The Ford Gang is prolonging the pandemic for political gain and needs to go; then we'll get back to sports
You came for the sports and got a rant about how voters over age 40 can help get rid of the incompetent Alternative Facts Fantasy Camp that is making Ontarians scared, sick and dead instead.
Here is to hoping this will not happen often, he typed as if what appears in the newsletter is someone else’s decision. The aim was to write four times during the week week about sports in the context of unprecedented times, with politics on the periphery. But here we are, going All Doug Ford on a Sunday. It is all about keeping your eye on the ball.
Defeating the Ford Gang: it can be done
The last time that I drank to get drunk was June 7, 2018, when Ontario elected a party led by failson Doug Ford. The province signed up a four-year contract for chaos politics, social murder, and gutting public education in a proxy battle in the right’s war on women and science. Anyone aware of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario knew we were in for government by the property developers, of the property developers and for the property developers.
Three years on … well, we got the chaos politics and social murder. But prolonging the COVID19 pandemic in order to score political points, though? Are you appalled or kinda impressed? The province is loosening some restrictions even though there were almost 2,500 new cases on March 27 and a 4.0 per cent positivity rate. They want to drag this out to close to the election writ as possible.
In the before times, it was one thing for a party to carry out a long con before pivoting into an election-year spending blitz. Operating that way in the COVID19 era in order to prolong the pandemic is criminal — full stop.
That reality should be hitting home with anyone who is in an Ontario riding that can potentially vote out a PC MPP. Flip it to Red, Orange, or Green, anything but Blue. Remember, Ontario had a coalition government in the ’80s. People in my 40-to-49 age bracket and older, who have seen the PCPO’s chaos politics twice in their adulthood, need to do the right thing. Women are ahead of us guys, as usual.
There are times where you do have to vote against someone as much as you want to have something worth giving your vote. My fight impulse kicked in during Friday’s news cycle after a bozo eruptus outbreak in the Alternative Facts Fantasy Camp that passes as elected government and media in Ontario.
There are four essential proofs about the Ford Gang’s literal stretch goals with Big Rona.
Look at what they say. Ford blew his stack in a press conference on Friday by calling the federal Liberals’ vaccine procurement “a joke.” Our World In Data says Canada is ahead of the European Union in doses given per 100 people, even though (and this is a collective fail) we do not make vaccines. We have plenty of supply, but conservative premiers keep complaining about not gettin’ enough.
Conservative parties and much of Canada’s legacy media in Canada are joined at the hip. That “circle jerk of protection and promotion of the reputational and financial interests”1 also happens with the Liberals and NDP, of course, but it is precious to act like only one side can go in that mud.Look at what they do. Ontario has confusion about signups, and a free-for-all that led to Sharbot Lake, Ont., a rural village of 1,400, having a vaccine waitlist 4½ times the size of its population. There has also been a communication breakdown where no one seems to know anymore what the colour-coded ‘mockdown’ zones means anymore.
Is there a derangement syndrome element to the criticism of Ford? I am open to hearing arguments. The reality, though, is the premier set the bar at 150,000 doses per day, almost twice of what Ontario is administering. Ford is an career over-promiser, and an under-deliverer. That is on him.
It might well be that the system in place is beating its capability at 83,000 doses, and it sucks if any civil servant takes the brunt of the public’s wrath. They did not make that system.
Doug Ford keeps claiming the province could do 150,000 doses a day if the federal government provided the vaccines. The federal government has stepped up, and not once has Ontario even come close to doing 150,000 doses a day. #FordFailedThePeople #FordVaccineFailureOn Saturday, the Ontario @fordnation provincial roll out administered 77,000 doses, a drop of 5,000 from a day earlier. 430,000+ doses in freezers.
