This is an open and shut case. Ontario premier Doug Ford is obviously an ideologue. His beliefs and actions in government prove that he is committed to extreme right-wing political ideals. His actions from day one of his winning the premier’s job where to change the Ontario government from a caring and responsible administration to a cheap and small-minded government that panders to the rich. He can shed all the crocodile tears for the poor and downtrodden he wishes but he is still an uncaring phony.
Among his first actions when he took office in 2018 was to cancel the liberal start at mandating paid sick days by Ontario-registered companies. He also canceled the plans to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour. He told us that these programs were “job killers.” He never told us what jobs he helped create by that foolishness.
And in a pandemic, the lack of sick days can kill people. Without paid sick days, desperate people, living on inadequate wages, are going to work sick. At work they become the super spreader of whatever it is making them sick. If it is covid-19 and its variants, it can kill fellow workers. The pandemic is filling our hospitals, usurping our hospitals’ intensive care units. It is costing our taxpayers millions of dollars every day and that ignorant man thinks he is saving money?
The federal government had recently mandated a $15 per hour minimum wage for federally incorporated companies and established a temporary federally-funded pay system for time off because of illness. It is a hastily created program and is awkward in its implementation and slow in payments. It will not last for long. And yet Doug Ford tied his totally inadequate plan for Ontario to the federal plan that few are using.
Do you remember when Ford was standing there in his late mother’s backyard? There he was, all teary-eyed about how great the Ontario plan was going to be. It became obvious over the following week that he had no plan at all. All he wanted to do was send the news media away with something positive to chew on. All we got was Doug Ford—friend of developers and millionaires—spouting his usual bullshit.
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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry
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