🧵.

Ford's monstrously stupid dismantling of hundreds of renewable energy projects in 2018 looks even worse in 2023. The director of the Ontario Clean Air Alliance says the low-cost renewable power capacity Doug demolished will need to be.../2

thestar.com/politics/provi… ..replaced by a system powered by greenhouse-gas-emitting fossil fuels.

The imminent shutdown of the Pickering nuclear reactor, which powers 16% of the province, means a huge capacity gap will be met by resorting to dirty gas plants closed by the Wynne Liberals.

A local.../3

Because balancing growth and the environment is difficult for politicians, it doesn’t mean they don't deal with the issue – unless you're Doug Ford.

So when Doug needs a job done, he goes to his (non) arm's-length appointees on any number of agencies, boards and commissions. /2 Case in point: the post of chair of the Niagara Escarpment Commission is manned by a politician familiar to those who watched Conservative PM Stephen Harper's attempted makeover of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Rob Nicholson, now 70, an inner-circle Harper minister who handled.../3

A mere 6 mos. into his second "Demolish Ontario Governance Tour", polls show a growing number of citizens want to put cuffs on the vain, self-centred and ruthless demagogue known as Ford Nation -- and maybe tie him to a tree on the Greenbelt while the 10-week Queen's Park.../2 ..recess transpires;

Sadly derelict OPP detectives draw a clear line in the muck when it comes to investigating and laying charges against law-breaking politicians cultivating developer friends. The message is move along, nothing to see here.

But there exists a trapdoor.../3

Doug Ford's Strong Mayors/Weak Councillors legislation displays the Muskoka Malefactor, his Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark and his comms apparatchick Ivana Yelich at their conniving, anti-democratic best, going Trojan Horse on the country's capital, Ottawa../2 ..and its largest city, Toronto.

Presumably any half-acre plot in downtown Toronto or Ottawa can now accommodate a 50-storey condo of glass and steel (no matter its current zoning or, horrors, its zoning at time of acquisition), because Ford & Friends say obstructionist.../3

#ClusterFord 🧵Rewind to the June 2022 vote:

Hamilton-area PC candidate Neil Lumsden spilled the beans and admits the decision to skip a local all-candidates’ meeting was made by Boss Ford's operatives in the PC party, and not him. “We get direction on a day-to-day basis on.../2

https://twitter.com/NeilLumsdenMPP/status/1594470706305187840

"...what we’re going to do,” said former CFL'er Lumsden, running in Hamilton East-Stoney Creek. “I was told that on the (May) 25th, we’re not participating at this point, so that’s the way it is.”

Ford's MPPs failed to appear for debates on a frequent basis in the 2022.../3

TorStar's Regg Cohn works up a thousand words on Doug's Greenbelt severance shocker without a single mention of the racketeer's bloodsucker class of elites -- as usual, a long list of donors to Ford and his PCs -- who stand to benefit from the environmental encroachment. /2 The belligerent Ford is bulldozing the 68.2-km, $7.5B to $10B Hwy 413/Bradford Bypass through the Greenbelt, contrary to expert advice and public opinion. Frank Graves' EKOS firm showed 74% of 905'ers oppose Hwy 413 in a Dec 2021 poll; updated May 2022, 48% of Ontarians ../3

Hand it, begrudgingly, to the ego-tripping Muskoka Misanthrope: the Doug Dynasty wields power over 15 million Ontarians with unprecedented efficiency.

Indulging in an ideological experiment favouring a bizarre cross-section of society…

■Covidiots
■Licensed car owners; /2 ■Food and drug retailers
■Builders and tradesmen
■Employers enrolled in the WSIB
■Police officers and firefighters
■Private medical/schools/daycares
■Brewers
■Christians
■Gamblers…

…King Doug defiantly scorns the many millions refusing to recognize his Ford Nation../3

A #ClusterFord Compilation of the Convoy-friendly Perjurer of Queen's Park:

Dean French, Doug Ford's original chief of staff forced to resign on charges of political cronyism and patronage after only one year on the job, emerges as Ford's behind-the-scenes messenger on.../2 ..behalf of the Mad Max/Duck Dynasty convoy in meetings with federal government and City of Ottawa officials held to end the nightmare;

French hypes the over-aggressive squatters as "big-rig, blue-collar, big-hearted Canadians, men and women of conviction." But most see his.../3

Not even the threshold of 14,000 C19 Ontario deaths surpassed on Sept 1, 2022 could stir the media, interest the denizens of Ford Nation or distract its perverse, bullheaded leader who, channelling his inner Trump, remains completely unwavering in his drive to turn the .../2 ..lucrative segments of the health sector into a profit centre for the corporate community;

Abruptly dismantling the free-thinking 30-member Ontario Science Advisory Table amid a 14 C19 deaths/day crisis, Ford continues to relentlessly leverage, through his Health and LTC.../3

Dean French, forced to resign as Ford's chief of staff for cronyism and patronage in June 2019, becomes his former boss's emissary on behalf of the Mad Max/Duck Dynasty convoy in meetings with federal government and City of Ottawa officials;

The behind-the-scenes intrigue.../2

https://twitter.com/PnPCBC/status/1560024394981842944

..affirms the premier of Canada's largest province has backchannel ties to an outlaw convoy whose members advocate mass citizens’ arrests and a government overthrow, believe Trudeau is the illegitimate son of the late Fidel Castro of Cuba and that a ridiculous QAnon Queen of../3