Bruce Anderson @bruceandersonAs of this moment, according to the tracker, the freezer stockpile is down to >372,000 doses. But Ontario is scheduled to receive another shipment of 1.4 million doses this week, meaning we'd have to administer 200,000 a day just to keep up with supply. covid19tracker.ca/provincevac.ht…
Look at who stands to benefit. Ontario has a third wave of Big Rona, but deems it more important to play three-card monte with the public’s sanity.
A case study in the chaos politics is Education Minister Stephen Lecce, who is not an alumnus of any public school in Ontario, but did his masters in fuckboiery at the Harperburo in the early 2010s.
During the Before Times, Lecce insisted online learning should be mandatory in secondary schools. That did not take since the centre-left out-memed him by pointing out that is what they do in the parts of the Incited States where there is paranoia that too much learnin’ in a high school will hurt the football team’s chances of going to State.
Ontario's public education ranks 2nd in Canada. 😀 Ford and Lecce want to change that, by including online classes modeled after the worst ranking US states – Michigan (21), Florida (33), Arkansas (44), and Alabama (45). SERIOUSLY?! 🤦♂️ #onpoli #cdnpoliAs Doug Ford's government plows ahead with mandatory e-learning, I asked why Ontario is looking for policy guidance in a state that ranks among the worst in the US when it comes to education. #OntEd #onpoli https://t.co/nIyFM226W8
Marit Stiles @maritstiles
Amid the pandemic, Lecce’s Ministry of Truthiness and Tight Pants rushed the reopening of schools and cut corners on health and safety protocols while also cutting pandemic funding. Now Lecce, who has designs on party leadership (save us Jeebus), wants remote learning to be permanent and separate from the school boards, which presumably means not having to pay so many mostly lady teachers. This is part of creating the stress that will make people accept something dirty and worse, but privatized.
Lecce had another pivot point in the course of this being written.
So the "Our schools are safe!" guy has come right out and told us schools aren't safe. That's weird. I've seen people tell¹ Stephen to get his ducks in order. I think he is. If schools close again, and they might, he's going to blame Trudeau for not having an imaginary vaccine.To keep schools as safe as possible next year, Canada will need a plan to procure vaccines for students under 16 years old. I’m calling on the federal government to plan ahead so that Canada is positioned to lead the world & defeat this pandemic. https://t.co/lJ4RoTba9i
Stephen Lecce @Sflecce
And, oh yeah, in-the-know doctors are taking their children out of school.
School cases now higher than peak in December before the school closure. And these cases include a large percentage of more infectious variants. What happens in the next two weeks?This is the number of active student cases in schools by date. https://t.co/8KMzJ6713E
Diego Bassani, PhD 🏠😷 @DGBassani
What goes around comes around. The chaos politics of the Mike Harris years, from 1995 to 2003, led to the destabilizing and privatizing of elder care, excuse me, “long-term care industry.” The PCPO has long had health care and public education in its sights. Oh, speaking of LTC, where Harris had his soft landing after leaving office:
The province is not collecting reliable data about how many long-term care home workers are vaccinated. A reminder that we are in a third wave. Important story from @dzlo
As for Lecce, here is to hoping that school boards ignore him and are plan to have full semesters in September 2021. Probably the wise play.Look at what the mass media avoids confronting. Let’s put a pin, for now, in the incestuous relationships the Ford Gang has with media outlets whose reach infinitely exceeds their credibility. Hey there, Brian Lilley of Postmedia, please like and subscribe.
We should question the media’s inclinations for what to cover, which leads to the Ford Gang getting a pass on poor intent and gross incompetence.
Thread: A lot things have bugged me about Ford's press conferences, and I'm wondering if seasoned journalists feel the same way I do. 1. Why are journalists not allowed in the same room, but socially distanced? 2. Why the limits on questions? 1/33. What is the selection process for reporter questions? 4. How do some of these journalists live with themselves when it's clear they were picked to lob a fluffy question at the premier? 5. Why are journalists not asking the right questions? 2/36. Why is there not a separate question period for local media? I could care less about what the Peel Guardian is asking specifically about Brampton, but do care about Global News, CBC, CTV, etc reporter questions? ideas @ColinDMello @Travisdhanraj @CBCQueensPark etc. 3/3
The term that needs to get over is The Criticism Trap. Covering Ford’s press conferences and the bullshit theatre of question period hyperfocuses on What Did He Say This Time?
