What Is Your Vote Worth?

How does $200 sound? That is the price, to put it crassly, that Premier Doug Ford has estimated will buy your vote - $200 to make you complicit in his malfeasance, his corruption. his backroom deals, only some of which have come to light, (with more revelations pending, if Marit Stiles has her way).

Some voters might be insulted by Ford's low opinion of their worth; others will simply take the money and ask no questions, content with his explanation that it is to "stimulate the economy. Thie Star's Martin Regg Cohn is not among the latter group. He writes:

Ford’s PCs want an early election, no matter the cost. Never mind the unnecessary $155-million election expense — that’s the least of it.

If they settle on the $200 figure for every adult and child in Ontario, that works out to as much as $1,000 for a family of five — and perhaps $3.2 billion out of the treasury in total. That money is badly needed to shore up our schools, our hospitals and our homeless, but the premier believes he needs it more desperately to soften up voters.

That is a pretty high tab to be putting blinders on people's eyes, but blinders are what Ford needs, given his' situation'.

The headlines have faded, but few have forgotten the $8.28-billion imbroglio over protected land made available to private developers on the premier’s watch (until he reversed course under pressure). That police probe could be released sometime next year, delivering potentially bad news and a political death sentence.

Rather than wait for the police to rain on their re-election parade — scheduled for June 2026 under Ontario’s fixed election law — the plan is to move the campaign up by more than a year to early 2025. 

Regg Cohn calls it for what it is:

It’s an elegant, if expensive, election plan: a kickback for voters, gifted by a government accused of kickbacks from developers (despite those opposition allegations in the legislature, no criminality has been proven and the police aren’t talking).

But lest we forget, Ford is an old hand at pandering to the public.

Ahead of the 2022 election, Ford’s Tories cut cheques to rebate motorists for licence plate fees that the government cancelled, at a cost of more than $1 billion to the treasury. During the COVID pandemic, parents received as much as $250 per child. And the previous PC government of Mike Harris issued $200 “dividend” cheques.

How to justify such shameless pre-election (early election) vote-buying?

The unspoken reason is to satisfy the premier’s lust for power. The official rationale is to support people’s purchasing power.

Regg Cohn ends his piece with this query: ... does he have voters figured out?

Only you can answer that question.

Editorial Cartoon Of The Day

If you are one of the many who realize that whatever it may be, Doug Ford's government is not "for the people," you will likely enjoy this cartoon.

And here's the second best of the day, which follows Ford's lame and rather cruel attempt at humour the other day. Attending the opening of  a large vet clinic near Toronto, he insensitively suggested, "by the looks of it we know where we can send the overflow patients now for MRIs and CAT scans and everything else."

But perhaps that is what Ontario has become in its healthcare. Like animals, we can expect only scraps from the table of our master while he cultivates and services his masters.

Two Seasonal Reminders

I guess we never really outgrow Halloween, especially when the auguries spell something scary for Doug Ford.

And editorial cartoonists are certainly trying to put the fear of God into the premier:

H/t Theo Moudakis

Great Happiness!

 

I've been feeling pretty disgusted lately with our world, given our impending climate doom and the humanitarian crises and wars going on. Those pungent testaments to our profound failures as a species (from which not one of us can be excluded) make me angry, disgusted and sad. However, something happened today that has temporarily roused me from my melancholy:

The RCMP has launched a criminal investigation into Premier Doug Ford’s $8.28-billion Greenbelt land swap scandal.

In another stunning setback for Ford’s embattled Progressive Conservatives, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is formally on the case.

“Following a referral from the Ontario Provincial Police, the RCMP ‘O’ Division’s Sensitive and International Investigations (SII) unit has now launched an investigation into allegations associated to the decision from the province of Ontario to open parts of the Greenbelt for development,” the RCMP said in a statement Tuesday.

It was a day I feared wouldn't come, given our national police force's reluctance to delve into things that might be politically messy. The outrage of the public, however, was something it couldn't ignore. Henceforth, however, there will be a cone of silence on the investigation.

“While we recognize that this investigation is of significant interest to Canadians, the RCMP has a duty to protect the integrity of the investigations that it carries out, in order to ensure that the process leads to a fair and proper outcome. Therefore, no further updates will be provided at this time.”

