Premier Ford has recently stated that Ontario is 1000 times better than it was before he became premier. Even allowing for Mr. Ford’s characteristic exaggeration is it possible that he actually thinks this statement is true? If so, who are the Ontario citizens who are benefitting from this vastly improved province? Is it
- food purchasers?
- growing numbers of Ontarians depending on food bank assistance?
- renters who have been struck by evictions and soaring rental costs?
- overworked and understaffed employees of long-term care facilities?
- the health care workers whose wage raises were frozen?
- residents of for-profit long-term care facilities and their families?
- hospital emergency room staff?
- patients waiting for operations?
- seniors waiting eighteen months for eye examinations?
- paramedics, social service employees, nurses and doctors who are dealing with the opioid crisis?
- the legions of Ontario homeless?
- Indigenous residents whose values and wisdom are being ignored?
- teachers who persevered on-line or in poorly ventilated classrooms during the pandemic?
- education workers?
- special needs children?
- students who have experienced severely reduced funding?
- legal aid lawyers and their clients?
- clean energy entrepreneurs and their employees?
- minimum wage earners, including those front-line workers who were so crucial to the province during the pandemic?
- citizens relying on disability assistance to survive?
- mom and pop retailers still struggling to recover from pandemic losses while big box stores were allowed to be “open for business”?
- municipalities forced to expand their urban boundaries onto prime farmlands and critical watersheds?
- the millions of Ontarians whose lives are enhanced by the province’s bountiful public commons, including the Great Lakes, the Greenbelt, Ontario Place and the Ontario Science Centre?
Perhaps if Mr. Ford spent less time hobnobbing with wealthy elites and more time visiting our overburdened food banks, he would have a more accurate view of how “folks” are faring in Ontario under his watch.
Garry Thompson,
Utterson, Ont.
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Yes we are better! It could be far worse!! There is more money spent per capita on health care and education than ever before. The Ford government despite the pandemic has been working to repair the damage and neglect of the 15 years of the McGuinty/Wynne Liberals! Housing is most certainly an issue that is compounded when you have a federal Liberal government that is more concerned with selfies than concrete realistic immigration policy! P.S. At no time did one single civil servant, teacher, nurse etc. see their pay reduced during the pandemic while those of us in the private sector (who pay for those civil servants) did and in many cases lost their businesses all together!!
Well put, Mr. Thompson. I hope Mr. Ford reads it!!