Looking ahead in Ontario for 2023 is not a pretty prospect. We are faced with three more years of the ineptness of premier Doug Ford and his conservatives. He does nothing for the people, while feathering the nests of his developer friends. He gives no hand up to the citizens suffering the ravages of inflation. He is attempting to politicize our policing and judicial systems. He ravages the democracy of which we are so proud. He makes promises and fails to keep them. He lacks the perception to perceive his errors, the intelligence to understand his errors and the honesty to admit to his errors.
In the throes of the election, he promised to protect the Greenbelt. Now he wants to swap an area, including the town of Erin, for pieces of the Greenbelt, probably bought up by developer friends. He wants to give ‘super’ powers to cities that allow them to use minority voting to pass by-laws desired by the province. Democracy be damned.
Ontario has enjoyed many years of a fair and impartial judicial system. Mr. Ford’s attorney general is trying to change that. It was publicly claimed that his solicitor general told her counterpart in Ottawa to “Fuck Off” when he called her to ask for some help. If there are neither financial nor political benefits, Ford’s conservatives are not interested.
And they have milked our healthcare system of funds to the extent that it can no longer serve the needs of the citizens. The conservatives are letting people die needlessly in Ontario. It holds nurses to a one per cent raise and then gives some a cash bonus not to quit their jobs. They quit anyway. The Tories cut taxes for their friends and then demand that the federal government help make up the shortfall.
They demand that the cities build more homes and then take away the fees that the cities use to pay for getting services to these homes. Ford tells us that he is going to have 50,000 homes built in the Greenbelt. He fails to tell us where the services for those homes will come from. He tells us his government will extend the life of nuclear generation facilities in the province, well beyond the facilities’ potential life.
And in the brutal cold of winter, Doug Ford and his cronies will leave the indigent to die cold and hungry on the streets. They will tell you it is their own fault.
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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry
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