Cohn: Ford’s conservative goals go far beyond Ontario’s borders,
No surprise that Doug Ford is undoing Kathleen Wynne’s legacy.
Ontario’s 26th premier never made a secret of his contempt for the progressive pretensions of his predecessor during his winning campaign. So far, so fair.
But Ford’s conservative goals go far beyond provincial borders. Now, unravelling and resetting the national agenda is top of mind. Regardless of whether Ontario voters signed on for a war of attrition and ambition between Queen’s Park and Ottawa, they are about to get one.
So is the rest of Canada. As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau discovered on a courtesy call to the premier’s office last week, Ford’s election will have an impact across the country.
On climate change, pharmacare and refugee resettlement, Ford’s targets are as much national as provincial. For the self-styled leader of Ford Nation, the national stage is taking centre stage.
His plan of action — and inaction:
On pharmacare, do as little as possible. This is his least expected but most misunderstood move so far. A day after his swearing-in, without any prior notice, Ford’s government quietly rescinded the universality of OHIP+. Now, children and young adults can only seek reimbursement from government if they (or their parents) are not fully covered by a private insurer, to whom they must first submit any bills — potentially waiting months to get any money back. Many Ontarians who now have workplace benefits may be shrugging their shoulders, but it’s not so simple. This move precludes the kind of national pharmacare program that was always envisioned when medicare was founded a half-century ago — a singlepayer system that saves money by avoiding duplication in diagnostic and administrative costs from private insurers. We don’t tell sick people to pay doctors out of their own pockets and get reimbursement from private insurers first, backstopping them with a U.S.-style Medicaid program. Why do it for drugs?
By essentially re-privatizing OHIP+, Ford has forestalled the billions of dollars in estimated savings that would come from scaling up to a fully universal single-payer — and single-buyer — system that could get the best bulk prices from pharmaceutical giants who now overcharge private insurers for generics. Kicking the legs out from OHIP+ just as the federal government was trying to cobble together a national pharmacare program will deal it a death blow.
On climate change, do nothing. As advertised — albeit false advertising — Ford is cancelling the so-called “cap and trade carbon tax” that never existed. Yes, Ontario had a cost-effective cap-and-trade system that placed a price on carbon, ultimately passed on to consumers just like any other cost of doing business (much like wastewater permits). Ontario never had a B.C.-style “carbon tax,” but thanks to Ford, it’s coming soon.
That’s because Ottawa has mandated a price on carbon that will be imposed in Ontario by default, once cap and trade is ended. Queen’s Park will waste $35 million fighting and losing in court, at which point we can rechristen it the new “Ford Nation Carbon Tax.”
On refugees, like carbon pricing, every word is a wedge. Ontario’s mean-spirited labelling of asylum-seekers as “illegal border crossers” is designed to demonize and delegitimize them. For it is irrelevant under international and Canadian law how refugee claimants cross a border. From the moment they make a claim, until it is rejected, they have protected legal status.
“There is a process ... that is currently not being followed by illegal border crossers,” Ford’s office declared in a deliberately provocative statement criminalizing them the day Trudeau visited. In reality, people seeking asylum come any way they can, regardless of the process we might want. Short of an electrified fence, securing a border is a complicated question. But it is folly to pretend there are easy answers, which is why Ford’s government has none. Just wedges.
On all these issues, Ontario is leading the charge in going backwards. The national destabilization wrought by Ford stands in stark contrast to the province’s political history. Previous premiers — John Robarts, Bill Davis, David Peterson, Bob Rae — led the way forward on national unity and unity of purpose. Robarts founded OHIP as medicare came into being, and fostered the Canada Pension Plan. Davis provided leadership on patriation of the Constitution.
What will Ford’s legacy be on climate change, pharmacare and refugee resettlement? Far more than unwinding Wynne’s agenda, Ford risks unravelling our national fabric in pursuit of winning wedges.