Sometimes It's Difficult To Know

Sometimes it's difficult to know what is going on in the mind and motivation of Ontario premier Doug Ford. Is he merely a benighted soul who embraces a simple mantra of 'private sector good, public sector bad'? Is he incapable of grasping the perilous climatic times and food challenges we face? Or is he simply so arrogant that he thinks he can ride out the outrage over the Greenbelt theft? Then again, perhaps his associations and friendships with wealthy developers have warped his concept of the "ordinary folks" he publicly proclaims his affiliation with?

All are legitimate questions, ones prompted by his appearance at the 104th Annual Plowing Match, a yearly genuflection in which politicians show their 'common folk' bona fides. Doug Ford riding a tractor makes us all want to vote for him, eh?

This year, however, as a result of his ongoing theft of valuable Greenbelt lands that house so much arable land, his reception was more muted than in times past, the media describing the crowd as merely 'polite.'

Among the waves and hellos from the sidelines to the premier and his caucus as they wended their way along the opening day parade route in a tractor-pulled wagon, there was also some discontent among attendees at the event held in Dufferin County, west of Orangeville.

“If Doug Ford keeps going the way he’s going — for (future generations), where’s their food coming from? Farmers feed us,” said Mona Blain, whose husband’s family has been farming for 100 years in southwestern Ontario.

“Farmers keep our world from going hungry, and when you keep building on our prime farmland, where’s the food coming from?” said Blain, who voted for the Progressive Conservatives in the last election.

“When you start giving away land for billions of dollars and helping out your friends in the process, there’s something wrong,” she added.

While many attending expressed similar concerns, Mr. Ford, ever the cliche-master, offered this chiropractic bromide, avowing

“we’re always going to have the agriculture, the food sector’s back, but most importantly we’re going to have the farmer’s backs.”

Not so, according to opposition politicians.

Ford “is not listening to rural people, he’s not listening to farmers. They are saying very clearly that they want the land returned to the Greenbelt,” [Marit} Stiles said.

Green Leader Mike Schreiner said 60 per cent of the land removed from the Greenbelt is in the Duffins Rouge agricultural preserve east of Toronto, “and that’s some of the best farmland in North America.”

Interim Liberal leader John Fraser said while Ford didn’t mention the Greenbelt in his speech, it was the “elephant in the room.”

While the plowing match is a celebration, he said, “people are angry, and they are angry in rural Ontario and they are angry in urban Ontario.” 

One thing is certain, however. In appearing on land in which horse manure is spread far and wide, Doug Ford shows he is very much in his element.

 

Now This Is How You Make A Commercial

Just a change of pace for today. Besides, have you ever seen Samuel L. Jackson give a bad performance?

Makes Perfect Sense To Me

 What's good for the silly goose should be good for the gander, eh?

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:

Unabated Fury

If the people of Hamilton are any indication, the citizen fury against Doug Ford's brazen and corrupt theft of Greenbelt lands continues unabated.

In a meeting ostensibly called to get input into the kinds of benefits the city should negotiate with provincial minions, compromise and collaboration were the last things on people's minds.

The feisty crowd booed when Premier Doug Ford’s name was mentioned and cheered when city planners said council has formally called for all affected lands, including parcels in Ancaster, Winona and Mount Hope, to be returned to the Greenbelt.

...many residents — dozens wielding signs condemning the Progressive Conservative government or calling to protect the Greenbelt — showed up urging council to abandon any negotiations related to potential development.

Michelle Silverton earned applause from the feisty crowd in urging the city to pay attention to “people power” on display Wednesday and refuse to participate in any development talks. “This is what democracy looks like,” she said.

An inflamed electorate can be a dangerous thing for those in power, especially those not easily taken in by the strange and essentially truculent tone taken by the new housing minister, Paul Calandra, who just the other day suggested that more lands may be removed, owing to a housing crisis that he clams has changed since the last government report, led by some Tory diehards like Tim Hudak, said such Greenbelt appropriation was not needed.

And the outrage is hardly limited to Hamiltonians, if letters to The Star are any indication:


Doug Ford’s fatally flawed Greenbelt plan must be stopped in its tracks, Sept. 6

I strongly agree with your editorial, but the core problem goes beyond the GTHA and it threatens human existence. Simply put, developing open space accelerates deadly global warming and pollution and shrinks food supplies. Approving such costly-to-taxpayers-to-service projects, including with expanded and new highways, will ultimately result in more suffering. That is far more criminal than backroom deals between developers and politicians. You can build new homes elsewhere, but you can’t create more oxygen, water, and arable land.


