PREMIER PLOWS AHEAD
Ontario premier doug ford makes the turn after plowing a furrow aboard a ford 3000 tractor on tuesday during opening day at the 2018 international plowing match and rural expo in pain court, near chatham.
We have to protect the farmers. We have to protect the autoworkers. We have to protect everyone in Ontario.
Forget walking softly and carrying a big stick. Think loud steps and the big stick.
Hauling out the Constitution’s nuclear bomb in a bid to chop Toronto’s civic government in half, scrapping a modern sex education program for Ontario school kids and cancelling hundreds of green energy contacts, Premier Doug Ford has been anything but diplomatic in his first months in office. But while the Progressive Conservative leader has enraged many with his early moves, he got rock-star treatment Tuesday in Chatham-Kent, where he took in the opening of the International Plowing Match and Rural Expo, an event expected to draw 80,000 people this week to Pain Court. Many of those people are coming from the kind of rural and smalltown ridings Ford’s Progressive Conservatives all but swept on their way to a majority government in June, the first Tory government in the province in 15 years. Judging by the reception Ford got — deafening applause, cheers and a partial standing ovation during and following his remarks at the opening ceremonies — his southwestern Ontario rural base is just fine with the rookie premier’s early and provocative run in office. Ford later said he was shocked by the “overwhelming support” of the crowd.
He called the local citizenry “salt of the Earth.” “Sometimes, you have to get out of the bubble,” he said of leaving the Toronto area.
He promised to cut red tape, increase access to natural gas and provide relief to farmers and rural Ontarians “who had been taxed to death over the last 15 years” by Liberal governments.
“You can be sure rural Ontario will be looked after by this administration,” he said.
Ford, who heads to Washington on Wednesday for talks with federal officials carrying out trade negotiations, said he’s got farmers’ backs. “Farm jobs are not a bargaining chip,” he said. “Not now, not ever.” Ford said there should be no compromises on supply management at the talks.
“If you’re asking me, don’t compromise,” he said. “We have to protect the farmers. We have to protect the autoworkers. We have to protect everyone in Ontario.” But Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath of the New Democrats, who was also at the event, said some people there urged her to keep pushing back against Ford’s plan — invoking the rarely used “notwithstanding” clause of the Constitution, after a court ruled his original plan unconstitutional — to chop the size of Toronto city council during a civic election campaign.
“Certainly, a number of people along the parade route … approached me to say, ‘Good for you for standing up to Doug Ford,’ ” she said.
“‘This is the wrong thing to do.’ ” Horwath vowed to hold Ford accountable if he plans to fiddle with the Constitution. “I will be looking very closely at what Mr. Ford is going to do,” she said. Ford’s popularity with the crowd was evident, with many visitors praising him for doing what he said he was going to do and calling him a common-sense kind of guy. “He’s doing great,” said Rob Vanroesse of London. “I like the transparency and the promises he made in the election, he has kept so far. He’s getting rid of the waste. I think he should be prime minister.” Others were pleased by the scope of his sweeping changes.
“I am glad he’s making a big change. It’s about time somebody did,” said Cathy Leckie of Petrolia. Not everyone was so complimentary. Some in the crowd worried about Ford “running roughshod” while downsizing Toronto city council. Others compared him to Donald Trump. Margaret Schleier Stahl, a former Chatham-Kent Liberal candidate and volunteer at the plowing match, said she has a wish list for the new government.
“I wish they would look globally at other programs, like in Spain where they have a basic income program we could mimic,” she said.
“We don’t have a health crisis; we have an aging population. We need innovative ways to deal with health issues. In England they provide paramedics on site.” Southwestern Ontario already was the PC base before the June election, accounting for one-quarter of the party ’s strength in the legislature. But with Ford in charge, the wider London region suddenly finds itself with more cabinet muscle than it’s had in a generation — four ministers in all, including two in key economic posts and another in education.