There was dancing in the streets of Toronto the other day. Doug Ford had capitulated. He has taken responsibility for the highways through the city. He has promised cash in the billions to fund the city’s needs. It was manna, not from heaven, but from Queen’s Park. And all the premier asked in return was to control the former artificial islands of Ontario Place. There is something very strange about the deal.
Doug Ford is a boor, a schemer and a conservative. He has made no secret of despising Toronto’s NDP-affiliated mayor. They are not friends. He put others ahead of her in the land rush version of a by-election. He was disappointed when she won. And yet, he gave into all her demands but one. He kept the foreign spa down on Lake Ontario.
There is a strange imbalance in this. Doug Ford might not be the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree at Queen’s Park. He just played a huge role as Santa Claus. What conservative Mike Harris down-loaded on Toronto when he was premier, back at the turn of the century, has been restored with interest.
The NDPers on Toronto council are ecstatic. They literally have money to burn—and they probably will. They have money for new housing. They can fix some of the dilapidated transit system. They can dig up some more major streets and turn the city into permanent gridlock for car and truck drivers. They even closed off the city’s grand boulevard, University Avenue, to replace a water pipe reputed to be 150 years old. The avenue will take years to be restored.
But down at the lake shore, there is trouble brewing. Doug Ford has some strange fascination with an imperial spa. He is lucky if he can spell ‘spa.’ I doubt he wants it built for his wife and daughters. Or is this one of those unisex spas?
What puzzles us is that we have no idea why this spa is so important to the premier. It was easy to see why he would give some developer friends an $8 billion gift in the Greenbelt. Those were the good guys as far as Doug Ford was concerned. They got him elected premier. They paved the road for Ford to Queen’s Park with gold.
Do those man-made islands on the lake shore explain the mysteries of Oak Island?
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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry
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