We’ve arrived at the cusp of climate disaster because we’ve ignored or deliberately buried the science. Will officials show the courage to stop the Greenbelt plan and similar ones across the country and turn toward brownfield development or will they continue to drive us to oblivion?

Brendan Read, Nanaimo, BC

There is a line in William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” that may well sum up Premier Doug Ford’s handling of his Greenbelt fiasco: “False face must hide what the false heart doth know.”

Scott Kennedy, Toronto


At a time where valuable farmland is shrinking all over the world due to climate change and overdevelopment, I’m surprised that the Ontario government would allow useful arable land to be wasted on private development. I understand that there is a desperate need for housing in Canada and elsewhere in the world, but wouldn’t it be more logical to develop areas of Ontario with less arable land? Fertile soil is a terrible thing to waste. Luxurious homes/condos just won’t put food on the table for Canadians.

Michael Pravica, Henderson, Nevada


The Star should start to fact check Premier Doug Ford’s comments about the Greenbelt as it did for former U.S. President Donald Trump, especially the egregious lie that “the people have spoken — we won’t touch the Greenbelt.” I counted at least 10 lies and mistruths in the last two weeks alone.

James Wigmore, Toronto

At the very least, this entire sordid escapade shows that voter apathy, at least in this case, is not something the Ford thieves should be counting on.

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.

UPDATED: Spinning, Spinning, Spinning

 Regrettably, I don't have too much time these days to post, and today is another busy day, so I shall leave you with the following editorial cartoon from Greg Perry, and links to some stories that are damning indictments of the Doug Ford cabal. 

Oh, and one more thing: Premier Ford is going to be making another attempt at damage control with another news conference this morning. I assume it will not have its intended effect.

Why is Ford protecting Clark? can be accessed here.

Doug Ford stands by Clark can be accessed here.

And soon, the spinning begins:

UPDATE: It was a pathetic performance, to be followed shortly by a news conference with Minister Steve Clark.

A Crime Against Everyone

 

The Enclosure Movement was a push in the 18th and 19th centuries to take land that had formerly been owned in common by all members of a village, or at least available to the public for grazing animals and growing food, and change it to privately owned land, usually with walls, fences or hedges around it.

The public noose of scrutiny continues to tighten around Doug Ford's neck as people refuse to be the dupes he and his cabal obviously take us for. His insistence that the housing crisis is the the sole reason for stealing much-needed Greenbelt lands rings increasingly hollow, especially in light of what it ultimately represents: criminal behaviour, insider trading that warrants an exhaustive investigation, including scrutiny of the developers themselves who are being so richly rewarded. The fact that the RCMP is now pondering whether to start a probe (what there is to ponder is beyond me) only increases the stench of corruption that envelopes the entire cabal.

It occurs to me that there is another dimension to all of this that recalls the Enclosure Movement of Great Britain. Because of human greed, land that had benefited the many became restricted to the moneyed class. Like that era, the removal of Greenbelt lands is an offence against the collective. All of us will suffer so that the few can be richly rewarded.

Although for the most part the Greenbelt is privately owned, the fact that it is vital to all of us, especially in these fraught times of climate crisis, deepens the perversion of these sell-outs. Much needed farmland, wetlands, etc. being sacrificed on the altar of obscene profits mean we will all suffer. We will have less food that can be grown; we will have less absorptive capacity for increasing amounts of rainfall supercharged by climate change. We will have less greenspace which, as David Suzuki has phrased it, is part of our much needed natural capital. And of the trees that will be destroyed in the development of McMansions, not affordable housing, I will not speak.

All of this makes me very sad, not so much for myself but for current and future generations, all of whom, long after I am gone, will be paying a heavy price for the greed and the enrichment of the few; their names are now part of the public record, prolific prevaricators who insist that there is nothing to see here, all the timing of purchases being mere 'coincidences'.

Greed is obviously not a new phenomenon, so I shall end this post with a quote from my favourite American author, John Steinbeck, who, in The Grapes of Wrath, wrote the following in relation to fruit being destroyed amidst mass poverty and starvation:

There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation.
There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize.
There is a failure here that topples all our success. The
fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and
the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die
because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And
coroners must fill in the certificates-died of malnutrition-
because the food must rot, must be forced to rot.

Apply that to our rapidly deteriorating world, and I think you will get his drift.