Similarly, says the Ford cabal,

“[o]ut of respect for the police and their process, we will not be commenting further at this time.”

The government may think that this silence will lead to a quelling of outrage and grant them the benefit of time to do further damage control. However, given the tortoise-like pace of such probes, it will likely still be very much an active investigation at the time of the next election, which will give plenty of time for Marit Stiles' NDP to continue with their so-far effective interrogation of this corrupt regime. It will also afford plenty of time for the next Liberal leader to make her/his bones before that election.

NDP Leader Marit Stiles called the development “devastating” for Ford.

“I don’t think we can underestimate how serious it is that our current government is under criminal investigation,” said Stiles.

Interim Liberal leader John Fraser said “all roads lead to the premier’s office — there is no way that in a scandal of this size, one rookie chief of staff was the mastermind behind it.

“Where there’s smoke there’s fire, and we need to get to the bottom of why a handful of the premier’s friends and fundraisers were given the inside track for an $8.3-billion windfall,” said Fraser.

Green Leader Mike Schreiner said he was “pleased to hear that the RCMP is investigating the corrupt process that saw a few wealthy, well-connected land speculators cash in …

“The people of this province put their trust in the premier — and he chose deals for developers over everyday Ontarians,” said Schreiner.

According to Abacus Data polling for the Star, the debacle has hurt the Tories with their support dropping from 41 per cent in July to 38 per cent in August to 34 per cent last month.

And, given the latest development, they will have plenty of time to fall much, much further.

 

 

 

 

Keeping Up The Pressure

Fires are burning in the House of Ford (not the fashion mogul's, but rather the corrupt and incompetent one that 'rules' our province). That increasing attention is being paid to the sometimes smoldering, sometimes white-hot combustions is attributable to citizen awareness, ceaseless probing by NDP leader Marit Stiles and her MPPs, media investigations, and the absolute arrogance of the now badly-wounded Ford cabal.

People feel rightfully emboldened now that the premier has promised to correct his Greenbelt 'mistake' by restoring the stolen lands. Ford, however, is sadly mistaken if he thinks that is the end of this very visible evidence of his corruption.

There are, for example, the pesky questions surrounding the provincial fiats declaring urban expansions in both Ottawa and Hamilton.

On the same Friday afternoon last November that Premier Doug Ford's government announced its plan to take certain developers' land out of the Greenbelt, it also made moves that benefited developers who own rural land on the outskirts of Ottawa and Hamilton. 

It did so by expanding each city's boundaries, instantly turning certain parcels of agricultural land from rural to urban, opening them up to future housing development and sharply increasing their potential value. 

Opposition parties believe these moves have strong parallels with what Ford's government did in selecting 15 parcels of Greenbelt land for housing development, potentially boosting their value by $8.3 billion, until ultimately reversing course last month.

That's prompting calls for investigations into the Hamilton and Ottawa boundary changes, focused on why certain land parcels were picked despite objections from each city council. 

"We see some connections … and we want to get to the bottom of it," said NDP Leader Marit Stiles. 

Stiles wrote to Ontario's auditor general's office on Friday to request an investigation into the government's expansions of urban boundaries in Ottawa and Hamilton, as well as its changes to other official land-use plans, such as Waterloo, Niagara and York regions.

Despite requests from both municipalities for a review, so far the government is hanging tight, with perennial carbuncle and toadie Paul Callandra, the current minister of housing, insisting that the expansions are needed to meet their housing goals, again ignoring all the data that show existing lands within the boundaries are adequate.

So who benefits?

The most controversial property captured by the province's expansion of Ottawa's boundaries is prime agricultural land on Watters Road in Orléans, more than 20 kilometres from the city centre. 

• In February 2021, Ottawa city council explicitly excluded that 37-hectare farm when it voted on its own plans to enlarge the city's urban boundaries. 
• In August 2021, a newly incorporated company called 1177 Watters Developments Ltd. bought the farm for $12.7 million. 
• In November 2022, the Ford government made the land part of the City of Ottawa with the stroke of a pen. 

The company's five directors donated more than $12,000 to the Ontario PC Party in 2021 and 2022, CBC Ottawa's Kate Porter revealed last November.

Liberal Party interim leader John Fraser, the MPP for Ottawa South, questions why the government put this parcel into the city's boundaries. 

