{"id":47612,"date":"2018-04-22T17:26:41","date_gmt":"2018-04-22T21:26:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huntsville.dopperonline.ca\/?p=47612"},"modified":"2018-04-22T17:26:41","modified_gmt":"2018-04-22T21:26:41","slug":"listen-up-where-is-the-substance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/listen-up-where-is-the-substance\/","title":{"rendered":"Listen Up! Where is the substance?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Hugh Mackenzie
Huntsville Doppler<\/p><\/div>\n

Donald Trump was alive and well in Ontario this past week and, sadly, he will likely remain so until after the provincial election on June 7th<\/sup>. Doug Ford started it and Kathleen Wynne did not hold back.<\/p>\n

Ford announced that one of his first acts if he becomes Premier will be to cause an independent audit to probe Liberal government spending. He believes there was corruption and he suggested that some Liberals should be in jail if they pulled shady tricks with taxpayer\u2019s dollars. He said, “If Kathleen Wynne tried to pull these kind of shady deals in private life, there would be a few more Liberals joining David Livingston (who was convicted of deleting e-mails related to the gas plant scandal) in jail.”<\/em> It does not take a rocket scientist to equate that comment to Trump\u2019s now-famous taunts of \u201clock her up\u201d, or “crooked Hillary” when referring to his opponent in the American presidential race.<\/p>\n

(I should add as an aside, Ford\u2019s threat to audit Liberal spending is a specious one. There would be no point, other than vengeance; shades of Trump again. It serves no useful purpose. If he really wants to be the instrument of change, Doug Ford should look forward and not backwards.)<\/p>\n

<\/broadstreet-zone><\/strong><\/div>\n

Following Ford\u2019s remarks, Kathleen Wynne wasted no time in getting into the game, in fact she welcomed the opportunity. She got right down in the trenches. She called Ford a bully and a coward. She said, “Doug Ford sounds like Donald Trump. That\u2019s because he is like Donald Trump. He believes in an ugly brand of politics that traffics in smears and lies. He will say anything about anybody, at any time, because just like Trump, it is all about him.”<\/em> Some of that, to me, sounded a bit like the pot calling the kettle black.<\/p>\n

Now I don\u2019t know if Ford wants to be compared to Donald Trump or not. He says he could not care less about Trump but acknowledged he would have voted for him had he been an American. Certainly, I have seen some aspects of Ford that remind me of the more unpleasant aspects of the American President. However, I do question the wisdom of Kathleen Wynne making this election about a comparison between Doug Ford and Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

I have just finished reading James Comey\u2019s book, A Higher Loyalty<\/em>. For those who may not remember, Comey was the Director of the FBI who was abruptly fired last year by President Trump. As a tell-all book, it was an interesting read, although I didn\u2019t learn much that I didn\u2019t already know or suspect. However, some of the comments he made about leadership and the changes in political thinking resonated with me.<\/p>\n

For example, he said this: “We are experiencing a dangerous time in our country, with a political environment where basic facts are disputed, fundamental truth is questioned, lying is normalized and unethical behaviour is ignored, excused or rewarded.”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/broadstreet-zone><\/strong><\/div>\n

While perhaps not to the same degree, I believe this attitude is creeping into our Canadian political culture. Particularly in Ontario, people are crying for change and as in America, in many instances, their need for change, their determination for change, their disgust for the status quo, outweighs their respect for more traditional values and reasoned thinking. Many want change at any cost and by playing the “Trump” card with Doug Ford, Kathleen Wynne is doing little more than fostering and encouraging that reality.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, while Doug Ford and Kathleen Wynne are fully engaged in hand-to-hand combat, the elements of an election campaign based on personalities and smear tactics, rather than on policy and vision, are becoming a sad fact. It is all cut and thrust, but where is the substance? To paraphrase a comment made by James Comey in his book, we all bear responsibility for the deeply flawed choices we put before voters.<\/p>\n

It is hard to be optimistic about the coming election. As one reader recently commented on Listen Up!, \u201cThe whole process is just a joke.<\/em> No matter whom we vote for, we lose. None of them are worth casting a vote for. Flip a coin and hope for the best?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

I am not as pessimistic as that but If I sound discouraged, I am. We have little policy or vision from the Ford campaign and nothing but more unaffordable spending from the Wynne and Horwath campaigns. At this point in time, it appears that we will be rid of Kathleen Wynne, which is as it should be. But I am not at all sure about what it is we will be left with.<\/p>\n

To me, it is all somewhat scary.<\/p>\n

Hugh Mackenzie<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on Doppler! Sign up for our free newsletter <\/strong>here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/broadstreet-zone><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump was alive and well in Ontario this past week and, sadly, he will likely remain so until after the provincial election on June 7th. Doug Ford started it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-47612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","tag-breaking"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nListen Up! 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