What dismissive put-her-in-her-place comment did he hurl at ONDP Leader Andrea Horwath or what false accusations did he fling at Sol Mamakwa, the only member of the Ontario legislature who is of full Indigenous descent?
Political rivals are calling on Premier Doug Ford to apologize after he told NDP Leader Andrea Horwath her criticisms of the government’s handling of COVID-19 are like “nails on a chalkboard,” saying the remark smacks of misogyny.
The worst thing I’ve ever heard an Ontario premier say: tvo.org/article/the-wo… #INDIGENOUS #vaccine #vaccines #COVID19 #COVID19Ontario #onpoli @OntarioNDP @OntarioPCParty @fordnation
Here is the rubdown with that: likely voters in a Blue riding that could be flipped in June might not be put off by the bullying of female and/or BIPOC legislators. That is not due to prejudice. We are all insular, and more concerned about what directly affects our daily lives, especially if you are over age 40 and also have school-aged dependents.
Ford-in-mouth disease is clicky, and easy to cover off a screen during a pandemic. But it elides putting the phone down and figuring out whether Ontario is vaccinating as many people as it could each day, and whether it using the pandemic as cover for a pro-privatization agenda.
Those voters are not actually as dumb as shitty Gliberals such as I would have you believe during our weaker, project-much moments.
It is human nature to hone in on what directly affects us, so they see the focus on Ford’s bully-boy behaviour overshadowing their real-life concerns. (And yeah, some might agree with it, but that is not part of the Reasonabilist consensus.) So resentment of ‘downtown elites’ grows, and they become more inclined to vote for the party led by a guy who tells it like it is, even though they just know he did not mean the latest terrible thing he said.
The three other parties in Ontario need to start showing the effect that the Ford Gang slow-playing mass COVID19 vaccination is having on Ontarians Like You. Otherwise they are just giving him oxygen.
But they will win again, you say? Heard that one too.
Ford pointed fingers on Friday. A politico named Simone Racanelli called out the media for covering up the conflicts of interest of Postmedia’s Lilley and Ford flack Ivana Yelich, prodding CANADALAND to hit “publish” on on a bomb. Then CP24 reminded us that online polling (so, not actual reliable polling) shows there could be another PC majority. Again, my motivation to get political on a rainy Sunday was the juvenile attacks against CANADALAND’s Jonathan Goldsbie after reporting an obviously newsworthy story. That was the bozo eruptus part.
There are doubts about any other party winning enough seats for a majority, especially with the PCs’ campaign war chest and the likelihood of Liberal-Green-ONDP vote-splitting.
We need to remind people a coalition government is a much better alternative to four more years of minoritarian rule. It would be no different with a different party leader than Ford, who is a cutout man if push comes to shove like it did for his party’s last two leaders.
We should also see the upside of pandemic fatigue. A new diet in non-election years is mentally healthful. So there is a high ceiling for the ‘hey, competent government is a good thing’ vote in 2022!!
Speak up, and work on talking to people whose votes would swing the election. As long as people who do not agree on everything are keep talking, and listening to learn, there is a chance to #VoteFordOut2022. That is how teams are built; different people with complementary skills come together.
I fall into an age bracket where I now see terrible things I pushed back on as a youth come back — with a vengeance! I know better than most that the PCPO narrative is that they have unfinished business after the Harris years. Their business is grinding up people for wins that turn out to be losses for almost everyone else.
Politics should not be treated like a business or a team sport. However, there are aspects of the latter that can be applied to getting rid of those who get carried away with treating it like the former.
Did you have Dean Blundell leading the resistance? You did? You liar.