During the Quebec referendum in 1980, the fight between Pierre Elliott Trudeau and Rene Levesque was personal. In the next federal election, the fight between Justin Trudeau and Doug Ford will be just as personal. Marieke Walsh reports that:
Doug Ford is again putting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in his crosshairs as the premier rallies Progressive Conservatives in Etobicoke this weekend.
The provincial Tories are gathering for a three-day convention to vote on policy changes and elect a new party executive. The meeting follows a rough two weeks for the new government; Ford has lost members of his inner circle to harassment allegations and former leader Patrick Brown has been causing headaches for the new leader.
Brown released his new book this week, Takedown, in which he takes aim at Ford, Finance Minister Vic Fedelli, and Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod. Ford has already turfed Economic Development Minister Jim Wilson. And he's trying to switch the focus to Justin Trudeau:
I’m putting the prime minister on notice,” he said. “We’ve already taken Kathleen Wynne’s hands out of your pockets. And Justin Trudeau, you’re next.”
That line prompted a standing ovation from the crowd and chants of “Doug, Doug, Doug.”
Tensions between the two governments have been mounting since Ford came to office. The premier has frequently launched pointed attacks against Trudeau and the prime minister’s cabinet, and advisers have returned fire.
Last month, federal Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc — a close friend of Trudeau — came to Queen’s Park and accused Ford of putting national ambitions ahead of his priorities as premier.
It's Ford who is leading the charge against Trudeau's carbon tax:
He’s rallied support in Alberta, and hosted federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe at his office in Queen’s Park.
“We will fight the carbon tax right to the end,” Ford said.
The premier didn’t stop there, however. He also accused Trudeau’s ministers and advisers of wanting to impose a carbon tax that will “jack up the price of everything.”
In October, Trudeau unveiled his government’s plan to rebate revenues from the carbon tax back to Ontario families. The federal government said the rebate will leave 70 per cent of households better off — but Ford has said many times he doesn’t believe it.
So the stage has been set. And the battle will be nasty. The House of Ford has always been Animal House. And those are the people the prime minister will face in 2019.
Image: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov
4 comments:
The parallels between Ford and a certain 'leader' to the south of us is getting scarier and scarier by the minute Owen
The common denominator between both men is ignorance, Rural -- colossal ignorance.
You are absolutely correct Owen, but it is not only the ignorance of Ford like regimes, the ignorance also includes the electorate. At one time, I worked for a local government where there were a myriad of issues that affected their property taxes. For example there were several occasions where demands from the public were for additional recreation facilities which required referendums. To give the populace reasonable indications of the financial impacts, cost projections were publicly presented through bulletins and in local newspapers. The referendums passed with sizable support, but once the property tax bills were issued there were many, many complaints from taxpayers regarding the increases (which were less than originally projected). Many of the complaints came from those that were better off than their fellow citizens (from a property valuation point of view). The complainers demanded to speak to their local Councillor, even though we did not have a ward system. These unaware and uninformed citizens were completely oblivious to what was happening in their own communities.
So the moral of this diatribe is people do not pay attention to what is happening until they recognize the financial impact of the circumstances. Isn't Avarice a wonderful human trait? RG
Unfortunately, RG, it's only when people see how an issue affects their pocketbooks that they begin to pay attention. And it's always about how something effects ME. How it affects other people is irrelevant.
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