It is a word that I don't often use, but it is one that seems especially apt in describing the Greenbelt corruption stench currently assaulting us in Ontario.
In his most recent column, Martin Regg Cohn reminds us of that betrayal, and the fact that up to now, Ford has somehow enjoyed a peculiar passivity from the public.
Consider how, even after an incriminating video leaked out in 2018 of Ford vowing to bulldoze those protected lands, Ontarians still gave him a free pass in that year’s election.
Back then, voters took him at his word when he quickly renounced that secret plan, promising to leave the Greenbelt untouched. He has been coasting in power ever since.
But after winning his second election in 2022, Ford reversed himself for the second time. Will voters once again forgive Ford’s double talk — and forget his double cross — when they judge his actions next time, as they did in 2018 and again in 2022?
The augeries suggest that this time, things may be different. The last time, the Oppositiion was weak and unfocussed. Now, with a vigourous campaign for the leadership of the Liberal Party underway, there is blood in the water that will be exploited to its maximum potential.
If this is prime time for the Greenbelt scandal, it is also a perfect time for the Liberals to make the most of it — and run with it.
The opposition is seizing the opportunity. An auditor general’s report this month condemned the contorted, corrupted process, estimating a potential $8.28-billion windfall for “favoured” private developers.
If voters weren’t riled up a year ago, they are raging today, according to Nate Erskine-Smith, the Toronto MP who is one of five candidates for the Liberal leadership.
“People shrugged their shoulders in the last election,” he mused. “They said, ‘Ford wasn’t as bad as I thought he was going to be.’”
More importantly, Erskine-Smith argues, the Liberals weren’t as good as they needed to be. Voters looking for an alternative to Ford had little to look at — but that’s changed with the Liberal revival and the Tory betrayal.
And the past will surely come back to haunt Ford.
In early 2018 while running for the Progressive Conservative leadership, Ford confided behind closed doors that he would “open a big chunk” of the Greenbelt if he became premier. “We need to open that up and create a larger supply.”
When word leaked out, Ford gave his word that he would do no such thing.
“The people have spoken,” he mused.
Spoken like a man of the people.
“I’m going to listen to them, they don’t want me to touch the Greenbelt. We won’t touch the Greenbelt. Simple as that.”
We now know, of course, that the only simple element was Ford's assumption that the electorate is simple. The insouciance with which he betrayed his promise is ample testament to that.
In the 2018 election, people were tired of the corruption they percieved in the Wynne government. Now that corruption has a different venue, Ford's front porch, so to speak.
Now, the stench of scandal wafting in the air is potentially eight times bigger, given the $8-billion Greenbelt bonanza for developers cited in the auditor’s report as these lucky landowners see their profits rise from the rezoning of previously protected lands. Today it is Ford — who once cast Wynne as the embodiment of corruption, guilty of enriching so-called “insiders” and friends riding the Liberal “gravy train” — who is under scrutiny for impropriety.
Time will only tell whether the electorate is in a forgiving mood after being so egregiously hoodwinked. My sense is they are not; personal integrity and respect for democracy and citizenship require a different response, one I hope will be definitively delivered in the next provincial election.
I was asking an old newspaper man about this and his reply was, "As Jean Chretien used to say 'pass me the bag'.
ReplyDeleteEven if those lands are out of the Greenbelt, is there any reason the various municipalities need to approve any developments on them?
The AG's report says that the municipalities already have the land available to meet their targets.
A lot of local protests might be in order. There may be times when NIMBY is useful. For that matter, how many local councillors are Ford Nation fans?
There has been considerable ongoing protest in municipalities like Hamilton and Pickering, Anon. My reading of the situation is that cities can impede development of these lands by refusing to allot funds for the infrastructure development required. However, I notice that in Hamilton, council has agreed to meet with provincial officials so they can have some input into the benefits they can get from the developments, rather than to be left out in the cold. In my view, this is a big mistake, as it lends a measure of legitimacy to the criminal theft of these Greenbelt lands.
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