Ontario Election Edition: Throw Doug Ford out before he kills us all
Faster cars, cheap alcohol, no bike lanes or speed cameras and closed emergency rooms add up to death in the streets.
I apologize to my readers outside of the Province of Ontario, I will return to my regular programming next week.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford called an election after the President of the USA threatened tariffs on Canadian goods and services, putting on his hat and claiming he needed a mandate to be Captain Canada. “When President Trump proceeds with tariffs, Canada needs to be ready to hit back — and hit back hard. U.S. tariffs need to be matched dollar for dollar. Canada needs to be prepared to use every tool in its tool kit.” No matter that this is a federal issue and he already had a mandate.
It looks likely that he will win tomorrow; nobody is really paying attention, and the vast majority of residents in Ontario drive everywhere and loves this stuff. A look at the platform of the party shows how completely car-brained and fossil-fueled it is:
Get those bike lanes off the road! “We need to do everything we can to get people to where they need to go faster.” So what if a few people get killed, it’s the cost of doing business.
Right off the bat, it is a bribe to drivers, eliminating licence fees, freezing card fees, scrapping the Drive Clean program, and killing the carbon tax. New to me is a ban on congestion charges and taking over speed and red light cameras that are cash grabs; running red lights and speeding are what, a personal choice now?
The tunnel under the 401 is absolutely the stupidest idea Ford has ever proposed. The reason the Eglinton transit line is so over budget and time is he insisted on burying it to keep the road free for cars. Tunnelling under the 401 will take decades, cost billions, and induce demand. And, as noted in an earlier post, increasing the speed limits will just increase the number of deaths.
Yes, we need more electricity, especially since Ford paid millions to kill renewable contracts and take down wind turbines. Note how his new energy plan includes natural gas (which currently comes from Pennsylvania fracking wells) but no wind or solar.
He is building new reactors using American technology and running on American-enriched uranium fuel instead of using Canada’s tried-and-true CANDU reactors that can run on Canadian uranium.
Doug Ford promises us an Ontario with fast roads, cheap gas, cheap alcohol, no bike lanes, speed or red light cameras; it’s like a shooting gallery for pedestrians and cyclists. And then there are no emergency rooms to take anyone since he closed them all down.
And he will win because a lot of people think this is fine.
More on Doug Ford:
Why is Doug Ford trying to kill us? The Premier of Ontario isn't just going after people on bikes; he is hurting everyone in the province.
How car-brained is Doug Ford's Ontario Government? Deaths on the road are just a cost of doing business, and the business of Ontario apparently is driving.
Doug Ford will have blood on his hands if he rips out Toronto bike lanes. The Minister of Transportation takes "a leap of faith that I’ll be able to get to the office on time." I take a leap of faith about whether my family will get to work alive.
We have to stop "carbon lock-in" now, and that means stopping Doug Ford from paving the Greenbelt. We are stuck with him for four more years, but we are stuck with his decisions for probably 40 years.
Up close and personal at the Ontario Science Centre. Anyone who thinks this building should be knocked down is a liar and a Philistine.
The Therme Spa at Ontario Place in Toronto is a carbon bomb that must be defused. Every tonne of CO2 emissions adds to global warming, and these buildings contain many tonnes of glass, concrete, and aluminum.
Why is the Ontario government so in love with natural gas? And why is Enbridge Gas trying to incite a culture war?
Thanks for this article Lloyd, while one might see your list as exhaustive, I would add to your list of egregious actions by DoFo;
1, presiding over the decimation of education in the province at all levels, but most especially post secondary. We are facing massive lay offs at both universities and colleges. This is going to hit Ontario very, very hard in the future.
2, presiding over the decimation of health services across the province.
3, profligate waste at the government level, contrary to the stated small government strategy, he has the largest cabinet in Ontario history.
4, profligate waste of billions of dollars at Ontario Place.
5, profligate waste at the Ontario Science Centre.
6, profligate waste in the ludicrous, clearly nonsensical removal of bike lanes. His interference in municipal affairs is idiotic, he's threatening to spend many millions on removing the bike lanes, while having no plan at all to cut Ontarios debt.
7, rampant corruption in the Green Belt scandal.
8, rampant corruption in the 413 debacle.
9, an irrational obsession with cheap booze, especially available to drivers. To be honest I was stunned when I saw giant signs at 401 rest stops advertising "beer sold here".
10, copying the bullying, incessant bullshitting of the tangerine twit to the south.
Lloyd, as a Kiwi I don't mind you discussing Ontario's experience with these issues. In Aotearoa we are going through similar things. Cycle ways are removed from infrastructure budgets & speed limits has increased against the will of local communities(even in school zones). We too have a very car-centric government. It's good that you are discussing these topics. I appreciate it.