This week, Doug Ford showed us how a government which has adopted the motto "for the people" operates. Martin Regg Cohn writes:
The news this week that Ford has rewarded one of his closest campaign cronies with a plum patronage posting to Washington isn’t especially surprising. What is appalling is that he has doubled down on partisan enrichment.
With curious hubris, Ford proclaimed Friday, “I am so happy to announce” that Progressive Conservative loyalist Ian Todd will be Ontario’s new trade representative in the U.S.
What Ford neglected to say is that Todd’s annual salary will be $350,000 a year — $75,000 more than the annual pay of his predecessor, Monique Smith, a former Liberal cabinet minister appointed by ex-premier Kathleen Wynne.
What Ford also failed to explain is that Todd’s salary will far exceed the salary of the Canadian ambassador to Washington, David MacNaughton, whose pay band is $248,000 to $292,000 annually.
Patronage appointments are nothing new. They date all the way back to Sir John A., who made shrewd use of them. The problem for Ford is his blatant hypocrisy:
There is no great shame in appointing trusted advisers to sensitive positions, but this is one of the biggest displays of patronage pigginess in recent memory, adding up to $1 million over three years.
That’s the same amount Ford quietly awarded to his health-care czar, Dr. Reuben Devlin, last summer. But Devlin, a former president of the Progressive Conservative party, is no political hack — he headed Humber River Hospital for years, and he has the premier’s confidence. (What’s harder to understand is why the retired Devlin couldn’t follow the admirable example of Wynne’s former business czar, Ed Clark, who worked as a dollar-a-year-man for the Liberals.)
Embarrassed by the publicity over his new Washington envoy, Ford’s staff rushed out a news release Thursday saying that Todd would forgo pension and severance payments.
It's just one more example of the painfully obvious. Doug's bulb does not burn very brightly.
Image: Toronto Sun
4 comments:
The provincial public service salary freeze on middle management and the hiring freeze on the work the slugs perform will make up for it with lots to spare for the next featured acts in Doug’s carnival of cronyism.
It's conservative doctrine, John. Austerity is for the little people. Living high and wide is for the well connected.
Doug Ford is a False Populist like George W Bush, Mike Harris and Ronald Reagan. Just another bribe-taking neocon globalist who will go down in infamy.
Unlike Donald J. Trump who's the real deal! Trump just saved Canada's auto industry from being shipped off to Mexico and put the kibosh on a free-trade deal with China!
The Donald is the best Canadian leader since Lester Pearson and Tommy Douglas! Making Canada Great Again!
-CC
I'm not so sure Trump will make Canada great again, CC. But I'm sure Ontaio won't be better off when Ford is finished.
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