"You've got a group of people who buy a piece of land in 2021", said Fraser. "This is land that you're probably never going to build on, because it's zoned agricultural. And then all of a sudden this piece of land, totally inappropriate, appears [within the urban boundary] and then the value of that land triples." 

Over in Hamilton, the stench of corruption and insider information is the same.

In Hamilton, the province ordered the city last November to add 2,200 hectares, despite council's previous vote in favour of maintaining existing boundaries. 

Among the properties that were wrapped into Hamilton's new boundaries: land owned by some of the same people whose holdings were among the 15 parcels removed from the Greenbelt last November. 

As previously reported by CBC Hamilton's Samantha Beattie, the land added to Hamilton's urban boundaries includes properties owned in part by developers Sergio Manchia of UrbanCore Developments and Paul Paletta of Alinea Group Holdings, formerly Penta Properties. 

According to the Ontario integrity commissioner's report into the Greenbelt, the two developers used the same representative to make their requests both for Greenbelt removals and for changes to Hamilton's official plan. The urban boundary changes were part of the government's amendments to that official plan.  

And earlier reporting shows that the government met with developers, giving them advance notice of expansion  before speaking to Hamilton officials. 

There is a long time to go before the next provincial election, but those four years cut both ways. Ford et al. likely hope to ride out the storm, while those who truly care about this province also have plenty of time to keep up their attacks and investigations, one of their prime motivations being the hope that the malodourous corruption enveloping this province will finally dissipate after our next visit to the polls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Never Letting Go

The uproar over the Greenbelt theft has died down to a seething anger, despite Doug Ford's promise to restore it. There is ongoing anger over the fact that he lied to us, anger over his apology for having made "a mistake," anger that he was willing to overlook the environmental depredation that his theft would have enabled, anger over his clumsy attempt to reward wealthy developers, and anger over the still extant Bill 23, which, among other things, saddles municipalities with the development charges formerly paid by those rich developers.

People know that Ford will do anything he can get away with. He has lost their trust. And, as the following letters attest, they intend on never letting go of the lessons learned about the nature of this government.

• FacebooTwitterLinkedIn
• EmailPrintCopy article linkSave

Doug Ford cancels controversial $8.28-billion Greenbelt land swap: ‘It was a mistake,’ Sept. 21

Now that Premier Doug Ford is on the road to redemption, he should seriously consider completing the journey and resign his position, not only for himself, but for the benefit of his party and also the people of Ontario.

Patricia Steward, East York

Ford made a number of mistakes that require correction

Mistakes are made by honest, well-intentioned people. Ignorant, selfish Premier Doug Ford hasn’t an honest bone in his body.

This government wastes everyone’s energy trying to undo his destructive decisions. Next task: stop the sell-off of Ontario Place and the destruction of our Science Centre.

Douglas Buck, Toronto

Do you believe Ford?

Doug Ford cancels controversial $8.28-billion Greenbelt land swap: ‘It was a mistake,’ Sept. 21

Now that Premier Doug Ford is on the road to redemption, he should seriously consider completing the journey and resign his position, not only for himself, but for the benefit of his party and also the people of Ontario.

Patricia Steward, East York

Ford made a number of mistakes that require correction

Mistakes are made by honest, well-intentioned people. Ignorant, selfish Premier Doug Ford hasn’t an honest bone in his body.

This government wastes everyone’s energy trying to undo his destructive decisions. Next task: stop the sell-off of Ontario Place and the destruction of our Science Centre.

Douglas Buck, Toronto

Do you believe Ford?

It was NOT a mistake. It was a gambit.

Premier Doug Ford tried to get the land out for development, hoping to get away with it, thus opening the door for more removals and other donor-developer-friendly activity.

He backed down, as he has done before, because — and only because — there was press coverage, resistance, criticism, and negative polling results.

Ford has had to promise — again — to leave the Greenbelt alone. Kind of like the kid who promises this time, for sure, to keep his hands out of the cookie jar.

Do you believe him?

Keep an eye on Ford. Look around to see what else has been done in the background while this was going on in front of our eyes.

Graeme Elliott, Toronto

Are health-care privatization and highway schemes mistakes too?

