Ford foes on many fronts
Re Tories cut taxes, slash role of watchdogs, Nov. 16 The provincial economic update should not have come as a surprise to any voter. The independent voices for the environment, consumer, child advocacy and the French language paid the price. The Minister of Health was not consulted regarding impacts of new legislation removing Ontario worker’s right. Why?
The reason is clear: We have government leadership with revenge in his heart. Intelligent and compassionate Conservative politicians stand and clap like extras in a theatre of the absurd production. Losing those voices removes more voices of reason. And if you can’t have that, clap ’em into silence then lock ’em up.
Is this a vicious new political circle? A plan where one party wins a majority and wipes out all traces of past governance, using any tactic to achieve the goal. Voters become caught in the middle of a festering obsession. Fear is what drove our government to kill those needed, independent voices. What next?
Will promises made in campaigning become as dispensable as losing independent voices. Voters grow angry and elections bring change. Now add up all the revenge items, add up all the independent voices, including the silent cries from the PC party itself, and wonder if the next government will seek revenge: a revengeful circle. Don Graves, Burlington Re Do the Ontario Liberals deserve official party status? Opinion, Nov. 20 I’m not a fan of the provincial Liberals, based on their poor record as custodians of Ontario’s finances that cost them the election and even official party status. But it is only fair that Liberal MPPs are provided with an opportunity to speak in the legislature on behalf of the 1.1 million Ontarians who voted for them during the last election. Remember that PC Premier Mike Harris and Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty earlier adopted a pragmatic approach in giving standing and more resources to the Liberal and NDP parties, respectively. Such past democratic precedents for giving a small group of MPPs a greater say, and opportunities to ask questions, is surely worth respecting.
Given past experiences, who knows how the pendulum will swing in the next election? This alone should give Premier Doug Ford sufficient reason to show rare magnanimity to the Liberals and help the cause of effective representation at Queen’s Park. Rudy Fernandes, Mississauga Doug Ford has revealed his own personal bigotry and intolerance towards French-speaking people in Ontario. When he decided to cancel the plans for a francophone university and eliminate the Office of the French Language Services Commissioner, he openly showed his disdain for the Frenchspeaking people of Ontario and denied their constitutional rights without any remorse.
It reminds me of the Orangemen who waged a war against the most basic rights of the French Catholic people in Ontario a long time ago. The hatred, intolerance and bigotry of those Orangemen survived in the English culture through the years. It showed when the conservative party of Ontario banished all French schools in 1912.
This intolerance was still very strong when Conservative premier Mike Harris trampled the project of the one and only French hospital (Montfort) in Ontario in 1997.
The English minority in Quebec and the French minority in Ontario are both about 5 per cent of their provincial population. The English people of Quebec often complain that they are treated the worst in Canada. They obviously don’t realize that they have 10 hospitals in Montreal alone. They also have three English universities in Montreal. (In Ontario, there is no French university and only one French hospital).
Not only has Ford showed intolerance, but also a blatant ignorance when he claimed “there are about 600,000 Chinese Ontarians and 600,000 Italian Ontarians, but that the province couldn’t please everybody” (The Citizen, Nov. 17). He doesn’t understand that French is one of two official languages in Canada, so the language of 600,000 francophones should prevail over all foreign languages. Pauline Cyr, Belleville Re Ford is following Harris’ austerity playbook, Walkom, Nov. 19 So Vic Fedeli tells us that his upcoming austerity budget will affect everyone, without exception. Since when did any austerity budget ever affect a politician?
Being vastly overpaid and having power over most Ontario citizens, these politicians are able to do with us whatever they please and there is not much any of us are able to do about it. Bill Gotro, Whitby It concerns me that the Ontario PC Party voted to discuss deeming gender identity as a “Liberal ideology” and have it removed from the health curriculum.
We are moving backwards instead of forwards. Rolling back the sex-ed curriculum to the 1998 version, cancelling the construction of a Frenchlanguage university, cutting the French language services commissioner and child and youth advocate positions.
At least we will be able to shop at the LCBO until 11 p.m. Liam Harrington, Guelph Re Ontario Place casino possible, Tories say, Nov. 18 With regard to a replacement for what he now refers to as, “the former Ontario Place,” Finance Minister Vic Fedeli states, “we’ve got to start looking at everything.”
But before the Tories consign Ontario Place to the dustbin of history, there’s something else they should take a look at, and here’s a suggestion for how they might go about doing it.
Let Doug Ford get a hard hat, safety glasses and a sledgehammer, then have his cabinet meet with him at Ontario Place. There they will find and gather before a commemorative plaque, vintage 1971, upon which these words are inscribed (the first three lines): “Ontario Place, dedicated to the people of Ontario, past — present — future.”
I strongly believe that Ontario Place, from its very inception, was envisioned by the PC government of the day as a lakefront recreational facility that all Ontarians could enjoy in their provincial capital and, as indicated by the plaque, this was to be for posterity.
Woe betide the government that would dare break faith with those who had such a vision for this land, and named and dedicated it as they did. Robert McBride, Thornhill