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This is shocking and should scare all Ontarians.
I am not a historian or a political scientist, but I've been watching US politics unfold nonstop since 9/11, whether I really wanted to or not. I've been reading about authoritarianism since the days of the Bush II administration.
My dad's favourite writer was Orwell, he owned copies of all Orwell's books, letters, commentaries on Orwell, etc. so I've read almost everything Orwell wrote & some of the stuff going on in Ontario IS just friggin Orwellian, as were some of the Harris gov'ts decisions in the 90s
I specifically remember that word being used in a Globe and Mail column to describe re-naming welfare "Ontario Works". An Orwellian triple entendre.
Doug Ford Sr. was in the Harris government, which pushed a privatization agenda. It was noted at the time for its cruelty (by the standards of Canadian provincial governments).
I was a child during the most violent protests -- I remember pictures of officers in riot gear. I remember a cartoon (Brian Gable, I think) depicting a line of police in riot gear with "A PLACE TO STAND - A PLACE TO GROW - ONTARI - ARI - ARI - O" written on their shields
I remember a sudden surge in the number of people begging on the streets of downtown Toronto, even in the dead of winter.
There were deaths, not a lot by world-historical standards, but there were. Dudley George. The people poisoned in Walkerton. Kim Rogers. Homeless people freezing to death.
All of us who were children and teenagers in the Harris years probably have stories about the meanness (in every sense) of that government. I know @ChurchCarlton and @DesmondCole have written about it before
That's Doug Ford's political background. His father was in that government. He ran his father's campaigns as I recall -- he was always deeply involved.
Doug also has a history of unethical behaviour in office, mostly involving "favours" for family friends or clients of Deco. Low level stuff (it had to be, even if Rob was essentially the mouthpiece for Doug, which I now think was often the case)
And going back further, Doug is widely reported to have been -- not a street level drug dealer -- but a drug *wholesaler.* A middleman.
And I don't know anything about the marijuana trade in the early 1980s. But I do know that Doug allegedly had an *enforcer* (Randy) who *actually maimed people over drug debts* and that suggests something a bit more nefarious than that friend of a friend everyone has
Randy is the only Ford family member with a record as I recall (IDR if Kathy does but if so I think it's petty addiction related stuff), but there have been serious allegations of criminality made against Rob and Doug, and there have been rumours about Doug Sr. for a long time
3 out of 4 of the Ford siblings have struggled with serious hard drug addictions. Three out of the four of them have been repeatedly and credibly accused of, if not charged with, significant criminal acts. For a family in this socioeconomic class that is an *astonishing* number
Criminality is normalized in the Ford family and we have been credibly informed that Doug was more than a bit player in the drug trade. I think he probably knows some very bad people.
People in my mentions have said Ford is basically small potatoes, and yeah, but the people allegedly lobbying him may not be. Ontario is big. There's a lot of money to be made in this province if you privatize provincial assets
We know foreign investment is contributing to the housing crises in Toronto and Vancouver (although people disagree about how much). We know that conservative thinktanks in this country, like the Fraser Institute, are funded by American right-wingers like the Kochs.
People from outside of Canada can make a lot of money here. So if Doug is being improperly lobbied (or worse) I would not assume it's by Canadians. This could very well be foreign.
What else do we know is happening to Doug? His sister-in-law is suing him, saying that he has essentially confiscated his niece and nephew's inheritance.
But what else does she say in her lawsuit? She says that Doug has been raiding his father's estate *for years* because Deco, the Ford family company and Doug's source of "successful businessman" cred, has been losing money *for years*
And that Doug has been so greedy or so desperate to keep up the "successful businessman" image that he and Randy have been paying themselves huge bonuses every year, *even when Deco was losing money*
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