Bullying not a good look for MacLeod

Ontario Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod — she who cancelled basic income after promising not to, who killed a minimum-wage increase and cut social assistance benefits — just doesn’t get it.

Even after she was forced to apologize for trying to bully and intimidate the Ontario Association for Behaviour Analysts into supporting her government’s flawed autism treatment reforms, she brazenly dismissed the matter, referring to it as “partisan games by the NDP.”

The minister attended a meeting in January at which she said if the group didn’t publicly endorse the autism overhaul, it would be in for a “long four years.”

That’s a naked threat, even by the standards of this government, which seems to enjoy beating up on vulnerable people. How MacLeod thought she’d get away with such bullying is anyone’s guess, but she miscalculated. The group released the information, and it didn’t take long for critics to demand her resignation.

#ResignLisaMacLeod was trending on Twitter much of Thursday and Friday.

It didn’t happen, of course, and it won’t.

After all, Doug Ford referred to her as an “absolute all-star.” Presumably then, he would encourage other members of his government to act like thugs toward citizens? It seems an odd thing to be proud of.

Another group says the government claimed it supports the autism changes and was involved in the plan, but in fact neither is true. And a third group that went public with its criticism was dismissed by the government as nothing more than “professional protesters.”

So vilifying people who disagree with it seems standard procedure for this government. Best get used to it, at least for the next three and a half years.