Embattled Ford may be leading a one-term government
Premier Doug Ford learned last weekend just how fed up people are with his government’s bumbling and stumbling through the pandemic.
It was stunning to watch how quickly the public, and police, turned on the Progressive Conservatives after Ford attempted late Friday to create a police state in Ontario as part of his latest pandemic strategy, giving officers the power to stop people and drivers to ask why they had left home. Police rightly wanted no part of it.
With more than 4,000 new cases daily, hospitals nearly overwhelmed, and ICUs reporting more younger COVID-19 patients, Ford couldn’t have looked more ridiculous having security tape wrapped around playgrounds.
Giving police unconstitutional powers wasn’t the only sign Ford and his ministers have lost the plot, and Part 2 of Friday’s pandemic proclamation confirmed it when the premier prohibited most outdoor activities, offering no data to support the idea that such restrictions would actually reduce the spread of COVID-19.
Both of Ford’s latest plans met such deserved derision it must have shocked the Tories, who revised the regulations by Saturday, without acknowledging they had carelessly made a bad situation worse, especially for themselves.
A week that started with an about-face on closing schools, 24 hours after informing parents in-person learning would resume following the delayed spring break, and ended with two more quick and embarrassing policy reversals, clearly shows a government that can’t shoot straight, other than at its own feet. The PC crazy train ran off the rails every time it tried to leave the station last week, massive errors the government is trying to pass off as poor communications.
Public outrage was fuelled not only by clumsy announcements and retractions of half-baked policies, but also by the PCs’ failure to act on recommendations that most medical experts agree should have been implemented weeks ago, and must be enacted now to properly deal with COVID-19’s more dangerous variants.
Banning outdoor activities instead of closing more non-essential businesses and workplaces such as condo construction sites, factories, warehouses and manufacturers, flies in the face of all the data from the past year and the expert advice.
Expanding the age range for the AstraZeneca vaccine to people aged 40 and up Sunday night was a rare smart move by Ford, but younger essential workers in COVID hot spots should also be getting vaccines, and rapid testing.
One of the biggest failures by the Ford government, after allowing the second wave of COVID-19 to take more lives in long-term-care homes than the first, is its steadfast refusal to provide guaranteed sick days for the essential workers, many of whom can’t afford to stay home even if they have symptoms.
Ford points to a federal program that eventually reimburses workers for some unpaid sick time, but he knows full well it is not the same as paid sick days, and it forces workers to apply for the funds and wait weeks to get their money.
Intensive care unit doctors are now seeing entire families with COVID-19 in the third wave because one person brings it home from work, often to a multi-generational household, eventually infecting everyone.
The PCs’ pathetic policies and ridiculous reversals completely undermined what little public confidence was left in their ability to get Ontario out of this mess. It didn’t need to be this bad.
An election is less than 14 months away, and right now, Ford is leading a one-term government.