Doug Ford

Friday May 7, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday May 7, 2021

The Political Blame Game

February 6, 2021

For months now, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has blamed everyone for Canada’s trickle of COVID-19 vaccines but himself.

Trudeau and his ministers have gone so far as to blame former Progressive Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney — who was prime minister from 1984 to 1993 — for the privatization, or “the selling off“, of Connaught Laboratories. What he fails to mention is that Connaught Labs didn’t go anywhere. It’s now part of Sanofi Pasteur, the world’s largest manufacturer of vaccines. The Connaught Campus in Toronto accounts for one-fifth of the company’s global vaccine sales.

Experts in Canada’s innovative pharmaceutical industry — as opposed to the generic pharmaceutical industry — say Trudeau’s attempt to pin the blame on Mulroney or a more recent Conservative prime minister, Stephen Harper, is ironic, because were it not for Mulroney, the innovative industry likely wouldn’t exist here at all.

March 9, 2016

Paul Lucas, who was president and CEO of GlaxoSmithKline Canada from 1994 to 2012, started speaking out and wrote an opinion piece in the Financial Post after he heard federal Liberal Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs Dominic LeBlanc being interviewed on CTV’s Power Play with Evan Solomon, saying that GlaxoSmithKline had closed its manufacturing facility for vaccines during Harper’s Conservative government, which is false.

“This facility didn’t close, it’s still producing most of the flu vaccine for Canada on an annual basis,” Lucas said during a recent telephone interview.

“I’ve been very concerned and frankly upset about the lies that are coming from the federal government about this whole (COVID vaccine) file,” says Lucas, who was integral to the production and distribution of the Canadian vaccine for the H1N1 pandemic in 2009. All of the vaccine for that outbreak was produced in the GSK factory in Quebec City.

“Trudeau has badly botched Canada’s COVID-19 vaccine procurement,” states Lucas.

“First, he blamed Harper for his own failings. Then he blamed Mulroney and then he blamed the provinces. Then he actually turned on his own vaccine task force. He blamed them for about a day or two. Then he blamed the companies — Pfizer for delaying the delivery of its vaccines in January,” explains Lucas. (Calgary Herald) 

November 19, 2020

Meanwhile, Ontario Minister of Long-term Care Merrilee Fullerton faced a call from the Opposition to resign her cabinet post on Tuesday, in the wake of two reports that reviewed her ministry’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In recent days, Fullerton has been pressed to explicitly acknowledge whether she feels she shares any responsibility for the more than 3,700 deaths of long-term care residents with COVID-19 in Ontario.

During question period Tuesday, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath asked when Fullerton was made aware that some residents had died of dehydration or basic neglect, which led a tense exchange between the two.

“The premise of your question is bordering on obscene,” Fullerton said. “And the reason why is because all of the ministry, public health, medical officers of health, thousands of people have been working to shore up these homes and they were no match for COVID-19.”

Fullerton said that some long-term care homes became “warzones” within days of the first confirmed cases among residents and staff. 

“What we were doing 24 hours a day was trying to get support to those homes, with an unknown virus that wasn’t fully understood and a shortage of supplies globally,” she added.

May 4, 2021

Fullerton then said the NDP had failed to pressure the previous Liberal government into fixing Ontario’s beleaguered long-term care sector.

“Look at your failure. I was left to pick up the pieces from a devastating 15 years of neglect,” she said. “I will not be spoken to that way by the leader of the opposition that neglected this sector.” 

Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk and the Ontario Long-term Care COVID-19 Commission both released their respective reports last week. While the probes examined different aspects of COVID-19’s impact on the long-term care sector, they reached similar conclusions: the ministry was not prepared for a pandemic, in part due to years of inaction to prevent a crisis. (CBC) 

 

Tuesday May 4, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday May 4, 2021

Ontario government needs to wake up and make nursing homes a top priority

May 16, 2020

The people of Ontario didn’t need two new reports to tell them Doug Ford’s government was missing in action when COVID-19 hit the province’s nursing homes last year.

