Make no mistake about it: I am absolutely delighted that the Ford cabal has, albeit quite belatedly, seen the light and is restoring the pilfered Greenbelt lands. But, like puppies receiving scraps from the table of a master who regularly abuses us, are we supposed to submissively wag our tails, lick his hand and forget the fear and revulsion he has regularly inspired in us?
Not a chance.
I watched Ford's self-serving mea culpa yesterday. It had all the trappings of a PR event engineered by that famous crisis-management firm, Navigator. When all seems lost, people like Brian Mulroney and Michael Bryant have turned to them to try to spin things into a positive outcome. Judging by yesterday's performance, if Navigator was involved, they have missed their mark by a wide margin.
To hear Ford tell it, he has been humbled by the backlash, and apologizes to all who held him to account. However, according to his alternate-reality version of events, he did it all because of the crisis in housing, and sometimes in a crisis, one acts too quickly. But his heart, of course, was always in the right place.
Here is a brief clip of Ford's climb-down; I especially enjoy the physical (symbolic?) distance his cabinet embraces, and their stoic looks remind me of people that have been chowing down only to find something very unpleasant in their sandwich spread.
Mr. Ford, in his address, talks about earning back the trust of Ontarians. My own sense is that ship has sailed, but then, I am often wrong in my prognostications. And I do hope I am wrong in my fear that now that the theft has been reversed, the RCMP will conclude there is no need for a criminal investigation. While it might be more palatable to those in the national police force who would rather not ruffle feathers, to come to such a conclusion would only compound an ongoing erosion of faith in our public institutions.
Ford has done much damage over the past year. He has shown that corruption within his 'government' thrives; he has increased public cynicism, and he has made many recoil in abject disgust that such criminality runs rampant in Canada's largest province.
But some good has come out of it as well, primarily in the reminder to an abused public that sometimes, if we don't lose sight of a goal too precious to surrender, we can effect change.
Well done to everyone who has been a part of this victory!