Pictures, Not Words

While a flurry of columns, articles and editorials continue to rail against the Doug Ford cabal theft of Greenbelt lands, I thought that a couple of editorial cartoons might be sufficient for today, images that effectively encapsulate the corruption and resulting pungent odour we in Ontario are contending with:

Pick A Card. Any Card

As most of us know, magicians use misdirection to accomplish their seemingly amazing feats. In the hands of a skilled practitioner, the process is seamless and awe-inspiring. In the hands of a rank amateur, contemptuous laughter and ridicule are more likely responses. 

Doug Ford is no master of prestidigitation.

That fact becomes increasingly obvious as he tries to finesse his way out of the Greenbelt scandal, a self-induced and egregious display of his corruption that no amount of misdirection can mitigate. For anyone watching or reading the news, his address to the Associations of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) proves both his ineptitude and his venality.

In a blatant bribe to Ontario municipalities, Ford unveiled a $1.2 billion 'fund' to reward those jurisdictions that meet or exceed their new housing goals; indeed, even those who achieve 80% of those targets are eligible for some compensation. The prospect of money- ya gotta love it.

And if that isn't sweet enough for them, he is promising to grant 'strong-mayor' powers to an array of newly-named towns and cities, just so that they need not be bound by any impediments erected by their councils. To me, both measures offer a window into the shrivelled soul of our premier. Assuming he mirrors most people's values, he expects both the bribes and strong-man rule will carry the day, effectively misdirecting us from the Greenbelt scandal that is of his own making and further eroding local democracy

There are only a few problems with that strategy. One, it assumes we will forget the many development fees charged to builders that have been eliminated - the new fund is wholly inadequate compensation for those lost fees. While Ford may choose to ignore it, the fact is that building infrastructure to service new home builds is very expensive, much more than simply hooking up sewer lines, etc. on land that has already been developed and lying vacant throughout Ontario.

Second, those who have the capacity for critical thought will see that this is yet another gift to developers, a taxpayer-funded subsidy that will only enhance their profits. Last time I looked, the likes of De Gasperis and Rice were not going to food banks for their daily bread. But I suppose their needs are much greater than those of the average person, eh?

Third, and this I confess I wasn't aware of, he is raising the spectre of a backlash against immigrants if he doesn't get his way. Martin Regg Cohn writes:

Doug Ford is peddling a risky strategy to save his political skin, and it’s not pretty.

It goes like this:

Unless we gut the Greenbelt, we can’t construct all the homes needed for waves of new immigrants and refugees.

And unless we build all that new housing urgently, resentment will build up rapidly against all those newcomers.

Day after day, as the premier digs himself into a deeper and deeper political hole, he repeatedly raises the alarm: If you block the bulldozing of protected lands, you risk a popular backlash.

...on Monday, in a highly touted speech to municipal leaders from across the province, the premier repeated his gut-the-Greenbelt-or-else warning: “Failing that would threaten to erode Canadians’ unwavering support for immigration.”

That is a new low, even for the morally bankrupt Ford. 

The next provincial election cannot come soon enough.

The Word Of The Day

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.

Many Ontarians, as I have been posting, are indeed nauseated by the flagrant and brazen way in which the Ford government is thumbing its collective nose at us. Sometimes, that miasma is so strong that we cannot rid ourselves of its noisome nature. As I have been posting of late, letters and commentary bespeak the deep sense of betrayal citizens of this province feel, one that the Ford/developers cabal hope will soon dissipate.

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.

Clearing The Air

H/t Moudakis

Here in Ontario, there are two reasons our air quality is compromised: this summer's ongoing forest fires and the stench of corruption whose source is Queen's Park. Of the two challenges, the latter is the most foul. The good news, however, is that people are no longer just holding their nose and going about their business. Columns, editorials and voluminous letters to the editor attest to that fact.

In my last post, I encouraged people to read Martin Regg Cohn's piece. He has another one in today's Star that also merits perusal. It insists, using Municipal Affairs Minister Steven Clark's own words, that he must resign.

Now I know the concept of ministerial responsibility has degenerated into being just a quaint notion, but as Regg Cohn points out, it was a principle near and dear to Clark just a handful of years ago - when he and his fellow cabal members were in Opposition.

Day after day, he rose in the legislature demanding that Liberal cabinet ministers do the right thing — resign — after doing the wrong thing. I could list the top 10 reasons why Clark should quit, but he would surely remain impervious to persuasion.

