I doubt that Doug Ford reads much. I doubt that he's read George Orwell's novel, 1984. Maybe somebody's read it to him. He's certainly sounding like the man who coined the term doublespeak. Consider the government's spin on its cut to Toronto's public health budget. The province had previously funded 75% of the city's public health costs. But, Edward Keenan writes:
That funding is going down to a 50 per cent share by 2021. The immediate cut applying to this year’s budget is $64 million. It will be down by $102 million per year. $1 billion over 10 years. Mayor John Tory is using the same numbers as he also decries the cuts.
And they seem, on the surface, to align with the gist of what Premier Doug Ford said when he phoned in to a show on Global News Radio 640 on Tuesday and said the province was moving from funding 75 per cent of the department to 50 per cent of the department, which he dismissed as being the “folks who go around and go into restaurants and put the little stickers on saying it’s safe to eat.” The premier contrasted that with “the things that matter to people,” where he’d invest more money.
Travis Kann, the spokesman for health minister Christine Elliott, says that" these aren’t cuts at all! They’re merely “modernizing” by implementing a “shift to the cost-sharing funding model.” Kann said the province expects, given how big a priority the city says things like school nutrition programs and vaccinations and preventing epidemics of communicable diseases are, they expect these programs will not be cut at all."
Ford was in Bracebridge yesterday speaking to citizens there about the flooding they're currently experiencing. He pledged his "full support," even as he cuts flood relief funding by 50%. Ford may not know the definition of doublespeak. But he knows how to talk the talk. He's been doing it his entire life.
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And he'll keep lying to Ontarians so long as they keep swallowing his lies. It'll start to hurt soon enough. The play book says that, when the consequences hit, the approach is to blame "the other." That can extend the play a good deal, possibly long enough to win another election.
He's already starting to blame the other, Mound. He says that the NDP is the party that hates the police. You can see where this is going.
Keenan points out the essential cowardice of this government in not accepting responsibility for their cuts, Owen. I couldn't agree more.
They're bullies, Lorne. And, like all bullies, they're cowards.
The people of Ontario voted for Ford. Now they can learn to live with it or die because of it. He is following Gordon Campbell's advise, the former premier of B.C. and he and his political party almost destroyed the health care system in B.C., in my opinion. People like el gordo, as some of us referred to him, and people like Christy Clark and Ford, like to privatise things. Ford will down load as much as he can to the various municipal boards, such as the City of Toronto. things are not going to get better in Ontario, they will be getting worse, and trust me, this is only getting started. Wait until he starts "selling/giving away" public assets.
When the fent crisis first started in Canada, it started in B.C. What did the B.C. LieberCons do? Nothing. Christy Clark wouldn't even ban pill presses, which they at least did in Alberta. As they cut funding to the City of Toronto, you will notice and up tick in deaths due to lack of health care, marginalized people, children, etc.
So far Ford has tried to cut services to autistic children, cuts of environmental programs--trees, flooding, health care, education. Yes, its starting to look a lot like B.C. if Ford starts cutting taxes for corporations, he'll be defunding the province even further and there will be more cuts. Eventually people will really start to die because of Ford's cut. if their families get all upset about it ask them if they voted and for whom.
The one thing Ford will do is start telling Ontario is they have a balanced budget, but don't look too closely. If you need health care, consider moving to another province.
That's what "Open For Business" means, e.a.f. Privatize government.
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