Amanda Simard -- the sole Francphone in Doug Ford's caucus -- has left Ford Nation. It should come as no surprise. During the election campaign, Martin Regg Cohn writes, Ford told Julie-Anne Lamoureau, Radio-Canada's Queens Park correspondent:
“It’d be important to be able to communicate with part of our country that speaks French — I love Quebec, I love Quebecers,”
But there are 622,000 Franco-Ontarians, the people who tune into Lamoureaux reporting. Franco-Ontarians? Who are they? Ford did not -- in fact, he has never -- seen them:
Ford’s garrulous nod to French Quebecers and grievous snub to Franco-Ontarians gave the game away from the get-go. It revealed his obtuseness about minority rights that go to the core of linguistic identity.
If Ford could so easily forget his fellow Ontarians back then, is it any surprise his government remains so oblivious now — and that it would so wilfully toss grenades into so vulnerable a community? Let us count the ways:
On the day of his swearing-in last June, Ford summarily eliminated the stand-alone ministry of francophone affairs, downgrading one of our two founding peoples to second-class citizens.
In this month’s fall economic statement, his PC government went back on its campaign pledge to proceed with Ontario’s first dedicated French-language university. Promise made, promise broken — in either language.
The Tories also downgraded the independent French-language services commissioner, folding the advocacy role into the duties of the provincial ombudsman’s office (which focuses on individual grievances, not collective goals).
Mr. Ford's vision is neither wide nor deep. Word has it that other members of his caucus are thinking of joining Simard -- who, for the moment -- is sitting as an independent.
Image: LaPresse.ca