The deaths of nearly 4,000 long-term-care residents and 11 employees during the pandemic had already spoken for themselves. And that grim message amounted to a scathing indictment of governmental ineptitude at the highest levels. 

Yet for all this, Ontarians really did need Friday’s report from the Long-Term Care COVID-19 Commission along with the one from Auditor-General Bonnie Lysyk two days earlier. They’re essential for telling us what we should — make that must — do for the sake of the 115,000 of the province’s most vulnerable citizens who live in nursing homes today.

According to the commission, the Ford government was completely without a comprehensive plan to protect nursing homes when the pandemic hit. Then, not only was its response “slow, unco-ordinated and lacking in urgency,” it failed to heed the lessons of the first wave. As a result, more residents died in the second wave than the initial one.

November 19, 2020

For its part, the auditor-general’s report denounced not only the current provincial government but governments stretching back over a decade. Not one of them followed up on the recommendations made by an expert panel after the 2003 SARS outbreak to prepare long-term-care facilities for a future health-care crisis. 

Not one of them addressed the concerns about the litany of long-standing weaknesses that had been identified in the nursing-home system. And so the province’s nursing homes, which consume seven per cent of the health-care budget, became pandemic disaster zones.

For some Ontarians, this may all sound painfully familiar, something they’d just as soon forget after they condemn the current government. 

But these two reports are important for more than putting on the record a precise diagnosis of what went so badly wrong in the province’s nursing homes over the past year. Their greatest, and hopefully most lasting, value will be in the prescription they offer for what should be done now.

May 27, 2020

The best way forward will demand more funding, more and better-paid staff, an end to overcrowded wards, better coordination with the rest of the health-care system and — for goodness sake — a pandemic plan. Ontario also needs a new model for building and managing new nursing homes, and the Long-Term Care COVID-19 Commission came up with a promising proposal for one. 

It recommends constructing new homes that are paid for upfront by private investors who receive a return on their capital with profit over time. However the homes will be operated and the residents cared for by a mission-driven organization. It could be public, not-for-profit or for-profit. But the sole focus of those running the homes must be the care of the residents and certainly not returns for investors.

January 27, 2021

What matters now is what the Ford government and the people of this province commit to doing with this and all the other ideas in these reports. Ontario Long-Term Care Minister Merrilee Fullerton promised Monday to adopt many of the recommendations from the commission’s 332-page report. But what else could she say?

Governments and the public have notoriously short memories. Premier Ford will face many expensive demands for all kinds of changes coming out of this pandemic.

The only way to ensure Ontario’s nursing homes never experience another catastrophe like COVID-19 is to make the homes an absolute, non-negotiable priority. The government will say they are. But only the people of Ontario, the people who vote and pay taxes, can guarantee the government acts. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

 

Thursday April 29, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday April 29, 2021

Ontario details plan for 3 paid sick days after a year of mounting pressure

April 23, 2021

After months of urgent calls about the need for paid sick leave by medical professionals, labour advocates, political leaders and even top doctors from some of the province’s hardest-hit regions, the Ontario government has announced a plan to provide three paid sick days through a temporary program ending in September.

The proposed Ontario COVID-19 Worker Protection Benefit Program would pay up to $200 per day for workers who are sick, have symptoms, have a mental health issue or need to be vaccinated, and will be retroactive to April 19. The sick days would not need to be taken consecutively and no sick note is required.

If the legislation is passed, the program will be administered through the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board and employers will be reimbursed in full, the province says.

April 16, 2020

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Ontario Labour Minister Monte McNaughton also said the province has offered to provide funding to the federal government to double the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit payments, adding an additional $500 per week to eligible individuals, for a total of $1,000 per week.

Ottawa earlier this week rejected an offer by the province to top up the program, saying the federal benefit is designed to support workers who don’t have a regular employer, or as a stop gap until their province mandates paid sick days.

Last week, Premier Doug Ford pledged that Ontario would soon unveil details of a paid sick leave program, claiming it would be “the best program anywhere in North America, bar none.”

