The worst ever?

April 22, 2021 · 0 Comments

by BRIAN LOCKHART

“Doug Ford is the worst Premier in Ontario history.”

That is a quote from Ontario Liberal party leader Steven Del Duca, in response to the latest ini-tiative by the Ford government to get the COVID-19 pandemic under control.

Seriously? That’s his criticism? The ‘worst in history’?”

Is this now the mantra of political critics everywhere?

I understand it is the job of the opposition to criticize the sitting government – after all that’s why they are called the opposition, but to criticize by taking a page from the U.S. Democratic party playbook from the last four years is really, really cheap.

When Donny Trump was elected to office, his opponents started calling him the ‘worst presi-dent in U.S. history’ the first week he was in office. They kept that up for four years. It was their war cry.

For Del Duca to use that same cheap mantra in Ontario is ridiculous.

If he’s going to call someone the ‘worst in history’ he should back it up by giving examples from the other 25 people who have held the post of Premier in Ontario, to explain why Ford is the ‘worst.’

I don’t agree with a lot of the current COVID protocols coming out of Queens Park.

I don’t know why people can’t play golf or tennis, or buy diapers or other essential products like clothing.

Looking in my closet, I think it may be time to look at buying a new spring and summer ward-robe, but unfortunately the only place you can buy clothes right now is on-ine, and mostly likely from some sweatshop in China. I’ve done that route and quickly found out that a size large in Shanghai doesn’t pair up with a size large in North America.

Many of Premier Ford’s decisions have been unpopular, and rightly so.

The recent announcement that the province was giving special powers to police to arbitrarily stop people who were driving down the street and demand to know why they had left home, did not go over well. Imagine being fined or arrested for not having a legitimate excuse as to why you were not in your basement watching re-runs of Gilligan’s Island.

Fortunately, many, if not all police agencies in Ontario were quick to respond to these new, ra-ther Gestapo like tactics to keep people home.

Arbitrary detention, the police said, was not part of their mandate as peace keepers, and they had no intention of stopping and questioning people for simply being on the streets.

Good on them. Police chiefs across the province responded well to that directive and should be applauded for not going along with a program that contradicts one of our most basic and fun-damental rights.

These are challenging and untested times.

Premier Ford and his government have not saved us from COVID-19. The Premier is acting on advice from health authorities – which he must do. Would you rather have the Premier dis-missing the top doctors and throwing a plan into place based on HIS medical knowledge?

At least Ford backed down on certain restrictions based on push-back from the people. After all, denying kids the right to toss a ball in a playground seems a little over the top.

As we all struggle through a strange point in history, it will indeed take some change and tweaking of the system to figure out what is going to work. There was no playbook for this sit-uation.

However, to call Ford the ‘worst premier’ in history because of his handling of the situation is just over-the-top’ criticism.

What’s interesting to note is Mr. Del Duca does not offer an alternate plan that will save us from this virus.

If you are going to criticize, go ahead, but be prepared to defend your position if you’re going to try to slam-dunk someone publicly.

Yes, Premier Ford should certainly be up for public criticism – he’s not a dictator, and the voice of the people should matter.

However, to import some cheap mantra from south of the border, and think we are going to buy it up here, well, I think Ontarians are a little smarter than that.