Where are the adults to stop Ford?

The grown-ups need to speak out against Ford and his bullying tactics

When Donald Trump was the Republican candidate for U.S. president, he ran one of the nastiest, crudest campaigns ever seen in American politics.

Don’t worry, his supporters said though, Trump won’t be anything like the boorish bully he was in the campaign once he’s elected. He’ll be more rational and the senior people he picks for his cabinet will temper and smooth out the worst of his bullying tendencies, they argued.

The pivot that Trump’s backers suggested would occur when he brought on experienced advisers never did happen. They all failed to rein in Trump, who has gone crazy on almost everything. Other Trump advisers took a different path, swallowing their principles and agreeing to everything Trump is doing in their eagerness to curry favour with their boss.

Sadly, that same scenario could be happening at Queen’s Park under Premier Doug Ford.

For years Ford had a reputation as a bully, a guy who couldn’t — and wouldn’t — work with other politicians to reach a consensus on almost any issue. That’s not me talking, that’s the Toronto Sun, which lately has become the virtual house organ for the Ford government.

Back in 2014, though, the Sun endorsed John Tory, not Ford, as mayor of Toronto. “We don’t support the Ford circus,” the Sun said in its editorial. “The Fords (Rob and Doug) thought, wrongly, they could bully council into doing their bidding, a fatally-flawed strategy, which eventually drove even their allies away ... Tory is a builder, not a bully.”

This spring, when Ford was campaigning in the provincial election, he promised a fairer Ontario, a “government for the people, “and talked about a team approach with wide public consultations. Don’t worry, his supporters said, echoing Trump backers, Ford won’t be anything like the boorish bully he was in the past once he’s elected. The senior people he picks for his cabinet will temper and smooth out the worst of his bullying tendencies, they argued.

But as soon as he became premier, Ford reverted to his old ways. Given his unilateral, “my-way-or-the-highway” actions in the past weeks, the “Ford circus” that the Sun criticized in 2014 has moved to Queen’s Park.

So where are the grown-ups in Ford’s cabinet? Where are the adults, the respected ministers who were going to temper his actions and provide voices of reason around the cabinet table?

Well, it seems they’re missing in action. Where are you, Health Minister Christine Elliott? Did you speak up when Ford agreed to pay his pal

Dr. Reuben Devlin some $348,000 a year to head a task force to look into the province’s hospital system, a job that supposedly falls under your portfolio?

Where are you, Finance Minister Vic Fedeli? Did you cringe, as the former interim Tory leader who once talked of restoring civility to Queen’s Park, when Ford ordered you and other ministers not to answer any queries during Question Period?

Where are you, Attorney General Caroline Mulroney? Did you speak

Where are the adults, the respected ministers who were going to temper his actions and provide voices of reason around the cabinet table? Well, it seems they’re missing in action.

up when Ford, in a move motivated by sheer vindictiveness against his former political foes, unilaterally acted to slash the size of Toronto council from 47 seats to 25 and cancel the planned elections of regional chairs in York, Peel, Niagara and Muskoka in the middle of the campaign? Did you tell him the move might be legal but is an affront to democracy?

Where are you Environment Minister Rod Phillips? Did you speak up when Ford cancelled funding for already-approved green energy projects or when Ford launched his attack on your hometown of Toronto?

Where are you, Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark? Did you swallow your self-respect by becoming a cheerleader for Ford’s move to cancel the elections for regional chairs, the same elections you voted for when the Liberals proposed them just two years ago?

Clearly, it’s time you grown-ups in cabinet start to speak up. If you don’t, then the bully Ford will know for sure he can run roughshod over you and the voters any time he wants. As Americans learned with Trump, that could lead to lots of even crazier stuff.

Is this what any of you signed up for?