But as reported by CBC News, the Ford government initially sought to top up the federal program, rather than create its own. On the same day as Ford’s emotional news conference, Ontario’s finance minister wrote a letter to the federal government proposing to top up Canada’s sick leave benefit. 

October 8, 2020

Critics have long pointed out the federal benefit pays less than a full-time minimum wage job, involves days, if not weeks, of processing time and doesn’t guarantee job security for workers who use it.

The cost of the proposal announced today was not included in the provincial budget, unveiled in March.

Unlike Quebec and Prince Edward Island, where sick days are in place permanently, Ontario’s proposed program ends in just five months. The province has has passed legislation that protects workers’ jobs if they can’t work due to a COVID-19 diagnosis. (CBC)

Letters to the editor –  The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday May 1, 2021

Blame Trudeau, not Ford

I have to say I was aghast at the editorial cartoon of Doug Ford being whipped. It is no secret that The Spec is no fan of Mr. Ford, however to publish him being whipped and the prime minister watching is way over the line of decency and respect. Has he made mistakes, of course, some big ones, however keep in mind it is the prime minster, who you show sitting eating popcorn, who is ultimately responsible for this mess, due to poor vaccine procurement. There is enough blame to go around these days. I fail to see what this piece of work does to move anything forward.

Robert Hague, Burlington

Outraged at cartoon

I usually enjoy Mr. MacKay’s editorial cartoons, although he can push the envelope at times.

But I must profess my outrage at Thursday’s depiction of the premier of Ontario being publicly flogged. We are constantly preaching about being against violence and hate in our province but here is a depiction of an act of torture aimed at the leader of the province. People may or may not like Doug Ford and have their own opinions but this is going too far!

Rick Allen, Hamilton Mountain

Trudeau didn’t belong there

This cartoon was spot on about Ford. But putting Trudeau in was unfair. Dealing with employers is provincial jurisdiction and it’s Ford’s problem to solve, not Trudeau’s.

Sarah Mueller, Burlington

Friday April 23, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday April 23, 2021

Ford apologizes after public backlash to enhanced police powers, playground closures

Ontario Premier Doug Ford apologized to Ontarians Thursday morning, days after his government faced intense backlash for introducing a number of additional COVID-19 restrictions that were not recommended by health experts and then nixed earlier this week.

April 8, 2021

Ford, who is isolating at his late mother’s home in Etobicoke after a staff member tested positive for COVID-19, said at a news conference he wanted to “address the events of this past week” after his government put in new measures in response to “extremely troubling modelling.”

The province was trying to curb mobility in Ontario, he said.

“But we moved too fast,” Ford said, with some measures going too far.

“Simply put, we got it wrong. We made a mistake. These decisions, they left a lot of people really concerned,” Ford said.

“For that I am sorry, and I sincerely apologize.”

The premier and some of his top cabinet ministers have been under fire after announcing last Friday that the province would close playgrounds and hand police arbitrary powers, among other additional measures, in a bid to curb the third wave of the pandemic. 

November 12, 2020

The public outcry to both moves was so swift and fierce that the government reversed course on both within days of the announcement. Members of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table also disavowed the decisions, making clear in interviews with media that they were not based on their own recommendations to cabinet. 

Various sources close to the government told CBC News the decisions came amid panic over the latest modelling for the pandemic and fears that Ford’s approval among voters would suffer badly if he was not seen to be taking action.

At one point during Thursday’s news conference, Ford appeared to cry while talking about the pandemic and how hard it has been for businesses, health-care workers and families.

June 9, 2020

“I understand your frustration,” he said. “This experience, this pandemic, it’s something that has affected every single person.”

Ford said Thursday it is “not lost on him” that he is able to isolate and continue working.

“For too many people right now, that’s not the case,” Ford said.

Throughout the pandemic, Ford and his ministers have shut down calls to create a system for paid sick days in Ontario by saying the province didn’t want to double up on the federal program, which until recently, they repeatedly said was sufficient.

