Like most Ontarians, I wasn’t expecting Doug Ford to win the leadership of the PC party, let alone become premier of this beautiful province. I think Ontarians were just as unprepared as Doug Ford himself for his ascendancy to Queen’s Park.
As a voter who takes the democratic process seriously, I was dumbfounded by Ford’s lack of a political platform. Voting for Ford was akin to going to a drive-through window and just accepting whatever the server was schlepping. All be honest, I did not like his brother Rob’s history and did not expect much from someone who grew up the sheltered environment that comes in a world where daddy is MPP under the infamous Mike Harris PCs.
One of the first things that bothered me about Dougie was his contempt for voters. All he had to offer us were hollow jingoist slogans:”For the People” and “Open for Business” come to mind. I mean, has a government ever claimed to be against the people, or has Ontario ever been closed to legal business? – Empty hollow soundbites.
Now, most voters would likely not have noticed, but another thing that immediately made me suspicious of Lord Ford was the utter absence of the French language on the PC party’s website once he became leader. Previous party leaders had a French version and all the other mainstream parties have a French version, but I guess the utility of French is hard to grasp when you grow up in Etobicoke. Still, he did go on public record as saying he would support the creation and financing of a French-language university in Ontario, so I hadn’t yet seen him as being openly hostile to the Francophones of this province.
However, one of his first moves was to suspend and further funding of the newly created Université de l’Ontario français. This institution had been an aspiration of the Franco-Ontarian community for over forty years. To be given a death knell so soon after its creation was unthinkable. If Doug had been a Francophone, I would have considered this an act of treason. Now, to be fair, I don’t think Dougie knew what he was doing. Heck, I don’t even think he knew that there were French speakers – I mean people actually born here who speak French daily, living and working in his home province. It’s as though he was completely ignorant of the fact that we have been here for over four hundred years and that our continued presence here is older than the province itself and that large parts of Ontario were once part of both New France and the Province of Quebec. I get the feeling that Dougie’s former Canadian history teacher is not bragging that he taught Dougie everything he knows about Canadian history.
So, not to be accused of taking small measures, Doug also thought it wise to get rid of the French-Language Services Commissioner. He cut funding to French-language paedagogical magazines, French language theatre arts group – La Scène in Ottawa and to French-language mental health care services. Did I mention that he got rid of the Minister of Francophone Affairs and appointed an Anglophone Quebecker, Caroline Mulroney, as Attorney General AND minister responsible for Francophone Affairs? As though being the province’s top officer of the court were not a full-time job. On that note, did I mention that she is a US attorney and not licensed to practise law in Canada? I guess if Harris could appoint a high school dropout, John Snobelen, as Minister of Education, I should see Caroline Mulroney’s appointment as progress within the PC tradition.
Fortunately, Francophones and Francophiles were quick to react and denounce Ford’s unwarranted attack on an official language minority. There were massive protests across the province and indeed across the country as official language minorities across the nation showed support for the beleaguered Franco-Ontarian population. Ford was quick to backtrack and make some concessions. The French-Language Commisionner’s Office could continue to exist under the Ombudsman. Caroline Mulroney was named Minister of Francophone Affairs and he said he would learn French and poor Andrew Scheer had to reassure the electorate that he supported bilingualism and the rights of linguistic minorities.
Doug has attacked other sectors, notably First Nations and the environment. It seems that protecting the environment involves a lot of unnecessary red tape and he’s all for cutting red tape, even when it’s there for a reason. He also got rid of the six million dollar man at a mere cost of 103 million dollars by interfering in Hydro One business and blowing a huge deal with Avista in Washington state. He also raised a lot of ire by forcing teachers to teach an outdated sex-ed curriculum and instituting a snitch-line to report teachers who did not go along with his plan.
Doug has a lot more in store for Ontarians and if there is anything to be learned from his rise to power, it may be our dire need for electoral reform. Doug likes to brag that he has a majority, the reality is not that simple. A mere 40% of voters chose Doug’s party on the ballot. That means 60% of those who bothered to vote wanted someone other than Doug and the Thugs. That’s hardly resounding support.
London Ontario tried a ranked ballot system last municipal election and I would like to see this spread across the nation to prevent what has happened here in Ontario from repeating itself or to prevent a situation like New Brunswick’s where the loosing party had more popular support than the party in power. First past the post has failed us. Doug will do whatever he and his business friends decide they like because the 60% of voters who voted against him do not matter. The best way to hold government accountable is to have a ranked ballot system that is more representative of what voters want or at least can live with. Doug Ford is neither of these things.