Ford preaches unity while toning down the volume

For a moment in time Monday, Canada’s premiers all pledged fealty to national unity.

No more disunity, not until further notice. They put their best faces forward collectively even if, as a country, we’re not much further ahead.

How did they achieve their new-found harmony? By putting their old discord on hold. Pharmacare? Not ready. Pipelines? Not really. Pricing carbon? Not in this or that province.

Preventing religious discrimination? None of your business (if Quebec bans articles of faith for some, it’s not for others to weigh in).

And so Monday was a great day to be a Canadian if you stopped by the airport hotel where the premiers were holed up, hosted by Ontario’s own Doug Ford. The storm clouds faded and the snows melted.

The premiers could see clearly. They communicated a communiqué saying so, and they told waiting reporters so.

Just so. But if you listened carefully, beyond the bonhomie and bromides, it wasn’t quite so.

There is much to be said for civility and comity. But policy questions are rarely served by setting them aside.

Especially when Canadians have just spoken. In the Oct. 21 federal election, people voted collectively and massively for MPs who want to put a price on carbon and take the price off pharmaceuticals, and for MPs who predominantly favour pipelines to get energy to market more safely than by railway.

The premiers, however, have their own ideas. They don’t present themselves to the national electorate, they represent their own provinces or territories.

They know where their bread is buttered, when our pipelines are laid, how people’s drugs go unpaid. And when to lie low over head scarves.

But, when the question was put to each of them, individually — would they support the prime minister’s push for pharmacare nationally? — most of the premiers answered forthrightly. Newfoundland wants it, Quebec will have none of it (send us the money so we can do it our way), Manitoba is opposed, B.C. wants to compare notes, and so on.

One premier, however, refused to hold forth. Around the table they went while Ford waited his turn, then waited them out and, finally, took a pass — no comment.

On pipelines, Ford had nothing to say. On carbon pricing, the premier showed no readiness to abide by the will of Ontarians in the federal election (despite his past promise to heed their democratic verdict).

And, on religious discrimination in Quebec — following two unanimous votes in the Ontario legislature, backed by his own Progressive Conservative MPPs (amid his own conspicuous absence) — Ford said nothing.

Not on Monday, nor on Friday when he met privately with Quebec Premier François Legault.

A year ago, Legault didn’t hesitate to publicly reproach Ford when Ontario’s new PC government weakened supports for the province’s francophone minority.

In the aftermath, Ford partly backed down — which is why Legault’s well-timed intervention was the right thing to do, and why Ford’s ill-judged silence is so wrong.

Why has the normally voluble Ford lowered the volume?

He is clearly trying to tone down the pugnacity that marked his first disastrous year in power.

Like Quebec’s Legault, Alberta’s Jason Kenney, and Saskatchewan’s Scott Moe, Ford knows he overstepped.

But pussyfooting won’t get Canada’s most populous province very far — and, so far, he has taken too many steps back.

In one of his first acts as premier, Ford pulled the plug on the initial phase of a universal pharmacare program, OHIP+, that offered free prescription drugs to young and old (24 and under, 65 and over).

It could have been the precursor to a truly universal and national program modelled on medicare, but Ford would have none of it — substituting a U.S.-style charity program for only the most needy, ensuring that many will still fall through the cracks, while the rest of us continue to overpay massively through private premiums.

On all the major issues, Ford let the other premiers do the talking, opting to say little or nothing on policy beyond platitudes.

He touted the boilerplate communiqué as a triumph. Ahead of a first ministers’ summit next month with Justin Trudeau, it called for more money from Ottawa for provinces in need, notably Alberta and Saskatchewan. More money from Ottawa for health care. More money for infrastructure. You get the idea. Hammered out in a mere three hours, it “sends a message to the people right across this nation ... that Canada is united,” Ford boasted.

The premier has a longstanding fondness for symbolism and a new-found fetish for unity.

As host of Monday’s meeting, Ford handed out Toronto Maple Leafs sweaters as gifts.

With that gesture, Ford perhaps imagined himself the embodiment of Leafs Nation and the personification of Ford Nation.

But it was a stretch for the premiers of B.C., Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec, who surely have their home teams to promote.

Never mind. “What’s good for Ontario is good for Canada, and what’s good for Canada is good for Ontario,” Ford keeps saying, revelling in the role of Captain Canada.

It’s an interesting saying. But it only means something if the premier of Ontario has something interesting to say.

Without a voice, or a vision, the premier’s musings on national unity mean everything and nothing.

On all the major issues, Ford let the other premiers do the talking, opting to say little or nothing on policy beyond platitudes