general (and often legitimate) frustration and anger at governments of any all stripes carried the day sufficiently (not a majority but a plurality of the voters were taken in) for Doug Ford to take his place as the Premier of Ontario. 

3 The poor boobs have been made to leap to their feet and applaud like a claque whenever he makes one of announcements, mouths some specious comment or responds evasively to a question.