It is not that often that I argue with Bob Hepburn of the Toronto Star. He is a very knowledgeable commentator. He gets the big bucks! It is just that he recently wrote a column for the Star headlined “Five reasons (Ontario premier) Ford may get re-elected.”
That is a sad, sad thought. The fact that Hepburn might be right is even sadder. And I say this with the confidence that both Hepburn and I know that Ford is a horse’s ass. Ontario voters did a terrible thing when they elected him and decimated the long-serving liberals. We are paying a terrible price during the pandemic for that colossal stupidity.
But the liberals deserved a lesson in humility. I agreed with the voters that Kathleen Wynne’s government was autocratic and useless. The liberals needed a time-out. We just did not know there was a pandemic around the corner that was going to crush us. It was not a good time for such incompetence in the premier’s office.
I think some of Hepburn’s rationale for his comments was specious. For example, I will ignore the old chestnut about Ontario voters preferring liberals in Ontario when there are conservatives in Ottawa.
But I will agree that the after affects (hopefully) of the pandemic will leave us with some major questions that might not be clear even as the pandemic memory fades.
I see just two factors that could help Mr. Ford in the June 2022 election. The first helper is a lady named Andrea Horwath. How the hell could anyone view her as a contender? Horwath has made Ford look almost reasonable. Her opposition to Ford and his government has been pathetic. The new democrats should have dumped her four years ago.
The second factor in the election is the question mark of liberal leader Stephen Del Duca. He was my last choice in a limited leadership field. The only liberal with any brains in that contest was Michael Coteau, MPP for Don Valley East. Michael appears to have given up on Queen’s Park and is hoping to win a federal seat in Ottawa.
Del Duca’s actions as leader remind me of the failure of Julius Caesar to bring his troops with him across the Rubicon. Ask me around the Ides of March next year just where Del Duca is headed.
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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry
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