Four years plenty of time; youth no excuse for MPP
For a member of provincial parliament with four years’ experience in office, Sam Oosterhoff is building a resume of dubious accomplishments.
His most recent attention-grabber happened this past weekend. Oosterhoff was roasted by critics after posting photos online showing himself and up to 40 family members, standing shoulder to shoulder and smiling for the camera during a gathering at a local restaurant.
People of all ages. No masks. No distance between them.
Later, the restaurant owner said “my staff had to remind them a few times” throughout the day to respect the public safety protocols implemented by Oosterhoff’s own government.
The Niagara West MPP quickly took down the photos, but the damage was done — and not only to him and the government. Through his stunning carelessness, Oosterhoff also damaged the credibility of the public health message officials have pounded into us month after month throughout this pandemic.
Wasn’t Oosterhoff listening when we were told to avoid large groups, limit our social “bubbles” to a few friends or family members and wear masks around others? It speaks poorly of his judgment that he would pose for those photos, and more so that he would then share them online for the world to see.
He also put the restaurant in a terrible position — it had little recourse short of asking people to pack up and leave — by ignoring repeated requests to obey his own government’s protocols of which he was most certainly aware.
Publicly, at least, Premier Doug Ford went easy on him Monday.
“He came out and apologized. Hey, guys, everyone makes mistakes,” Ford told reporters. “I’m a strong believer — you make a mistake, you go out and apologize and say it’s not going to happen again. I accept that.”
Outraged by the lapse in judgment, the head of the Ontario Hospital Association called for Oosterhoff to resign as parliamentary assistant to Education Minister Stephen Lecce.
Ford brushed that off, just as he brushed off a previous demand for Oosterhoff to resign back in May 2019 from the head of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union. That happened after Oosterhoff stepped up to the microphone at an anti-abortion rally outside Queen’s Park and announced he was working to make abortion “unthinkable in our lifetime.”
Was he speaking for the government of which he is a member? Or was he just talking off the top of his head as Sam from west Niagara? He later clarified he was not speaking for the government, but anyone there could rightly have been confused.
He may have been the youngest MPP ever elected in Ontario when he won a November 2016 byelection at age 19, but it’s not fair to blame bad decisions on youth — being an MPP requires a mature mindset.
May 2019 was the same month a member of his staff called the cops on about 15 older adults staging a read-in at his constituency office to protest planned library service cuts.
Then there was the time in December 2018 when Oosterhoff found himself under fire, this time for sharing a stage with controversial evangelical preacher Charles McVety (Ford was also on stage). McVety, a known staunch opponent of gay marriage, has called it part of the “militant homosexual agenda.”
Four years is plenty of time for a young MPP to grow into the office he was elected to. Sam Oosterhoff isn’t there yet.