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DOUG FORD IS NOT UP TO THE JOB by Wayne Johnston


DOUG FORD IS NOT UP TO THE JOB Wayne Johnston

Doug Ford wanted to have a virtual fundraiser last Thursday, at $1K a pop. It was cancelled due to public outcry. Clearly, he is out of touch with the disaster of unmitigated proportions he helped create, while at the same time cutting $1B from healthcare to pay for all the breaks he’s given his CEO friends and donors. Unbelievably folks are getting very ill, many are dying needlessly, and dithery Doug fiddles while Ontario burns. His kind of, but not really, lockdowns are driven by politics.

The facts are that the crowds who believe “it’s all a hoax, I’m not wearing a mask nor getting vaccinated, to hell with social distancing, what about my rights and freedoms” tend to be right leaning in their politics. In other words, the Tory base. Under no circumstances will Doug Ford and his pack of death merchants ever cause the base to be angry or get upset. Hence Doug Ford’s semi, kind of, would you please stay at home lockdowns. People are dying and getting long term illnesses for Conservative political expediency.

Ontario and Alberta are by far the worst disaster zones due to worse than lousy provincial leadership. Ford and Kenny practice political gamesmanship, not governance. Ford foolishly thinks we can vaccinate our way out of this. Simply put, it can’t be done. It’s pretty much a mathematical impossibility given the exponential growth in cases. He and Kenny are responsible for a large number of deaths, due to their inaction and extremely weak and ineffective lock downs.

You can bank on things continuing to go pear shaped with these two clowns at the helm. If Ontario doesn’t get a grip very soon, we are modelling for 18K cases per day. Do the math folks, this is the worst domestic crisis we have faced in living memory. Some think he’s doing a good job. What metric are they using for comparison?! I’m pretty sure my cats could show more leadership than our feckless Premier.

Some are saying the leader of Her Majesties Official Opposition isn’t helping. That’s simply a falsehood. Horvath and the NDP have tabled a number of common sense, practical, sound measures that will help get us out of this crisis. But our so-called Government of Ontario refuses to listen to them. Why would they? NDP policy ideas are similar to those of medical and science professionals.

Of course, Trudeau certainly doesn’t get a free pass. At times he has dithered, as in his governments initial lack of urgency about the pandemic. And one could logically argue that the roll out of vaccinations has not gone smoothly. But, while the issue of vaccination supply has been of concern, we can thank previous Tory Prime Minister Brian Mulroney for selling off Connaught Labs, and following governments, Conservative and Liberal, for their failure to correct the blunder. Moving forward we as a nation must invest in our own vaccine production for future needs. As well, post COVID, we must restrict access to entry into Canada based on having proof of vaccination, be it for business or pleasure. Frankly I suspect most nations will enact restricted entry.

Part of me thinks the Federal Government needs to impose national overarching emergency measures. However, the push back from some of the Premiers would make it difficult. In particular the push back from Ford and Kenny would be colossal. Go figure... the provinces with the worst covid situations have the least effective leaders. The two have much in common, both are woefully ill equipped as leaders during a crisis. Both are Tories who put business and their corporate donors’ profits over the health and welfare of citizens in their provinces. Both of them refuse to listen to science and medicine. Both have a pathological fear and loathing of even the thought of taxing the monied class.

The numbers of cases and deaths speak volumes to the level of incompetence and frankly the level of caring and compassion, or lack thereof. Figures don’t lie. I suspect that this is going to get far worse for Ontario before it gets better. As it stands now, we are asking other provinces for help with medical staff, especially nurses. Hmmm why do we have a huge shortage of nurses in Ontario? Oh yeah, another ill-advised decision by an Ontario Premier, cutting nursing staff to the bone. All for the sake of imagined efficiencies dreamt up by Mike Harris. To give you a minuscule tax cut that in no way improves your quality of life. Actually, it has been quite the opposite.·

Curse of the Tory
Harris, yet another Tory ghost from Ontario’s past, returning to haunt us. My Irish Mother told me as a young lad what Tories were. The Celtic people have known for centuries the true meaning of Tory. In Irish or Gaelic, “Toraidhe” is the word for Tory. It means plunderer, robber, thief, barbarian and yobbo. You can look it up. (Lexico. https://www.lexico.com/definition/tory). It remains as true as it ever was. Ontarian’s need to remember the meaning of Toraidhe when we next elect a provincial government and throw these dung beetles out with the trash.

Please Doug Go!
It’s at difficult times like this that people need inspiration, motivation, truth and honesty, a plan to follow that is short, medium and long-term. In a word leadership. Real leaders rise to the occasion during a crisis. Doug Ford and his pitiful caucus have been weighed, measured and found severely lacking. For pity’s sake remove yourselves and resign. You are part of the problem not part of the solution. Lives are at stake, and you insist on playing politics and fundraising. You are simply not fit to be Premier.
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· The day this article is being readied for publication Mr. Ford continues in his failure of leadership. Rather than creating a meaningful 14-day sick leave benefit for workers he has delivered a paltry three days of paid leave which cannot possibly allow them to avoid being faced with the no-win choice of going to work ill, and perhaps infecting others, or not having sufficient wages for food or rent.

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