Dear Editor,
I have just read Brandon Mayers op-ed on two of the accomplishments of the Ford government, the restrictions of cell phone use in schools, and the increase in the speed limit on 400 series highways from 100 to 110 kph.
While he did point out many of the Ford governments shortcomings, my reaction was: “Really? Is that all that you can find that you agree with?” It almost sounded like he was ready to forgive the Ford government for its transgressions because he had found a couple of items, which, in my opinion, are minor by comparison to the damage that Ford has done.
For myself, the issues are the wasting of $billions on building highway 413, (that nobody needs), just to save commuters less than a minute in commute time, in the process, paving over valuable farmland and species at risk habitat, the spending $millions on new jails to temporarily incarcerate hundreds of people who haven’t been convicted of anything, when the far cheaper solution would be to fix the bail system, the spending millions of extra dollars on paying private clinics to do operations that could be done more cheaply by our government health care system, but cannot, because the Ford government is deliberately underfunding it.
Then there is the latest boondoggle, where Ford has allowed Enbridge Gas to raise its gas rates to us all, so that we, the consumer, will pay the cost of Enbridge’s gas expansion into new subdivisions. This, for a company that made $16 billion in profit last year.
So, for all you people out there who identify as “fiscal conservatives”, it would seem that this is no longer your Party. Ford’s “For the People” slogan missed out one word, “rich”. This, from a government which is under investigation for corruption regarding the Green Belt scandal, when Ford saw no problem in lying to us all that he would not touch the Green Belt. It was only the backlash from many of us, when he tried to sell Green Belt land to developers, that forced him to abandon his $8 billion gift to the development industry.
There are, of course, a host of other examples of the Ford government deliberately undermining our social programs and environmental programs to help big business. I hope that people will remember this come the next election, and give some thought about who and what they are voting for.
Colin Creasey,
Kemptville
