Push back

Doug Ford says we need an election in Ontario. Sixteen months early. He says we must go to the polls in just four weeks. He says he needs a strong expression of voter support to fight back against Donald Trump. He is wrong. He is likely to win a majority government anyway.

This comment is about us.

After a bad start (putting the knife into Mexico’s ribs), Ford has performed well in the shadow of looming Trump tariff threats. He has found his voice. And a hat. “Canada is not for sale”.

He speaks Trump. Small words. Blusterpacked. Significant of who-knows-what? Alas, he is all we have at the moment. It is hard to see another leader (aside from Jean Chretien) managing this moment better.

Is it a sufficient reason to put Ontarians through an insta-election? Bay of Quinte voters endured this last fall. Todd Smith was toiling away as our Member of Provincial Parliament one day last August, and 34 days later, we had a new representative at Queen’s Park. Most folks would be hard-pressed to name our current MPP or to pick him out of a line-up. This is by design.

Simply because the governing party is permitted to call quickie elections, hoping not to arouse a distracted electorate, and seeking to overwhelm an unknown opposition does not make it tolerable. But what is and isn’t tolerable has been a moving target lately. Ultimately, you and I make that judgment. I am not hopeful that an appropriate verdict will be rendered. The next month is likely to be saturated by the aroma of an unnecessary election.

Doug Ford should pay a price.

Doug Ford has failed to build homes. He came to office promising to build 1.5 million new homes by 2031. It is not going to happen. Not even close. Seventeen per cent fewer homes were built in the province last year compared to 2023.

Worse, Ford is encouraging developers to build the wrong homes in the wrong places. His regulations and incentives (read $18 million on $300 million of municipal waterworks extravaganza or $20 million toward a $52 million rebuild of Highway 49) nudge municipalities to push development out into farm fields and wetlands— away from transit, jobs and affordability that is achieved by building infill projects near a subway station, bus route or employment.

Look no further than Prince Edward County where nearly all the development action is in the farmfields and wetlands on the edges of our town and villages. Municipalities are being bullied to spread their infrastructure tentacles—roads, waterworks, utilities—outwards to places only those with cars can live. Sidewalks are afterthoughts. Jobs and getting to work aren’t calculated at all.

Property taxpayers bear the direct cost. The long-term cost of sprawl and congestion that defines Toronto is being exported to smaller communities.

Ford’s proactive measures appear to benefit only his developer friends (read 413 and Greenbelt lands).

Meanwhile, he has repeatedly killed one remedy that would have an immediate impact on easing the affordability crisis—that is enabling four-plexes by right. Imagine four apartments where a single home exists now. No need for extensive zoning changes and approvals. New homes could be move-in ready in a year. It is a real, and workable solution.

Some love the idea, others hate it. But it is Ford’s job to lead. To persuade. But he won’t. He will instead slip and slither his way to another majority. And we will let it happen.

Ontario Place was already in decline when I arrived in Toronto in the early ‘80s. Yet, it was, and remains, a remarkable property, a potential jewel on the lakeshore. It is a measure of Ford’s stunted imagination, however, that it has been leased for a century to an Austrian firm upon which to operate a spa—a “well-being destination”. Have we reached peak elite? I am resisting the barf reflex as I write these words.

A Spanish firm controls the 407 highway along the top-of-the-city, while an Austrian firm now controls Ontario Place lands. Maybe Canada is for sale.

Doug Ford’s Conservative government has run deficits in five of six years in office—accumulating $92 billion in new debt. Two and a half million Ontarians don’t have a family doctor. The Greenbelt fiasco. Tearing up bike lanes.

Doug Ford should pay a price. I am not holding my breath.

rick@wellingtontimes.ca