There is no mistake about it, Premier Doug Ford’s scheme on the Greenbelt was deliberate not an inadvertent mistake. Just like his scheme to privatize health care and his scheme to still greatly benefit his developer friends by building highways 413 and the Bradford bypass both going through Greenbelt lands and waterways.

Ford would be well advised to reverse himself again and cancel both of these schemes.

Paul Kahnert, Markham

Bill 23 is just a new taxpayer subsidy to development companies

As Doug Ford’s Greenbelt reversal is celebrated, other ‘misguided’ planning policies remain concerns, Sept. 22

The Star rightly lists development charges supported by municipalities as “misguided.”

Development charges for roads, sewers, schools, libraries etc. were paid by developers for growth related infrastructure. Now under Bill 23 there is a $1 billion hole in municipalities’ cash flow according to the Association of Municipalities Ontario.

If municipalities and boards of education cannot pay this extra cost, development is compromised.

Bill 23 is a barrier to orderly land use planning.

Clearly this is a new subsidy paid by taxpayers to development companies.

This shows where Premier Doug Ford’s interest is allowing “folks” to pay for future growth. The development sector has the means to pay for growth related infrastructure.

David Godley, retired land use planner, Mississauga

'Nuff Said

 And today's thought comes us from the mighty Moudakis:

Not In A Forgiving Mood

 

As I wrote in my previous post, I am not in a forgiving mood, now that Doug Ford, in order to desperately try to salvage his and his government's reputation, has promised to restore and never again touch the Greenbelt.

Judging by a flurry of letters appearing in the Star, I am not alone:

Ford has publicly stated his decision to take land out of the protected Greenbelt for housing development was a mistake. It reminded me of a sullen little child caught stealing from the cookie jar. But it is more than that. He has lost the confidence and trust of the citizens of Ontario. He should do the honourable thing and resign as premier. The quicker he resigns the better off Ontario will be in the future.

John Argiropoulo, Toronto

Ford resignation ‘democracy at work’

Doug Ford cancels controversial $8.28-billion Greenbelt land swap, Sept. 21

For months I’ve been writing letters to my Conservative representative pointing out my unhappiness about the Greenbelt fiasco. I was not alone. Citizens writing letters to the editor, attending demonstrations and contacting elected officials is participatory democracy at work. It makes for change. Voting also works but only when citizens fill out ballots. Ford did an about face on the Greenbelt land deals only because his caucus told him what their constituents were saying. Democracy works!

Stephen Bloom, Toronto

Thanks to the Star for keeping Ontarians abreast of the latest news of Ford’s Greenbelt debacle. Here’s hoping the stench will follow him and all Conservatives for the rest of their careers! As the old saying goes, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me!” The Ontario electorate must remember this fiasco of deceit, lies and corruption in the next election!

Tom Cullen, Toronto

Premier Doug Ford walking back on the Greenbelt plan is a result of journalism, activism and the electorate making their voices heard. Cheers to those who wanted change and did the work for it to happen. The reversal has nothing to do with the premier realizing the plan was deeply flawed. His reaction has everything to do with shifting provincial Conservative support. It is time for the rest of us to keep doing the work to protect Ontario Science Centre and land at Ontario Place.

Rachel Griffin, Ancaster

Ford can’t save himself, even by sparing the Greenbelt, Sept. 21


Premier Doug Ford has decided to make Greenbelt land Greenbelt again. Watching his interview I see a man crying over his lost share of the scam. If I shoot you and later fix the wounds, does that make me innocent? Once the shot is fired, the damage is done. Sorry premier, you cannot just say “I’m sorry.”

Edward A. Collis, Burlington

Ford is humbly apologizing for breaking his Greenbelt promise. He thinks he’ll weather the continuing backlash and he quite likely will. Tell me how many billions, we the Ontario taxpayers, are going to have to cough up to settle possible lawsuits filed by the developers. Back room dealing, a bullheaded premier, possibly some criminal acts and the end result is no housing but billions of possible liability.

Wayne Milligan, Toronto

Let’s be absolutely clear, the only reason Ford reversed his Greenbelt development decision is to avoid further investigation into his obvious corruption. An investigation must still proceed, and while we’re at it, an investigation is also necessary regarding his Ontario Place development.

