Doug Ford has lowered the discourse for campaign-time politics by sucking another party into a vacuum of sorts. The PCs have given free licence plate renewals and are promising a five-cent drop in the gasoline tax—if reelected.
The Liberals have countered with a buck-a-fare public transit plan. It feels like we are at the CNE with hucksters competing for attention.
Tags: Annex · Editorial · Opinion
We are just weeks away from the provincial election and voters are being besieged with election advertising. Every party is making bold claims of course, but the ruling Progressive Conservatives under Doug Ford are touting their environmental credentials, and that is nothing but offensive and absurd.
Tags: Annex · Editorial · Opinion
By MADELINE SMART
with files from HENRY WIERCINSKI, Annex Residents’ Association
Photos by BRIAN BURCHELL, renderings from developers’ and city’s websites
It’s silly season at Queen’s Park as the ruling Progressive Conservatives seek another mandate from voters this June. And it’s not beneath Doug Ford to attempt to bribe voters with their own money and ignore criticism about behaving in a fiscally reckless fashion.
By Carly Penrose
The benches outside Emily Rose Café at Palmerston Square and Follis Avenue were filled with patrons. Mothers and daughters, friends coming together over food. Although it was late November and the café had yet to introduce indoor seating, patrons were undeterred by the cold late-fall air as they waited patiently for their coffees and baked goods.
Policing is largely a provincial matter, but faced with massive trucks and bouncy castles clogging up central Ottawa, plus blockades at key border crossings, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had to invoke the Emergencies Act. As usual, Ontario Premier Doug Ford was too focused on the next election to do his job, and he should have to answer for it.
Tags: Annex · Editorial · Opinion
Anyone interested in an in-depth history of the Annex will find a rich source in 24 bound volumes of the Annex Gleaner available at the Palmerston Library. The series, beginning with the very first issue from May 1995, is available for reference just behind the front desk in the “local history” section, which is one of thirty such sections at libraries across the city.
Under the questionable leadership of Premier Doug Ford, Ontario is now the only province in Canada which has not signed onto the federally funded daycare plan that would see fees cut to $10 per day per child by 2025. The federal formula would give Ontario $10.2 billion over five years which is its per capita share. But Ford says that’s not enough and Ontario deserves more than other jurisdictions.
Tags: Annex · Editorial · Opinion
The currently ruling Progressive Conservative party of Ontario is looking ahead six months – and strategizing at how to win an election despite a long line of mishaps behind them. They’ll be looking to win support in the 905, and they’ll use wedge issues to get it. A 59 kilometre highway we don’t need is one of the big ones, and the party is already painting Premier Doug Ford as the only leader “that will say yes to growth in the GTA.”
Frustration. Nonsense. Chaos.
These are just a few words that are used to describe the situation for Ontario businesses following the release of the province’s plan to lift all Covid restrictions for businesses. You’d think there would be more celebration, but it’s hard, given the fact that small businesses are being impacted extra hard by policy that seems designed to hurt them.
Tags: Annex · Editorial · Opinion
By Madeline Smart
Doug Ford emerged this week after weeks of summer slumber to announce a “vaccine certificate system” which is both late and lame. He then prorogued the legislature, lest he be answerable to it, and headed back into seclusion.
Tags: Annex · Editorial · Opinion
Ontario parents have been eagerly awaiting the “robust” plan for a safe re-entry back to classrooms Premier Doug Ford promised in June. The past year has been brutal for both the education and mental health of Ontario students, as they have spent more time out of classroom than young people in any other part of the country. However, the 26 page document outlining how the government intends to keep students safe does them no favours: it’s late (coming out less than a month before the start of school) and is little more than a carbon copy of last year’s failed plan.