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.  Read more

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Ontario suffers while Ford dithers

By Jessica Bell

As the Omicron wave overwhelms Ontario, University-Rosedale residents are facing big challenges. Parents are wracked with the decision over whether to send their children to school. Hospitals are near capacity. You can’t get a PCR test. Surgeries are being canceled. Demand at food banks is at record levels, driven by rising poverty, job loss and inflation. The science is rapidly evolving, people are exhausted, and there is no public consensus on how to proceed.   Read more

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Auditor general’s report shows Ford is failing the environment

By Jessica Bell

On November 24, the auditor general released her annual report on the environment.  It reads as a dry and horrifying account of Premier Doug Ford’s assault on our natural environment, health and future. Here are the lowlights.   Read more

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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.  Read more

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SEE MORE BY BRETT LAMB:  Read more

• EDITORIAL CARTOON: How Nice (Jul. 2021)
• EDITORIAL CARTOON: How Nice (Apr. 2021)
• EDITORIAL CARTOON: Pandemic Response (Mar. 2021)
• EDITORIAL CARTOON: How Nice (Feb. 2021)
• EDITORIAL CARTOON: How Nice (Jan. 2021)
• EDITORIAL CARTOON: How Nice! (Dec. 2020)
• EDITORIAL CARTOON: How Nice (Nov. 2020)
• EDITORIAL CARTOON: How Nice (Oct. 2020)
• EDITORIAL CARTOON: How Nice (Aug. 2020)

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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.   Read more

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Doug Ford has become the first Ontario premier to invoke Section 33 of the Constitution, the so-called notwithstanding clause. This allows him to ignore an Ontario court ruling that quashed Ontario’s new law limiting third-party advertising ahead of the provincial election. It is a tantrum by a premier who will do anything to silence his critics including violating the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  Read more

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And this month in Ontario politics: Premier Doug Ford, yet again summons the experts for their advice, and pledges to follow their lead. And yet again, once advice is received, promptly goes off in a wildly different direction. This month, the experts told Ford it was safe to re-open schools for the month of June. They told him schools need to be opened not just for the sake of education, but for the sake of mental health. Yet here we are, with schools closed until September.  Read more

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Ontario Premier Doug Ford has just announced three days of paid sick leave while on day nine of his 14-day PAID leave. He is self-isolating after a colleague in his office tested positive for COVID-19. The hypocrisy does not cause Mr. Ford to flinch, though he claims to be following the advice of “the brightest minds in the world.”  Read more

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Budget bright spots come with a grain of salt

By Jessica Bell

The Ford government released its 2021-2022 Budget on March 24. The government will spend $186 billion next year, a cut of $4.8 billion from the previous year.  Read more

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COVID-19 case counts are way down from the peaks seen in January, and in response the economy is opening up in many places. However, Toronto’s Chief Medical Officer of Health (MOH) Dr. Eileen de Villa, and Peel’s MOH Dr. Lawrence Loh, have asked the province to continue lockdowns, stating their fear that the worst is yet to come. They also each advocate for mandatory paid sick days to encourage the symptomatic to stay home and stop the spread.  Read more

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READ MORE ON COVID-19  Read more

• EDITORIAL: Ford’s half measures (Jan. 2021)
• FORUM: Vigilance is key, though the vaccine is here (Jan. 2021)
• FORUM: St. George Community Living was a preventable tragedy (Jan. 21)
• NEWS: Area long-term care homes and COVID (Dec. 2020)
• FORUM: Find ways to support local businesses (Dec. 2020)
• ARTS: Keep. Craving. Culture. (Dec. 2020)

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New projections warn that the new and more contagious variant of the coronavirus could result in Ontario seeing 40,000 new infections per day in February. Meanwhile, the province has announced a state of emergency allowing the government, with the support of cabinet, to introduce new public health orders more quickly. This could be a good thing, depending on how the powers are used. It’s hard to be hopeful, though, when the province is led by a premier who seems so determined to deliver mixed messages and sweeping regulations riddled with enormous loopholes.  Read more

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