Provincial officials have rejected calls from GTHA (Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area) mayors, the province’s science table, local medical officers of health, Opposition parties and countless citizens to do more. The City of Toronto called on the province to institute paid sick leave last May, but to no avail. (CBC) 

 

Wednesday April 21, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday April 21, 2021

Will Doug Ford meet the same fate as Mike Harris?

Conservative politicians are sometimes suspicious of advice coming from experts for good reason: The experts just want them to not be conservatives.

But sometimes, their suspicions cause them to ignore good advice. This may have led Ontario Premier Doug Ford to take actions that could doom his government. If so, it won’t be the first time.

July 4, 2001

Former premier Mike Harris’s determination to keep cutting regulations, despite the warnings of experts, contributed to the deaths of seven people in the town of Walkerton, and to the Progressive Conservatives’s defeat at the next election. Mr. Ford may face the same fate, and for the same reason.

In May, 2000, Walkerton’s municipal water supply was contaminated by E. coli bacteria. Along with the deaths, more than 2,300 fell ill, some severely.

A public inquiry led by Justice Dennis O’Connor concluded that the public utilities manager, Stan Koebel, caused the contamination through his own incompetence, and then tried to cover up his misdeeds when people started getting sick. He was eventually sentenced to a year in jail.

The inquiry also concluded that the Harris government had contributed to the disaster. The ministry of the environment was no longer able to properly monitor municipal water supplies because of cuts to its budget and changes in regulations.

“If the MOE had adequately fulfilled its regulatory and oversight role, the tragedy in Walkerton would have been prevented … or at least significantly reduced in scope,” Justice O’Connor concluded.

Common Sense Revolution, 1995

The public had broadly supported the Harris government’s Common Sense Revolution, which slashed taxes, spending and red tape, while balancing the budget.

But people expect government to protect public health. Experts warned that spending cuts, deregulation and privatization had gone too far, endangering public safety, and Walkerton proved the experts right. In 2002, Mr. Harris stepped down as leader; his successor, Ernie Eves, led the PCs to defeat. The Tories remained in the wilderness for 15 years.

January 17, 2019

Since the pandemic began more than a year ago, Mr. Ford has sought to balance the needs of workers and businesses alongside the recommendations of public health and medical officials, an approach that until recently earned strong public approval.

But in the winter, the government appeared to lose that balance. A number of public-health officials and medical specialists warned that a third wave of COVID-19 infections, fuelled by more infectious variants of the virus, could slam into the province unless the government kept tight restrictions in place. Seeking to preserve jobs and personal freedom, the government instead relaxed restrictions. Now, we’re in the thick of it.

September 5, 2020

Last week, with the case counts rising and ICUs approaching capacity, the Ford government appeared to panic. The Premier on Friday announced a series of unpopular and seemingly counterproductive measures, such as banning outdoor gatherings, where risk of transmission is known to be lower, while permitting some indoor workplaces to remain open, where risk is higher. All of this was accompanied by draconian warnings that police could stop and fine people who ventured outside their home without sufficient cause.

Reaction was so intense – even strong Progressive Conservative supporters were appalled by what appeared to be arbitrary and perverse regulations – that the government was forced to back down on some measures within a day. Now, critics are calling for Mr. Ford’s resignation.

Conservative governments often arrive in power with a mandate from voters to root out vested and wasteful interests, both within and outside of government.

The hard part comes with the transition from the reform phase to the steady-government phase. Some conservative politicians manage that transition: Stephen Harper, federally; Brad Wall in Saskatchewan; Gordon Campbell (a Liberal who was really a conservative) in British Columbia.

Young Doug Ford: The Series

Other conservative politicians fail to mediate the conflicts between rural and urban members of caucus. They cut past the fat, into muscle and bone; their skepticism of elites blinds them to advice they should be taking.

The Ford government’s problems are not unique: Outside Atlantic Canada, infection rates have been rising across the country. Vaccination levels are rising, too, and may eventually beat back this third wave. The next election is more than a year away. The Premier and his government may get through this.

Or Doug Ford may meet the same fate as Mike Harris. If so, the third wave will be his Walkerton. (Globe & Mail)