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FORD’S VOLTA FACE IS GOOD NEWS, BUT WE’RE NOT DONE YET by Bill Lee

So, the Green Belt is no longer slated to be sacrifices as a field of gold for the enrichment of Doug Ford’s ego and his best friends, avaricious developers. The Premier has been forced to walk back his insane plan to hand over precious land that is badly needed for food production and as an important part of any strategy to avoid the worst disasters of climate crisis we are facing.

While Ford’s news conference, with his cabinet arrayed behind him, was a text book example of grovelling, fake penitence and a reluctant admission of only the smallest of wrong doings, the Premier has announced that he is eating crow and is surrendering to the overwhelming public anger at this outrage.

On the face of it, it all looks good. Chock up one for a badly battered democracy showing signs of working as it should. The press, social media and general discourse has been full of, first shock that he so blatantly broke his promise to keep his sweaty hands of the Greenbelt, then, very quickly anger and rage at the announcement of the Premier’s latest squalid attempt to use the power of elected office to funnel money to his friends in the moneyed classes. The various voluntary, if reluctant (i.e. forced) resignations of several CPO politicos, two party hacks and two members of the Legislature, one of them a well-known member of his inner circle, has apparently worn him down. All the anger, which has been clearly seen in the polls, has obviously brought Ford, and whatever of that inner circle he convened, to conclude that the jig is up in this caper. One can imagine the rueful discussion remembering the good old days of privatizing important public health care services. And equally there would have been talk of the ability to shovel truckloads of public purse cash to private and for profit senior care centres. But they doubtless saw the writing on the wall. Handing over the green belt to private enterprise was a bridge too far for the citizens of Ontario. Disaster management, and rather fundamental disaster management, would have to be undertaken. As a result we have had today’s press conference. As I said, this is a good news story.

But, “Folks” (as our Premier is wont to call us citizens) let us be realistic. Let us keep in mind that this guy’s history is clear, and damning. He is a corrupt politician, a grifter, a twister, who glories in attempts to foist grandiose plans that, at base, are simply ugly money making projects for the enrichment of his friends. Remember that wacko plan to build a gargantuan ferris wheel, rather than housing on Toronto’s Portlands. And more recently his project to fob off a huge spa business on the site of a “rejuvenated” Ontario Place with an underground parking lot for over two thousand cars. Almost simultaneously he announced his plan to throw the much loved and celebrated Ontario Science Centre into the garbage can again, supposedly, to build housing. And these boondoggles and affronts to good taste and history are still in store for us as far as Doug is concerned. It is all too, too frustratingly familiar. Ford’s standard modus operandi has always been to make back room deals, lie outrageously and hatch plans behind the backs of the Ontario citizenry.

Given this history, and the good news of the day, it still remains important that we remain on guard. It is crucial for the public good that we do not trust this duplicitous blackguard any farther than anyone can throw him. For one thing there are a number of “Ford Projects” still slated, the ones mentioned above for example. And as the Ontario environmental organization, Ecojustice (2023) reminds us:

The provincial government is still using poor planning policies, such as highways through the Greenbelt, and forcing communities like Hamilton to expand onto greenspaces. These are big giveaways to many of the same speculators who benefited from the Greenbelt removals, and many followed the same kind of biased, chaotic process. These other attacks on greenspace around the Greenbelt and across Southern Ontario need to be reversed too.

Thus, we must continue to remind ourselves to keep a sharp collective eye on him as well as keeping up the pressure. And we need to maintain a commitment to understanding that ultimately he and his unscrupulous gang of despicable malefactors must be thrown out of office at the next election.

References

Ecojustice (2023). Victory! Ontario reverses course on Greenbelt development. https://ecojustice.ca/news/statement-from-ecojustice-on-ontarios-reversal-of-greenbelt-plan/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=engagingnetworks&utm_campaign=bn_2023.09.22&utm_content=2023.09.22+Greenbelt+win

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