The quick, early, provincial election called by Ontario Premier Ford wraps up this coming Thursday. I don't think I have ever experienced a general election with so little engagement, so little sense of the public paying attention, and so little change in the polls. All just as the governing party planned. The half metre of snow we have had in the past week must have the strategists thinking they have successfully rigged even the weather.
But if you do care to follow the issues at stake in Ontario, a good source is The Local, a shoestring digital-only newspaper available by free subscription (and always seeking your patronage). The other day it put out a special election number (funded, it says, by a lot of friends of the paper throwing in the $200 "taxpayer rebate" cheques Ontarians are receiving from the government (sometimes arriving on the same day as their voters' card.) Here's the free link: 7 Years of Doug Ford | The Local.
I wonder if representative government is just fading away, given the dominance everywhere of showman, performers, charlatans, and celebrities. However, I'll get out to the polls on Thursday, voting who seems best placed against Ford's sockpuppet in our constituency. Medical system in near collapse, education shattered, housing starts worst of any province in the country, unemployment up throughout Ford's term, cronyism and special dealing everywhere. Hope you vote too, if you are in Ontario.
