Enough with the silly games
Ted Arnott, speaker of the Ontario legislature, appears to be something of a Sisyphus for contemporary times. The boulder he pushes uphill is the cause of encouraging elected MPPs to behave in ways that are effective, respectful, exemplary.
His task seems almost as futile as that of the fabled king from Greek mythology.
After a set-to last week between Premier Doug Ford and Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath, in which the former flung an insult that prompted allegations of sexism, Arnott urged MPPs to raise their game.
“No speech, no question and no response is enhanced by gratuitous personal insult at the best of times,” he said. “I should not need to remind members that these are not the best of times.”
On that, he is correct. We are in times of prolonged crisis. People are dying. People are sick. People are out of work. Schools are in chaos.
If ever there was a time to pull together, you might think this is it. But Ford, who never bargained for this type of work when he ran for office, appears to be increasingly fraying under pressure.
Horwath raised questions — as is her job — about a rushed re-opening of the province and the veracity of some data on which a re-opening might be based.
Ford promptly resorted to an insult with troubling undertones.
Listening to Horwath, he said, was “just like listening to nails on a chalkboard.”
Doug Ford is no one’s idea of a sensitive modern man. His sensibility derives pretty much unaltered from the 1950s. And it’s fairly certain he wouldn’t have used that particular imagery had his interlocutor been male.
All opposition parties saw the remark as sexist. Arnott, with his statement the next day, seemed to agree.
“Nails on a chalkboard” is perhaps not as overtly sexist as other insults flung the way of female political leaders such as Horwath or former premier Kathleen Wynne. But perhaps that’s the very reason Arnott was correct to weigh in.
On balance, it’s a gendered remark. And when objections to such language are raised it would be prudent for the premier to listen.
Instead, the usual defences were trotted out. Ford meant no insult. He opposes sexism and misogyny. His words were taken the wrong way.
Then the premier essentially ran away, absenting himself from question period the next day.
It wouldn’t have hurt Ford to offer a prompt apology. That would have allowed legislators to get back to weighty issues rather than tiresome partisan sniping.
Opposition politicians have good reason to keep careful watch on this government. The province has made a hash of things in its COVID-19 response. The incompetence and mixed messaging has left much of the province baffled and frustrated.
For that, the loonie stops at Ford’s desk.
And he wasn’t alone in playing silly games in the legislature last week.
Independent MPP Roman Baber, recently turfed from the PC caucus for opposing the government’s lockdown measures, introduced a private member’s bill to temporarily slash MPPs’ salaries to the equivalent of CERB, the federal emergency benefit, to highlight the impact of shutting down the economy to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
It was nothing but third-rate theatrics.
The fact the rest of the MPPs retaliated by passing a motion to cut just Baber’s salary to the federal benefit level shows how quick all are to resort to gamesmanship, even in these times of crisis.
“The people of Ontario are looking to their elected representatives for leadership now, perhaps more than ever before in the last 30 years,” Arnott told the legislature.
After last week, they can be forgiven for looking elsewhere.