It is obvious that Ontario MPP Paul Calandra is living in the wrong century. He might have been more successful back in the late 19th Century. It was then, that people would collect curios and display them in their cabinet. Cabinets were the museums of those days. And the more surprises in the cabinet, the more you could charge for the public to see them.
The trick in many of the cabinets of that time where the efforts required to tell whether the display was of something real or something made up to confound the public and the experts. And there are few today equal in skill of Paul Calandra in deceiving the gullible among us.
Paul proved to be that man who was in the right place at the right time. Back when he was parliamentary secretary to the prime minister of Canada, in the Harper government, Paul proved his prowess. He towered over those weaklings who came before him. He proved he knew the difference between right and wrong and he never gave parliament the right answer. If the subject of the day was pigs, Paul would talk about cows. He once broke down and cried in the House of Commons because he claimed his conscience bothered him, but I don’t think he ever did come to the subject of the day’s question.
Premier Doug Ford needed a whipping boy. He was being attacked from the left, right and centre for his obvious scam with the Greenbelt. The media were murdering him. It was time to bring up the pinch hitter. Calandra had been marking time in the Ford cabinet as government house leader, minister of long-term care and minister of legislative affairs. I thought he was enjoying his retirement.
But, oh boy, was I wrong? It was as though the legislature had caught the wild wind. Paul Calandra was ready and waiting to take over as minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs—and he only had to give up long-term care. And he gets to sit up there with the big kids because he is also answering questions directed to the premier. It would take another blog to relay all the made-up stuff he says he is doing to clean up after the mess the previous minister left.
But it is all quite meaningless, just like the new minister.
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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry
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