Thread by @ColinDMello

A brief thread on the evolution of Premier Ford's comments on the the Greenbelt.

2018 pre-election: "We will open up the Greenbelt, not all of it. We're going to open a big chunk of it up and we're going to start building."

#onpoli

2018 campaign: "Unequivocally, we won't touch the Greenbelt. I've heard it loud and clear, people don't want me touching the greenbelt, we won't touch the Greenbelt."

#onpoli

Dec 7, 2020: "I have committed not to be paving anywhere in the greenbelt."

Dec 7, 2020: "We committed to expanding the quality and quantity of the greenbelt in 2020. During the election, I said I wasn’t going to touch the greenbelt... I have not touched the greenbelt. We won’t touch the greenbelt. We won’t build on the greenbelt."

#onpoli

Dec 8, 2020: "We aren’t touching the greenbelt. We said we weren’t going to touch it. We support the greenbelt. We’re pouring money into the greenbelt"

#onpoli

March 2021: "We’re expanding the greenbelt. We will not build on the greenbelt. We’ll make sure we protect the greenbelt"

#onpoli

Nov 2022: "We have a housing crisis that the majority of our kids can’t afford to buy a home. They can’t afford to live in Toronto or the GTA because the previous government didn’t have the backbone to make the changes. We’re increasing the greenbelt more than 2,000 acres"

April 2023: "The decision was very easy. We’re in a housing crisis right now"

"One piece of field... had housing all around all four corners—in an empty field with weeds in it. They call that the greenbelt? That’s not the greenbelt. That’s just a field with a bunch of weeds."

April 2023: I talked to people who were in the room. They sat there with a big map and they literally got highlighters—a bunch of staffers joking around, going up and down the roads."

April 2023: "Some land shouldn’t be in the greenbelt, and some should be in the greenbelt, and we’re expanding the areas that we feel should be in the greenbelt."

May 2023: "It was just a big scam as far as I'm concerned."

"I think we’re doing pretty good on the so-called Greenbelt … as the Liberals made up that name."

May 2023: "Let's just be honest, The Greenbelt was a failed policy, a flawed policy from the Liberal government."

#onpoli