One definition of insanity is repeating the same actions and expecting a different result. By that measure, the current Government of Ontario is insane. Tom Walkom writes:
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has completed the first part of the Mike Harris trifecta: He has declared a fiscal crisis.
Now the province awaits parts two and three. Stage two will be to slash spending in order to deal with this alleged crisis.
Stage three will be to return those fiscal savings to voters in the form of tax cuts.
It’s the formula Harris used successfully after he became premier in 1995. It’s the formula Ford’s finance minister, Vic Fedeli, put into motion Thursday with his fall economic update.
The update itself is slim but to the point. It says Ontario’s finances are in a mess because of the actions of the previous Liberal government. It says Ford’s government faces a deficit this year of close of $15 billion (a number that critics say is exaggerated).
In a twist from the Harris playbook, Ford has eliminated the office of Environmental Commissioner, which Walkom reminds his readers was "created by Bob Rae’s New Democratic Party government in 1993. Environmental commissioners have upbraided Ontario governments of all political stripes."
Ford has already eliminated Ontario's Green Energy program, which subsidized individuals and organizations for adopting measures which weaned us off fossil fuels. As the Large One leads the charge against the Trudeau government's carbon tax, he doesn't want the environmental commissioner proclaiming that he's a fool.
So how will spending be slashed? The latest update offered no clues. But Walkom has a few ideas on that subject:
First, the government is taking aim at those on welfare. Or, as the update puts it, the government will “present a plan to reform social assistance.”
This is exactly what Harris did in 1995 when he cut social assistance to the bone. It may have been mean-spirited. But it was immensely popular.
Second, the Ford government is zeroing in on the Ontario Drug Benefit program, which provides free or heavily subsidized pharmaceuticals to seniors and those on welfare.
What precisely it plans to cut back here remains unclear. The update says only that the government wants to make the program easier to understand, more consistent and more sustainable.
That could mean anything — from increasing the co-payments charged most seniors to eliminating the plan for all but the very poorest.
And remember. Ford's mantra is that he's a man of the people.
Image: The Conversation
6 comments:
The players may change, but the program remains the same, eh Owen?
I've always been struck, Lorne, by the fact that some people never learn any lessons from the past.
.. the salamander & salamander horde via Twitter keep chirping away about so called 'Public Service' which is the Prime Directive & Job Description of elected Public Servants & their taxpayer paid staff. The political party they belong to or their religious beliefs, if any.. personal agendas or ideology or mythology or any sports team fan clubs they adhere to or cheer for is irrelevant. Null & Void - not to flavor, dictate or divert Public Servants from Working For Us.. After all, we pay them salaries and lovely pensions, to Deliver The Goods.
OK .. that out of the way.. what in hell are dropout Doug Ford and his holier than thou Conservative Party of Ontario members think they're doing.. usurping the role of educators regarding school curiculum or sex ed or huffing and puffing about Gender Identity ? Trashing the role of Environmental Commissioner ? Was that an election promise or 'efficiency' ? Trashing budget for Child Advocacy ? Same ? An 'efficiency' or an opening salvo for a war upon social services ?
Sure seems like the current Ontario government's ideology is in lockstep to its political party.. and never mind the Public Service .. its vindictive payback time.. and the war on Alternative Energy is well underway.. and damn the cost or consequences. There's a stunning deja vu here.. harkening back to Stephen Harper and his lickspittle cabin boyz n girlz.. who blithely screwed seniors for two years of Canada Pension Plan.. Public Service ? Or a ripoff by a classic narcissist grifter political animal PM who lied to the electorate and citizenry constantly.
All that's left to defend the public currently.. are a shockingly weak, poorly informed and for the most part cowardly Mainstream Media and Indy Bloggers and Twitter warriers with courage, conviction and concern. Governments and political parties have hordes of lawyers and mainly lapdog media.. witness down south in Trump Delerium Land.. We are headed down the same rabbit hole here in Ontario.. and we aint got a Robert Mueller (yet) on our side.. We're just the Public.. you know.. the Customer or Client - and Employer.. and Consumer..
In my view, we have to shame the Media.. get them to cease and desist the cut & paste faux 'journalism' and put on their stomping boots.. and we as individuals need to back our exemplars, whether media or Indy's.. and do the same
The Fordians are confident that they can overwhelm resistance to their program -- such as it is. In the end, sal, my hunch is that it will take people in the streets. And it will take a courageous media to expose the colossal ignorance which drives what these people do.
I sure as hell hope he attacks the seniors drug plan - hell hath no fury like a Senior dinged for more money!
That would definitely be a self inflicted wound, Ben. But Ford and and his acolytes are more than capable of self destruction.
Post a Comment