The Ghost of Health Ministers past made a visit to the Pink Palace at Queen's Park Aug 17, 2022, with MSM breaking news of former minister turned bean counter Christine Elliott's determination to seek Fordian efficiency by curtailing the volume of expensive but more sensitive../2 ...PCR testing at provincial labs;

The mandate letter — signed by Elliott and sent on Oct. 1, 2021 — laid out government expectations for the agency for the year 2022-23. Trouble is the province was in the middle of Wave 4 at the time, which its own data indicates transpired../3

August 2020, residents of Kemptville, near Ottawa, are stunned to learn the Eastern Ontario Correctional Complex (EOCC) will occupy 160 acres of prime farmland in their small town. To the dismay of Ford, the Coalition Against the Proposed Prison is demanding the 235-inmate.../2

https://twitter.com/MikeSchreiner/status/1559273236382334977

...facility be placed in an 𝙪𝙧𝙗𝙖𝙣 area;

Nov 2021, Ford's municipal affairs boss, Steve Clark, tried but failed to stifle residents' complaints by triggering an Elections Ontario inquiry, contending the group was illegally protesting, selling anti-prison signs, and .../3

Health Minister Sylvia Jones' 60-day vanishing act during a historic breakdown in hospital services aroused demands for action until she finally did open her mouth to release the bombshell everyone knew was coming;

Declaring "all options" would be on the table to deal with.../2 ...the hospitals crisis – as distinct from "solutions" – Jones all but guaranteed the profit motive will become a fundamental feature of the Ontario medical sector;

Only 2 days after her initial Zoom hit with CP24, the under-fire Jones was expanding upon an empty.../3

Consistent with @FordNation's documented record of failure in business and government, no immediate urgency was found in the Aug 9, 2022 Throne Speech. The healthcare crisis, rising interest rates, high inflation, climate change and the growing possibility of a recession.../2 ...spurred Doug Ford to do little more than offer income tax breaks that won't be receivable for months, if not as late as mid-2023;

Pleasing the base, Ford's economic blueprint affirmed Covid-19 "lockdowns" are a thing of the past while confirming action on hospital ER.../3

The NordStar Capital News, offering @fordnation a shoeshine, today says the Stealth Campaigner is working diligently alongside his Phantom MPPs, who are:

"...resurrecting the spring budget that served as their campaign platform." /2

thestar.com/politics/provi… Platform? Doug’s "Get it Done" campaign consisted of videos in front of "friends", handouts to drivers and WSIB corp allies and promises for blue collar workers. That activists were gagged for a year by Bill 254 not only escapes the corporate memory of the progressive paper.../3

The NordStar Capital News, aka @TorontoStar, tries below to put a shine on past and present E-vehicle policy signals emanating from the Pink Palace, but reality bites:

July 2018, his second month in office, Ford unilaterally terminates electric and hydrogen vehicle .../2 ...incentives, a clear breach of contract with Tesla. The move would be described later as "unjustified targeting" and "egregious and unlawful" by an Ontario Superior Court judge, who orders Ford to pay $125,000 in court costs to multi-billionaire Elon Musk;

Ford the.../3

Unrelenting in his indolence, still celebrating a PC Party victory two months after it happened, Doug Ford finally emerged Aug 3, 2022 to obfuscate and deflect on hospital department closures, but not before the cowardly label-maker had run his embattled Mistress of Health.../2 .. in front of friendly CP24 news people a day earlier, for a 10-minute Zoom call to answer for the healthcare emergency;

True to form, the media proved unable to formulate follow-up questions to routine deflection from the determined Ms Sylvia Jones, fresh and energized.../3

Any hopes that the Covid disaster unfolding in the emergency rooms of provincially controlled hospitals might shame the premiers into action were demolished when the media decided it was all tightwad Justin Trudeau's fault and the premiers deserved praise for their prudent.../2 ..money management skills;

Doug Ford earned special mention from a variety of libertarian media pundits for sharp budgeting that saw a $1.8B payment issued to the (likely indifferent) holders of Ontario debt. But the story of seriously ill citizens camped out on hard.../3

Seeing a lot of tweets about Ford's suppression of the provincial vote June 2 and the media's complicity.

#CLUSTERFORD rewind:

"The Toronto press pack, wondering why the 2022 campaign went missing, failed to note that Huckster Ford's face had been on screens continuously.../2 ..for months, while no issue advertising was to be heard. Ford gagged teachers, HCWs, the disabled, LTC/Covid victims, small business, closing off a key platform available to special interests, and even had activist lawyer Caryma Sa'd aggressively handcuffed at a Trump-style../3

The media has buried the lede again, as the impact of Ford's Bill 254 and its ham-fisted interference in election advertising and 3rd party involvement has been on display since the campaign began five weeks ago: Ford's face has been on screens continuously, along with the.../2 ...huckster patter, but no issue advertising is to be heard;

Teachers, HCWs, the disabled, LTC/Covid victims, small business, etc., have been shut down, as Ford blunts (and handcuffs) critics as an election tactic. Nevertheless, an obtuse press pack wonders why the campaign.../3

April 2021, Ford's Bill 254 election financing revamp, aka the Protecting Ontario Elections Act, is characterized as the "Squashing Ontario Democracy Act" by Unifor, the country's largest private sector union;

Ford's election law is starkly favourable to his PCs, hobbling../2 ...labour and other 3rd parties during campaigns, but personal allowable contribution limits are doubled to $3,000;

Ford's amendments double the time spending limits are imposed on political advertising by 3rd parties, from 6 to 12 months leading to an election. During.../3