Antonia Zerbisias is keeping a list. She's counting the things that Doug Ford is doing to make the lives of "the people" more miserable:
Sometime in January, a list, a very long list, documenting all the attacks by Doug Ford's government on Ontario's social services, safety nets and support systems began to take shape on my Facebook profile page.
I too have been adding to the original list, barely able to keep up with all the announcements, pronouncements and chops to health care, education and even firefighting services wielded by Ford Nation while horse racing gets a $10-million annual boost and the premier's cronies and bagmen get appointed to head Crown corporations.
These rapid-fire assaults on "the people" that Ford purportedly champions are reminiscent of Donald Trump's tactic, inadvertent or deliberate, of spitting out diversionary tweets whenever CNN or MSNBC focus on his sympathy for white nationalism or his wall or on what he calls the "witchhunt."
In Ontario, no sooner do we hear about new slogans and new logos on car license plates than comes news that all gas stations will be hit with fines up to $10,000 for not sticking Conservative Party anti-carbon tax decals to their pumps. Oh, and taxpayers are paying for those stickers, plus a radio ad campaign, plus a follow-up TV buy in Ford's $30-million fight against what he deems to be a recession-causing tax. Go figure.
The evidence keeps piling up. And, as long as "the people" aren't paying attention, Ford can get away with all of this. Perhaps that's why Ford is focusing on alcohol:
As CBC Queens Park reporter Mike Crawley tweeted, "The word 'alcohol' or 'beer' appears 46 times in the Doug Ford government's first budget. The words 'teacher' or 'teachers' appears 25 times. #onpoli"
Also on Twitter, Toronto City Councillor Joe Cressy noted, "Number of times Doug Ford's budget mentioned the words 'alcohol' or 'beer': 46. Number of times 'poverty' was mentioned: 0. Priorities."
There is a method to Doug Ford's madness.
Image: City News Toronto
6 comments:
Thanks for that Owen, for those that are not on facebook (like myself) I am going to republish the list as it now stands on my blogger pages. After all it sure bears repeating ....... as often as possible!
.. Antonia is a gem.. an absolute gem
Glad such a journalist is on the case.. will review her list.. as I try to keep up with her work. I have met her, in the company of her close friends.. and 'she is as she writes' .. quite lovely.. No surprise, seeing who she & her friends are.. all exemplars ! Bright Shiny People !!
A quick memo - Yes, Ford found 10 million for horse racing - how insane. But I have standing, earned, a strong sense of Ontario horse racing - standardbred and thoroughbred.. having worked in both as a younger man. Just from an observer standpoint.. and not a stakeholder, it would be like closing all curling rinks.. What fall fair in Ontario does not have an agriculture centre (arena) and 1/2 mile semi circular 'racetrack' outside plus room & barns for the damn Fall Fair ? Much as we make of Northern Dancer - EP Taylor - Ron Turcott aboard Secretariat etc it was an industry and a way of life to many. Especially around the smaller centres.. not Woodbine & Queen's Plate. The issue of $$$ .. hell it was a hell of an issue to small family run horse farms.. not just the Great Ones.. but that's another story for another time.. its really a critical reality for so many though. So tell Ontarians, Doug.. the 10 mill goes exactly where.. To whom ? Administered & tracking from the get go, by .. whom exactly..?
We'll see what Doug Ford will deliver to Grassy Narrow - NOW.. yes NOW !! and in conjunction with Trudeau's federal committment. Last I looked, the people of Grassy Narrows.. are the people ? Are they not ? You know.. 'For The People' kinda PEOPLE
This, from the Campbell/Clark years in BC. I have little doubt that DoFo will equal, given the time. Much of this is egregious violation of public trust amounting to theft and fraud on a grand scale, but there seems a reluctance to scratch the surface to find out what lies beneath (easily intuited based on available information and downstream consequences) or for folks in other jurisdictions to learn from our Lotusland Folly (as we seem to miss the Muskrat Falls debrief so as to see what Site C is doing to our landscape and polity).
Quoth Laila Yuile:
I'm beginning to think that people are losing count, Rural.
Don't look for help for the folks at Grassy Narrows, sal. Ford has drastically cut funding for Indigenous People. Not surprizing at all.
Folks in B.C. have lived through this movie, Danneau. We, in Ontario, will repeat history.
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