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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It is 1000 times better of you are one of the privileged few, the rich, the so called upper society.
The ordinary person never stops being screwed and paying the piper.
The middle class, the poor, the working poor, the under privileged, we are here to serve.
Will things ever get better? No! Not as long as the Fords and the Trudeaus fly the plane!
What is the answer? I don’t know, I’m just a useless retired senior getting in the way.
I’d reply to this but I’m laughing so hard I can hardly type. This is one of Ford’s jokes, right? 1000 times better? Wow!
In Garry Thompson’s list is the statement, “Indigenous residents whose values and wisdom are being ignored”. It is not just in the past few years that this statement is accurate. Today is October 7, 2023. On October 7, 1763 – 260 years ago today – The King of England signed the Royal Proclamation. That proclamation led to all of the Indigenous treaties signed over the following years in Canada. It took 160 years until 1923 under the so called Williams Treaty before the Ontario government came to agreement with the people of Rama First Nation who occupied Muskoka for thousands of years. If some Muskokans do not know the significance of the Royal Proclamation of 1763 or the reason why the British union jack is flown at modern powwows and other Indigenous events then Garry Thompson has provided a useful reminder that we each need to seek out the Indigenous history of Muskoka and related wisdom. Thanks Garry.
I agree Garry, and I would add the mental health issues being under serviced.
Yes ìt was a massive over estimate ! More like 10 times better !