Ford discovers the Franco-Ontarians he never knew
Here’s a little-known French fact: Doug Ford loves francophones.
The ones next door in Quebec.
As for the 622,000 who live here in Ontario, they’ve never really been on his radar. Nothing against them, he just didn’t notice them — and didn’t need them.
Until now. Too late.
To comprehend Ford’s blind spot, it’s helpful to revisit his thinking — and thoughtlessness — on francophone aspirations and protections. Seeking the Progressive Conservative leadership earlier this year, Ford stumbled on a simple question about learning French:
“It’d be important to be able to communicate with part of our country that speaks French — I love Quebec, I love Quebecers,” Ford replied brightly to Radio-Canada’s Queen’s Park correspondent, JulieAnne Lamoureux.
Quebecers? What about her primary television audience of Franco-Ontarians?
It was a telling comment at the time, and it speaks volumes today.
Ford’s garrulous nod to French Quebecers and grievous snub to Franco-Ontarians gave the game away from the get-go. It revealed his obtuseness about minority rights that go to the core of linguistic identity. If Ford could so easily forget his fellow Ontarians back then, is it any surprise his government remains so oblivious now — and that it would so wilfully toss grenades into so vulnerable a community?
Let us count the ways:
On the day of his swearing-in last June, Ford summarily eliminated the standalone ministry of francophone affairs, downgrading one of our two founding peoples to second-class citizens.
In this month’s fall economic statement, his PC government went back on its campaign pledge to proceed with Ontario’s first dedicated French-language university. Promise made, promise broken — in either language.
The Tories also downgraded the independent French-language services commissioner, folding the advocacy role into the duties of the provincial ombudsman’s office (which focuses on individual grievances, not collective goals).
The cri de coeur from Franco-Ontarians was matched by an outcry in Quebec and an uproar in Ottawa. Francophone MPPs in the legislature protested from their seats; Quebec Premier François Legault took up the cause on a visit to Queen’s Park; federal Tory Leader Andrew Scheer joined all major parties in objecting.
Not only has Ford antagonized a vital provincial constituency, he has alienated potential partners beyond Ontario’s borders. The man who would be premier had repositioned himself, in recent months, as the politician who would be prime minister — or perhaps play kingmaker — but Ford’s federal future is now in the past.
National pretensions require a federalist vision and a provincial acuity that elude him. Now, having forsaken francophones, Ford can forget those ambitions.
But our wounded premier is not the only high-profile politician at Queen’s Park to be burned because their political antennae weren’t more attuned. Consider Caroline Mulroney’s track record.
As the minister “responsible” for francophone affairs (albeit without a ministry), her flawless French made her a beacon for francophones at the outset. French-language journalists understood her star quality, because their editors always coveted a clip from the daughter of a former prime minister.
But elocution isn’t empathy. And a minister without a ministry is a politician without power.
Mulroney’s inability to protect Frenchlanguage rights — indeed, the zeal with which she defended the government’s blunders in a signed opinion piece published by the National Post — recall her failure to stand up for charter rights last August when the premier recklessly invoked the notwithstanding clause to redraw Toronto’s electoral map on a whim.
In a last-ditch effort to put the controversy behind him, Ford announced Friday that he’d had second thoughts: He restored a standalone francophone affairs ministry with Mulroney in charge, and promised to partially upgrade the downgraded French-language commissioner’s job (albeit still under the ombudsman), and to hire a new adviser in his office.
But his latest linguistic conversion has satisfied no one and alienated everyone. In pursuit of ephemeral cost savings (still unspecified), the Tories have shown they neither comprehend nor care about the aspirations of the biggest francophone community outside Quebec.
“I love the francophone Ontarians,” a chastened Ford declared Wednesday, striking a dramatically different tone from his unguarded comments to Radio-Canada last February. In the aftermath, Ford got so bogged down in narrow provincialism that he forgot the generous federalism that binds this country together.
Given his known blind spots, he probably didn’t think twice before deciding to rationalize French-language services again and again. But what rationale did Mulroney have for forsaking francophones — and defending the decision for so long — given that she grew up in a bilingual environment at 24 Sussex Dr. when the prime minister of the day placed a premium on minority language rights?
That’s a question well worth answering, in either of Canada’s official languages.