It hardly seems like Ontario premier Doug Ford’s summer is going as planned. The conservative populist is neither conserving much of what he rules over nor has he improved his popularity with Ontario citizens. And it just might be driving him to a point of showing signs of paranoia.
And that would be the last thing we need, a premier who becomes convinced that people are out to do him in. We are going to have to come at this problem with care.
There seems to be no question that he does not trust others. Why just the other week, he accused his attorney general, Mr. Downey of re-instituting the King’d Counsel title for use by Downey himself, and other deserving conservative lawyers, without telling his boss. You get the feeling that Ford is regretting his failure to stay in university and make something of himself. Instead, he sold labels for his daddy’s firm.
I am a layman when it comes to psychiatry but I have seen someone with paranoid symptoms close up. These are people who can be very defensive and easily offended. You sometimes have to walk on tip-toes around them.
But what I cannot fathom is this defensiveness for some of Doug Fords plans for Ontario. Ford certainly does not know how to respond to a response such as “that is a really dumb idea.” And he is getting it too often these days.
And he is always getting even with the people he thinks have disrespected him. One of the first things he did when moving into the premier’s office at Queen’s Park was order the city of Toronto to cut their number of planned members of council in half—even though the campaign had started. It appeared to be a pay-back for the treatment he received when at Toronto city hall. He made the job of the elected councilors almost impossible to carry out effectively.
When he decided to promote the proposed highway 413 that the liberals had rejected because it was not needed and ran through some of the better farming country and wet lands of Ontario. If you ever want to see a fat guy dig in his heels, tell Doug it is a highway to nowhere and not needed.
The spa he has arranged for at our Ontario Place islands at the Exhibition Grounds is a disgrace and a very bad use of what is supposed to be a park and why he would want to put a half-sized science centre with it is beyond my understanding. Maybe this would be a good time to upgrade the mental health services at Queen’s Park.
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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry
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