Al Yolles, Toronto

Premier Doug Ford’s total about face on the Greenbelt shows exactly how unethical he is. The reversal took government resignations, considerable pressure from the public, calls from the opposition and criticism from the auditor general and integrity commissioner. His developer buddies will not be happy but he wants to win re-election in 2026 and the heat on this issue was getting to be too much. His actions prove how unfit he is to be the premier of Ontario. Vote him out in 2026.

Janet Ball, Thornhill

What Happened In Vegas

 ... didn't stay in Vegas. Consequently, another one bites the dust. Dean Blundell explains all:

The corruption obviously runs deep, and it runs from the top down. Doug the Slug is holding another news conference this afternoon. Given how deep the premier is in to the developers, expect only the usual misdirections, pontifications, evasions, self-serving justifications and NO reversal on the Greenbelt crime.

In other words, ANYTHING BUT THE TRUTH.

UPDATED: Yet Another Inconvenient Truth

 

crimes against humanity

1. a deliberate act, typically as part of a systematic campaign, that causes human suffering or death on a large scale.

One hardly knows where to begin, but one knows how it ends, at least in Ontario. The consequences of the Doug Ford cabal's depredation of the Greenbelt will hit home. Home to sensitive ecological systems and increasingly valuable farmlands, those lands and lands like it will become increasingly vital as global heating continues apace.

The CBC reports  that a study the Ford government commissioned learned in January of the dire future that awaits us all. Particularly interesting is the fact that the Fordians sat on the report until late August.

What were they trying to conceal?

The report – called the Provincial Climate Change Impact Assessment – projects a soaring number of days with extreme heat across Ontario, as well as increases in flooding and more frequent wildfires. 

Its 530 pages are filled with often grim details about the expected effects of climate change in Ontario, including:  

• The agriculture sector faces risks of "declining productivity, crop failure, and livestock fatalities."  

• "Most Ontario businesses will face increased risks due to climate change."

• "Climate risks are highest among Ontario's most vulnerable populations and will continue to amplify existing disparities and inequities."

None of the news is good, but it does underscore for anyone with critical thinking skills the folly of the Greenbelt theft.

...they project how an expected rise in the number of days with extreme heat – 30 degrees and up – will have impacts on Ontario's growing seasons, businesses and human health.  

By the 2080s, the report forecasts that southern, central and eastern Ontario will average 55 to 60 such extreme heat days per year, a nearly fourfold increase from the current annual average of about 16 days. 

Northern Ontario, which experiences an average of 4 extreme heat days annually, is projected to see upwards of 35 such days each year.

One sees the reason for obscuring this report for so long when looking at its recommendations.

"Changes in Ontario's climate are expected to continue at unprecedented rates," says the report. "It is important to recognize how these findings can be used to spur action to protect residents, ecosystems, businesses and communities across Ontario." 

The report lays out the ways the researchers expect climate change to affect each region of Ontario along five broad themes: infrastructure; food and agriculture; people and communities; natural resources, ecosystems and the environment; business and the economy.  

 The president of the Climate Risk Institute, Al Douglas, 

says Ontario's food production and agriculture are particularly vulnerable to climate change. 

"Yields will decrease," he said. "It will affect the overall health of livestock. It will pose indirect threats to things like water availability, water quality. It'll indirectly impact soil health and soil quality." 

The future is perilous; food scarcity will be common, as will be flooding, both of which demand protection of sensitive lands. Only the most benighted and the most venal will fail to understand the gravity of what we face. I suspect both adjectives apply to the Ford bandits. 

UPDATE: A new online poll finds that people are very unhappy with the Ford government:

... seven-in-ten (69%) Ontarians are angry or annoyed about Doug Ford’s plan to rezone parts of the greenbelt for housing, up 8 points from December 2022. Only 17% of PC voters are pleased or happy about the plan.

 

 

 

 

 

Not Exactly As Advertised

Despite all of Doug Ford's bluster and lies about how important the Greenbelt is to meet his goal of building 1.5 million new homes in the next 10 years, the reality of real estate in Ontario, indeed, in Canada as a whole, offers a quite different picture.

So far this year, there were 44,000 housing starts in the first and second quarters, slightly above 40,100 during the same period last year.

Still, those numbers are far behind the province’s 150,000 yearly target to reach 1.5 million new homes in a decade. And while the first half of 2023 is above 2022 levels, experts warn the rest of the year will take a hit with construction on new projects declining as the industry faces an acute labour shortage and high interest rates.