Let us instead recite Clark’s own persuasive reasoning from years past. Given how his own chief of staff orchestrated and curated the Greenbelt giveaway while he feigned ignorance, consider Clark’s record of demanding resignations from other errant ministers:

“It’s sad to say that they’ve killed the tradition — actually, no, the duty — of ministerial responsibility,” Clark hectored the Liberal government in 2016 as he targeted the energy minister of the day (Glenn Thibeault). “There used to be a time when ministers took their integrity seriously and believed they had to have the trust of the province … Will you stand up, premier, walk over to the minister’s desk and ask him to resign?”

In May 2017, Clark gave a long speech on the long-standing tradition that a minister should quit when under a cloud: “A minister of the Crown would do the right thing and step aside until their name was cleared,” he thundered. “There’s never any shame, never any dishonour in doing the right thing.”

The column is filled with examples of Clark's high dudgeon over ministers failing to take responsibility and doing the right thing, all underscoring his current breathtaking corruption and hypocrisy. I highly encourage you to read it.

Meanwhile, the fury expressed in letters to the editor remains unabated.

Ford must take responsibility for Greenbelt

Ontario to establish working group to deal with Greenbelt probe fallout, Aug. 14

I take great umbrage in being asked to swallow the excuses of our Premier Doug Ford that neither he nor Housing Minister Steve Clark were in the loop on such a red-hot-button decision as opening up the Greenbelt.

Sorry Doug, high school is out and “the dog ate my homework” doesn’t cut it.

I applaud the media for turning the lights on high on this Greenbelt Scandal. Yes folks, SCANDAL. Repeat it often so it becomes indelible in our minds, even when offered a free hamburger at Fordfest.

David Ottenbrite, Cambridge

A disservice to the people of Ontario

Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives ‘favoured certain developers’ in controversial Greenbelt plan, auditor general finds in scathing report, Aug. 9

I can see the statues in the Gallery of Infamous Conservative Premiers of Ontario with Mike Harris, who gave away Highway 407 and Doug Ford, who gave away the Greenbelt. Surely these two will go down in history as two premiers who did a great disservice to the people of Ontario.

Charles Campisi, Oakville

Housing crisis is about affordability

10 key take-aways from the auditor general’s Greenbelt report, Aug. 9

The auditor general’s report confirms it. This government is corrupt. It is not “for the people” but rather for the ultra-rich cronies who are well connected.

The Social Contract has been broken. How can we the people trust anything this government does? The whole premise of a housing “crisis” is a ruse, as outlined in the AG’s Greenbelt report. Even the Ontario government acknowledged in 2022 that there was enough serviceable land outside the Greenbelt to meet the Ford government’s housing targets.

We do have a housing crisis, but it’s about affordability.

Giacomo Tonon, Willowdale

Follow the honourable path — resign

$8B question with no believable answers, Aug. 15

Certainly affordable housing must be built. However, there are lands available (not in the Greenbelt) that would certainly serve the purpose.

It is obvious that Ryan Amato, chief of staff for Housing Minister Steve Clark, is the scapegoat in this tawdry mess orchestrated by Premier Doug Ford and Clark.

The entire situation is the quintessence of subterfuge.

Ford, Clark and Amato should take the honourable path and resign.

Jeffrey Manly, Toronto

For shame, Doug Ford

$8B question with no believable answers, Aug. 15

Doug Ford and his Housing Minister Steve Clark deny any knowledge on how Ryan Amato, chief of staff for the housing minister, decided which land parcels to remove from the Greenbelt, for development.

This despite 78 organizations registering strong opposition to the proposed changes since it was announcement last fall.

Under such scrutiny, it’s impossible to believe that the Premier and housing minister didn’t check and double check the decisions that were made.

If, in fact, they didn’t know that developers were choosing the land tracts to be removed, they should at the very least be declared incompetent and lose their jobs.

Clark and Amato have got to go. And shame on you Doug Ford for insulting the intelligence of the citizens of Ontario thinking we would buy your story.

Laura Fehr, Mississauga

People are angry. They are angry at the betrayal of a premier's promise not to touch the Greenbelt, they are angry at the billions in profits being funnelled to the connected few, and perhaps most of all, they are angry at being treated as brainless, expected to suck up the transparent lies that the Ford cabal is so addicted to perpetuating.

I think this scandal and the current outrage has legs. There is only one solution: a criminal investigation resulting in criminal charges against its architects. It's the only way to clear the air.