In many years of running major political events, one of the automatic considerations is always security. There is no question that well publicized events of that nature can attract the less mentally stable of society with their real or imagined complaints. And because you never know what can happen, you are happy to leave the security to the professionals.
And when a politician interferes with the professionals, he does so at his peril. Ontario premier Doug Ford is putting himself at risk.
A number of security issues have come forward since Dougie is reported to have made sure his friend Ron Taverner was chosen as the new head of the Ontario Provincial Police. Present and former commissioners have labelled it a travesty but it is not the most egregious act of a vain and ignorant person.
Wanting his friends on his security detail tells you a number of things about this man that he might not want everyone to know. It can be either a problem with booze or keeping his penis in his pants. It is also very foolish. Guards such as this tend to pay too much attention to the person they are guarding and not enough to the situation through which they are moving.
The problem seems more likely to be womanizing when he also asked for a large camper-type vehicle—“off the books.” I have had to book day rooms in hotels for candidates over the years and have often considered a mobile home as an even better solution—though I never figured out where to find drive-in maid service to get the sheets changed regularly. It sure does not come under the job description of the security detail.
But if you have ever wondered who the security people might be at an event, just check around for the people looking out towards the crowd and not at the subject needing security.
I always had a rule that once a function was under way, whatever happened was supposed to happen. My job was done. I most often had a spot picked ahead of time where I could see well and count the crowd for the news media and it was not unusual to find one of those people with a ‘hearing aid’ and a mic in their sleeve already there. All they got was a nod. They were at work.
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Copyright 2018 © Peter Lowry
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