COVID 19 has changed a lot of things. Martin Regg Cohn wonders if it has changed Doug Ford. When he was elected, Ford posed as The Great Disrupter:
Basking in his election night triumph, the Progressive Conservative leader acted as if his own irresistible brand of personal populism had swept the province. Not that he’d won by default thanks to a protest vote against a tired Liberal government and voter distrust of the NDP.
“My friends, the party with the taxpayer’s dollars is over — it’s done,” Ford boasted back then.
Weeks later, his new PC government unveiled an unprecedented throne speech setting out an agenda of disruption and demolition of government operations.
Ford's mission was to upend just about everything:
Within months, Ford’s Tories had unilaterally dialed back promised health funding to municipalities, stoking outrage. They had arbitrarily revamped autism programs, sparking protests. And they had done nothing on nursing-home beds apart from reduce comprehensive annual inspections, setting the stage for disaster.
On police accountability, now in the news but back then a partisan talking point, the Tories staked out an unapologetically uncritical stance: “You can count on your government to respect the men and women of Ontario’s police services — by freeing them from onerous restrictions that treat those in uniform as subjects of suspicion and scorn.”
But when he began being booed at public events, Ford's tone changed. And, when the pandemic hit, so did his policies. However, the change may only be temporary. There are clues hanging in the air:
A good clue to Ford’s true thinking comes from his stubborn refusal — against all evidence and advice — to restore the paid sick days he eliminated before the pandemic. Or consider the disturbing findings revealed in the Star this week by Tribunal Watch, which detailed the stealth purge of Ontario’s quasi-judicial tribunals that hold landlords to account, hold a light to racism and help the disadvantaged maintain dignity — a reminder of the patronage stench that has long pervaded Ford’s government (despite his pre-election claim that “the party” is over).
Never mind the serene rhetoric on the surface, it is Ford’s underlying actions that count. They are a reminder of his early and ongoing agenda to change the province in his own image and ideology, rather than enact the change the province so desperately needs and wants.
We should soon know if Ford has had an epiphany on his road to Damascus.
Image: readingacts.com
