Mysteries of democracy

There was a Preem Dougie article in the Globe today about how Ford was directing various police departments to get tough on unlicensed pot shops after the weed ‘o wisdom was made legal. The article correctly points out that being Preem doesn’t make you commander-in-chief of every cop in the province.

Pretty sure Doug’s Gang will challenge that in the courts.

When Doug had the brainwave that the best way to roll out legal weed was to hold a lottery for 25 pot shop licenses in a province the size of Western Europe and a population of fifteen millions, he didn’t realize that he’d just massively incentivized anybody who could get their hands on a few kilos to open their own shop.

But Doug does a lot of stupid shit, so no surprise there.

I run into a few folks who are onboard with some of the stuff he’s doing. In fact, I even agree with some of the stuff he’s doing. Around here, the local Health Unit occupies a purpose-built just-for-them HQ that cost twenty million bucks. For twenty thousand feet!

They’ve got a lot of high-priced folks in that HQ strategizing how they can get the locals to eat healthier, quit smoking, get off the fucking couch and take a walk, and indulge less binge-drinking.

Oh, and cut out all that domestic violence while you’re at it.

All of which are really worthwhile and admirable goals, to be sure, but I know the locals, and generally speaking, they’re the kind of folks who are going to do what they do, and they’re gonna even do a bit extra just to spite the $400k/year Chief Medical Officer who’s telling them what to do.

I could give Doug some tips on how to save money on education too. The only idea he’s had is to make classes bigger and get rid of a bunch of teachers. Here’s a way better idea; make the classes smaller, but get rid of the school boards! Every school board feature a gaggle of highly educated folks who hate kids and are really happy to be out of the classroom, and pull down six-number salaries. They spend most of their time coming up with excuses for why they’re graduating cellphone addicts who need a calculator to do grade three math and struggle to read the instructions on a job application.

It’s the teachers’ fault, parents’ fault, the kids’ fault, technology’s fault, society’s fault – everybody’s fault except theirs. Get rid of them!

So ya, there are efficiencies to be found here and there, but overall, Ford initiatives tend towards the irrelevant or even the downright stupid.

Buck a beer? Irrelevant.

Bigger classes in school so kids can learn to be resilient? Stupid.

Booze in the corner store? Irrelevant AND stupid.

So how does a vindictive schmuck like Doug find himself Premier of Ontario? By winning last year’s election, that’s how. Ontario had just over ten million eligible voters. Over four million couldn’t find the time to vote. Doug’s Gang polled about 2.3 million votes.

In other words, Doug is working his magic on the strength of the votes cast by less than a quarter of the electorate.

That’s not right.