There is little reason to ever respect Ontario premier Doug Ford. It is not just that the man is untrained and unfit to be premier. It is the nature of the task that the man has taken on. He has no idea what it really requires.
The job requires compassion.
Recently I wrote a commentary about building a better society. I got some ribbing from readers about being a socialist because I said everyone in our society has to have shelter and clean drinking water. Despite global warming, Canadians are going to need shelter for many years to come. And it is our provincial governments that have to make sure those shelters are built.
We can hardly stand back and watch housing costs skyrocket in our cities. We have to reduce the pressures on the market by building more affordable and geared-to-income accommodation. It is the province that can make that happen. It is the province that can convince the builders.
Rather than build an unnecessary highway to the development lands of his builder friends, premier Ford needs to put the tax dollars into affordable housing—where it is needed most. He can let the federal government help but the constitution leaves the resolution to the provinces.
It is because compassion belongs here.
Healthcare is not a football to kick around either. Under the Ford government, Ontario’s hospitals have deteriorated, rapidly. Covid-19 does not get all the blame. Nurses, doctors and other healthcare workers are being mistreated. Hospitals are falling in community approvals. The food they are feeding patients is awful. The quality of care is falling. We are seeing racism, discrimination and uncaring in services. Staff are overworked and weary. Patient advocacy has become a joke.
Without compassion, hospitals are just unfriendly places in which to die.
And what about our schools. Remote learning is a failure of technology. We can hardly replace the human element in teaching our children. And education is not an exercise in public relations.
Without compassion, education becomes a rote exercise.
Without compassion, provincial governments fail us.
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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry
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