The totalitarian adventures of Fuhrer Doug Ford

The first thing Doug Ford did on becoming Ontario Preem last year was downsize Toronto city council. That was widely seen as a “f@ck you Toronto” move, payback for Toronto’s failure to elect him mayor.

He’s since moved on to “streamlining” the approval process for the big real estate developers, scrapping the basic income pilot project, capping funding for autistic children, and revamping health care delivery with a view to opening opportunities for privatisation. 

Having fixed municipal government, the development process, and health care delivery, and shut down those whining parents of autistic children, Doug set his sights on restoring order in the chaotic Ontario Provincial Police. Fortunately, he knew just the man for the job; his good pal Ron Taverner, a seventy-two-year-old Toronto police inspector.

Ford had the search criteria for a new OPP commissioner re-jigged so Taverner would appear qualified, but then another problem cropped up. The number two guy at the OPP began raising a stink. So Ford had him fired.

Not that he personally fired him. Doug would never do that… No, the Deputy Commissioner of the OPP was fired by Deputy Minister of Community Safety, Mario Di Tommaso, another pal of both Ford and Taverner, who was made Deputy Minister by… Doug Ford!

Today it comes out that Taverner had been scheduled to testify at the sexual harassment hearing for a Toronto policewoman who claimed she suffered relentlessly while serving under his command. Heather McWilliam has been waiting for this hearing for five years, and just as things were finally getting under way, the hearing adjudicator quit!

What are the odds?!

When you’re cutting down a forest, there’s gonna be some sawdust… I think Stalin said that. Look for lots more sawdust when the teacher union contracts come up for renewal in September.

Fuhrer Ford is just getting started!