Doug Ford has thrown in his lot with the prairie premiers -- particularly Jason Kenney. And he rails about national unity. Martin Regg Cohn writes:
Suddenly, our populist premier has heard the clarion call of prairie populism. He likes what he hears, which is why he’s giving voice to it here at home.
Consumed by his own grudge against the federal government, Ford has jumped onto Jason Kenney’s anti-Ottawa bandwagon. Today, as Alberta’s premier circles the wagons with Saskatchewan’s Scott Moe, Ford is riding to their rescue.
“I’ve never seen the country so divided,” Ford declared Monday in a bizarre fundraising appeal to Progressive Conservative donors. “And I can see why.”
Rather than make a coherent case for Ontarians, Ford has fallen in lockstep with his fellow Tories in Alberta and Saskatchewan as they stamp their feet and kick Ottawa in the shins. No need for Kenney and Moe to make the case, Ford will do it for them.
“You’ve got Alberta putting $20 billion more into the federal government than they get back in services,” Ford lamented in his letter to donors. “They’re paying into a government that takes more than it gives back.”
Ford claims that Alberta's piggy bank is being robbed by Ottawa. But that's not how federalism works:
Never mind that Ottawa doesn’t “take” that money for keeps, but transfers it from Albertans to other Canadians whose governments lack the fiscal and geographical resources to fund public services at comparable levels. Never mind that Ontarians also pay more than they get back from Ottawa — a fact that Ford forgets — and that we pay the full HST, while Albertans still get a holiday from any provincial sales tax.
No matter, it’s not about the money. It’s about scoring political points and delegitimizing a federal government by parroting the Prairie opposition to a carbon levy.
Ford continues to fight the carbon tax -- despite recent court rulings that have gone against him.
But, then, Ford has never been very bright.
Image: Macleans
