Stop Ford’s destruction of Ontario for corporate profit

Doug Ford’s Conservative government has survived more corruption scandals than any government in recent memory and he is still giving billions to his corporate buddies.

 

He survived these scandals because he was never really challenged by the opposition or in the media. The auditor general of Ontario has raised the alarm about his relentless grifting but to no avail.

 

He is, in the words of late Socialist Worker columnist, John Bell, a ‘gangster’.

 

He has given as much as $2 billion for the Therme deal at Ontario Place, $1.5 billion to privatize alcohol sales, $3 billion in bribe cheques to constituents, more than $100 million in partisan ads.  He is the new gravy train embodied in one person.

 

He says he is seeking a strengthened mandate to give him the credibility and power to challenge Donald Trump in the tariff wars to come. He never had a real mandate. He secured a grand total of 18 percent of the eligible voters in the last election.

 

He, like Trump, is a symptom of a system long bereft of any concept of fairness or accountability.

 

But he may be vulnerable, mainly on the question of healthcare, in this election.

 

On the eve of calling the provincial election 15 months ahead of schedule, Ford and his henchpeople were exceedingly busy rolling out announcements of multi-million dollar programs.

 

On Monday January 27, Minister of Health Sylvia Jones held a press conference with former federal Minister of Health and current figleaf, Dr. Jane Philpott. After overseeing the destruction of public healthcare since her election in 2022, Jones announced that at long last, she would be getting right on the issue of the 2.5 million Ontarians not having access to a family doctor. “The work starts today!”, she proclaimed.

 

Later the same day, Minister Jones popped up in London, Ontario, to announce new initiatives as part of the ‘government roadmap to wellness’. Emptier words have seldom been spoken, even by a politician.

 

Public health care in Ontario has never been in such crisis and disarray. Jones and Doug Ford have literally driven it into the ground. Across the province, emergency rooms and urgent care centres are closed. Hundreds lined up in a blizzard in Walkerton for the chance to sign on with a family doctor. Hospitals are in deficit and understaffing is at record levels.

 

But not to worry. Jones reminded us that “this is about patients”. Does she mean the patients relying on home care supplies whose delivery the government criminally bungled? Or the patients in private Long-Term Care homes that were abandoned and died during the Covid crisis? Or the patients (mostly seniors) being charged thousands of dollars for cataract surgery in government-funded private clinics?

 

The opposition at Queens Park is so bereft of ideas that they still trail Ford in the polls. But even if he does win this election, he can still be beaten back from destroying public healthcare if enough people join the fight.

 

The Ontario Health Coalition is working to push back on the Conservative government’s destruction of public health care, including building a rally at Sylvia Jones office on February 8 at noon. There are many other ways for you to join the campaign.

 

See: https://stopforprofithealthcare.ca to get involved.