This undoubtedly comes as an inconvenient truth for Mr. Ford and his cabal, given how much emphasis they have placed on the necessity of stealing from the Greenbelt to meet their goals. 

Last month, a Desjardins report noted that in the second half of 2023, there will be a more significant slowdown in new starts as the construction industry faces acute labour shortages, mixed with high borrowing and material costs and expectations of softening economic activity — deterring developers and investors.

And in terms of affordability, forget about it. According to Marc Desormeaux, the principal economist at Desjardins,

“[t]he so-called ‘missing middle’ remains largely absent from new home construction,” he said, referring to multi-unit homes such as duplexes, midrise apartments and purpose-built rentals, which offer more affordable options than single-family homes.

There are ways around these obstacles, as recommended last year by the province's own task force on housing affordability. Those recommendations, however,  run counter to Ford's obligations to enrich his developer puppet-masters. Included in the solutions were

densification in urban centres by building more mid- to highrise buildings, transforming single-family homes into multiple units, and building more transit-oriented communities.

Most interesting, from my perspective, is what Professor Mike Moffatt observes:

Importantly, he said, the report noted there is enough land to build on to meet these targets and that environmentally sensitive areas must be protected.

“Building on the Greenbelt goes against his government’s own recommendations to achieve the 1.5 million target,” he said. “There are many other ways to build the housing we need, we have enough land to do it.”

The Ford oligarchs have shown no intention of backing down on their plans to pillage the Greenbelt, despite the report's conclusions.

But then again, the people of Ontario have shown no sign of backing down on their fierce, spirited opposition to the theft.

We will see who wins this battle.

 

 

 

 

 

Yet Another Post About Corruption

 

H/t Patrick Corrigan

I'm fairly certain that readers who have stuck with me during my protracted postings on the Doug Ford corruption scandal are growing a bit weary of my apparent monomania. I don't blame you. Even I get tired of writing about a situation that seems to have no resolution, given how intractable Doug and his Slugs are proving on the Greenbelt theft. 

How can any of us move forward, with the stench of corruption still so pungent? The Toronto Star has a few suggestions:

Two investigations have condemned the process to select Greenbelt lands for new housing. The controversy has led to the resignations of a senior political aide, Ryan Amato, and Steve Clark, who had been municipal affairs and housing minister. A government chastened by such findings — and which put any any priority on doing the right thing — would have immediately reversed decisions revealed to be corrupted and politically driven.

And yet, as last week ended, not only was Ford moving ahead with development on 7,400 acres of Greenbelt lands but astonishingly, he suggested that more of this protected band of greenspace could be carved out for new housing following a review.

Let’s recall the many problems with how those lands were picked — lack of consultation, lack of regard to the environmental impacts, overwhelming negative feedback swept aside, gerrymandering of the selection criteria, and most appalling of all, the overriding influence of developers on what lands were chosen.

Despite damning reports from both tha auditor general and the integrity commissioner, the Ford band of robbers plays on, which raises questions that demand answers:n

.... why [are] Ford and his Progressive Conservatives ... so beholden [to] developers, so eager to bend to their wishes, that they’re willing to cast aside good governance and public opinion?

It more than defies explanation. It demands further investigation.

First, we need a police investigation. Ford has said he is “confident” there was no criminality. This from the politician who told the auditor general he was “unaware” of the many other problems on the file. The RCMP — handed the file by the Ontario Provincial Police — has said it will conduct a “full assessment” before determining whether to launch an investigation. Given the public interest, we need the Mounties to investigate and be transparent about what they find.

Secondly, we need a public inquiry. We have been well-served by the investigations to date by Lysyk and Integrity Commissioner J. David Wake. Yet both had to stick to their respective mandates. In Wake’s case, he was restricted to reviewing whether Clark contravened the Member’s Integrity Act. (He found that Clark did violate the act for his failure to oversee the process to select Greenbelt lands for development.)

While the chances of a public inquiry are nil, in my view, we have to hope that the RCMP does not quail at the prospect of criminally investigating a sitting government. Past performance leaves doubts as to their fitness for the task, but it must be done.

