CBC News June 22 - Robyn Urback   
      
      
   Doug Ford's dumpster fire explains why Ontario tolerates years of Liberal   
   mismanagement   
      
   The same sorts of scandals, plus austerity measures, lead to an unhappy   
   province   
      
   I can't decide which scenario I prefer: either Doug Ford's team is so   
   hopelessly incompetent it couldn't have foreseen the problem with, for   
   example, granting a $165,000 patronage appointment to a 26-year-old family   
   friend of then-Ford chief of staff    
   Dean French, or the premier's office is brimming with Ontario Liberal sleeper   
   agents who are quietly setting fires to pave the way for a triumphant Liberal   
   comeback in just three years' time.   
      
   The second scenario is probably preferable since, theoretically, one could   
   sniff out the sleeper agents and expel them from the administration. But it's   
   much harder to fix chronic incompetence, which appears to be the   
   characteristic that has plagued the    
   Ford government in its first year at Queen's Park.   
      
   Ford has gotten into trouble over cosy appointments before. His friend Ron   
   Taverner was appointed head of the Ontario Provincial Police after the job   
   requirements just so happened to be changed, allowing for Taverner's candidacy   
   despite his initial lack    
   of qualifications. Taverner eventually withdrew from consideration because of   
   the controversy.  [- - -]   
      
   Patronage appointments   
      
   Instead, just this week, the Ford government appointed a relative of French's   
   wife, as well as a friend of French's son, as two of four new agents-general   
   for Ontario, tasked with drumming up business outside of the province.  Ford   
   then revoked the    
   appointments less than 24 hours later, apparently belatedly realizing that you   
   shouldn't pluck names from your Christmas party list for prestigious   
   international appointments.   
      
   French, who has long been cited by both insiders and outsiders as the source   
   of much of the premier's trouble, resigned as chief of staff Friday evening.    
   This might be the structural reset caucus was looking for, but there's still a   
   long way to go to    
   rehabilitate Ford's image in the eyes of the public.   
      
   This back-and-forth has become somewhat of a pattern for the Ford government:   
   Make some sort of triumphant announcement (Bigger class sizes! New autism   
   funding structure! Retroactive cuts to municipalities!), cock your head at the   
   blowback (But kids will    
   be more resilient in larger classes! Don't you want us to eliminate the autism   
   wait list? You know how much waste there is at city hall?) and then surrender   
   to the pressure (Here's some money to prevent teacher layoffs. OK, we'll   
   rework our autism plan.     
   Fine, we'll cancel those retroactive cuts).   
      
   Ford has tried to spin these backtracks as evidence of a "government that   
   listens." Instead, it comes off as a government that simply has no idea what   
   it's doing.   [- - -]   
      
   n 2019-2020, Ontario will spend $13.3 billion on that interest, which is the   
   same thing as spending $13.3 billion on nothing — not health care, not   
   education, not social services. Just interest. Ford's message should have been   
   that we need to get    
   spending under control so we don't have to spend $13.3 billion on nothing.   
   Repeat that number: $13.3 billion. On nothing. Make it so every Ontarian can   
   rattle it off. Don't sell empty nonsense about magic efficiencies, then pivot   
   to beer in corner stores.   
      
   The Wynne government didn't bother selling — or implementing — austerity   
   measures, though it certainly had to grapple with scandal. The PCs were   
   supposed to offer change in that respect, but in practice, the Ford government   
   has simply mimicked much    
   of the same unacceptable behaviour.   
      
   Premier Kathleen Wynne used public dollars for partisan purposes by spending   
   millions to advertise a hydro rate cut.  Ford is using public dollars for   
   partisan purposes by buying radio ads attacking the federal carbon tax and   
   mandating gas stations post    
   stickers for the same purpose.   
      
   Both bolstered their party coffers with cash-for-access fundraisers.  Both   
   were accused of chummy patronage appointments.   
      
   But the Liberals didn't do all of those things while also selling   
   across-the-board cuts, resulting in everything from reduced coverage by legal   
   aid, to widespread layoff notices for health-care administrators, to desperate   
   families saying they might need    
   to sell their homes to pay for therapy for their children with autism.   
      
   That is perhaps why Ontario stomached the Liberals for so long: the scandals   
   and mismanagement were gross, but at least the government kept the money   
   flowing.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)