It is our only hope to lance the boil that is festering in Ontario

I'll Be Watching You

 

Woke up this morning thinking of some lyrics from The Police:

… Every move you make
And every vow you break
Every smile you fake
Every claim you stake
I'll be watching you

Then I found this:

Sometimes, the surveillance state, when it is a force for good, has its advantages, eh?

Here is additional footage, if you are interested:

Rearranging The Deck Chairs On The Titanic

The title of this post is likely known to most. It means taking actions that will do nothing to avert disaster. And that is precisely what Doug Ford is doing as his response to the Greenbelt theft, the scandal that has a tenacious grip on his government and just won't let go.

Yesterday's resignation of Steven Clark was the second step (the first being the defenestration of Clark's chief of staff, Ryan Amato) followed by a cabinet shuffle ("See folks, an entirely new government!"), all of which I imagine will fool only the most catastrophically cognitively challenged. But it is all of a piece, part of Ford's belief in bluff salesmanship honed from the decal business he has run for years after inheriting it from his father. Such a blunt instrument will not carry the day this time, however, no matter how much he hopes against hope that we are collectively stupid.

Compounding the ineptitude of this maneuver is his choice of Paul Calandra to replace Clark as Housing Minister. Undeservedly regarded as a fixer who honed his chops at the federal level serving as the parliamentary secretary to Stephen Harper, his capacity for rambling, off-question answers to House questions is legendary.

And, like so many others in Ford's cabinet, he is of dubious moral character:

In 2005, Calandra was involved in a family dispute. In the early 2000s, he had power of attorney to manage his mother's affairs. In a lawsuit filed by his sisters, it was claimed the power of attorney had been revoked by his mother months before her death in August 2005, but Calandra had invoked it for personal gain.^[3] Calandra's sisters alleged that he had charged $8,000 to his mother's credit card without her knowledge. They further alleged that, when confronted about the charges by his sister Concetta, Calandra suggested that he should kill Concetta. In his statement of defence, Calandra said that the charges had been authorized.^[6] The sisters also alleged that Calandra took $25,000 from his mother to pay taxes, but instead wrote the cheque to himself and left the taxes unpaid. Calandra claimed in his statement of defense that the money was given to him by his mother "freely, without pretext, and of her own volition." A document filed on September 8, 2008, the first full day of the 2008 federal election campaign, said that the parties had settled the case out of court.^[6]

There are many who say that only the full restoration of the Greenbelt lands will bring resolution. I, however, am of the view that it will take much more, and the only hope of that lies in 2026, when the next election is due and a complete housecleaning can take place.

Three years seems like an interminable wait though, doesn't it?

Only A Good Start

 

What can be said about the overdue resignation of Housing Minister Steve Clark, other than that it is only a good start? His departure from cabinet (which I am sure is only temporary) is either a measure of Doug Ford's increasing desperation over the ongoing fallout of the Greenbelt theft or yet another indication of the contempt in which he holds the Ontario electorate. If he really thinks this will placate us, he is badly underestimating our fury.

Should I be reading the mood of citizens correctly, there is only one action that has any any chance of dissipating the pungent stench of corruption that envelopes the Ford government: restoration of the plundered lands. I suspect, owing to his deep ties with the developers in question, he will not do so. 

What does it say about his judgement, his moral compass and his competence that he places the profit priorities of special interests above the needs and wishes of the province? The deep betrayal of his earlier promise not to touch the Greenbelt and his consequent violation of our collective sense of democratic fairness seem not to be a part of his calculus. This tells us all we need to know about him and his government.

Happy Labour Day, everyone.

Word Without Thoughts

 

Just another short post today. There is a scene in my favourite Shakespearean play, Hamlet, in which King Claudius, who killed his brother and stole his crown, is suddenly overcome with guilt. He prays ardently in his chapel, hoping for God's forgiveness. There is but one catch: he is unwilling to give up the crown and pay the price for his treason. The prayer ends this way:

My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.

I couldn't help but think of that speech while watching Ford and Steve Clark try yet again to 'apologize' and admit the process was flawed, while keeping all the benefits of the crime - the selloff of Greenbelt lands to the tune set by wealthy developers like De Gasperis and Michael Rice.

While the electorate may not be God, I have a pretty good suspicion that the public display of contrition by Mr. Ford and Mr. Clark will not move voters at the next election to grant absolution.

That's all for today, another busy one.