9 hours Ago
Please: Anyone but Doug Ford, Feb. 14 I am urging everyone to get out and vote on Feb. 27 — and to take a hard look at Doug Ford’s failed leadership before they do so.
Sure, Ford can be charming with his folksiness. But does anyone recall his cancellation of the very efficient cap-and-trade system? His plan to build a needless Highway 413? The Greenbelt fiasco he was forced to roll back? The list goes on and on. Do not reward Ford for his Captain Canada act.
It’s high time for a change at Queen’s Park. Dave Brown, Waterloo It is imperative that before going to the polls, Ontario voters should take an unbiased look at Ford’s record to date. Don’t be fooled by his “one of the little guys” persona.
He isn’t one of us, and his record seems to indicate that he prefers the rich guys to the little guys. Why does Ford want a new mandate? I suspect the answer is simple: he doesn’t want to risk having his support vanish when the RCMP investigation into the Greenbelt scandal goes public. He doesn’t want his supporters to see him for what he is — a political opportunist, first and foremost.
Voters should take a critical look at the implications of giving Ford what he wants. Canada’s trade war with the United States probably won’t last four years, meaning Ford would have plenty of time to carry out his costly pie-in-the-sky ideas with a new mandate. Finally, voters must see through the image Ford has created for himself as Canada’s saviour.
It’s arrogant of him to suggest he’s the only one capable of dealing with President Donald Trump’s ego. Don’t be fooled: it’s all smoke and mirrors. How many Americans wish they had taken a critical second look at the implications of putting their “X” beside Trump’s name and are now living with the consequences? Let’s not make the same mistake in Ontario.
Patricia Steward, Toronto As a Torontonian of 45 years, I am amazed and shocked to see that there are Ontarians who believe Ford will have any influence on Canada-U.S. trade negotiations or anything else of importance to our way of life or our future.
He’s no more than a minor player. His trip to Washington was a waste of time and money, not to mention an insult to every Ontarian. Former premier David Peterson tried the early election ruse in 1990, but voters saw through it.
Hopefully, Trump’s bombast will not blind Ontarians to Ford’s brand of opportunism 35 years later! Ken Luckhardt, Toronto Justin Ling has voiced the sentiments I’ve held since the 2022 provincial election. If Ford is the best we’ve got to lead the province through difficult times, then we are in serious trouble. Everything he touches seems to be fraught with issues and costly to taxpayers.
Ask yourself whether you’re any better off now than you were seven years ago, when Ford was first elected. So many things in Ontario seem to have gotten worse since then, such as the cost of living, our health-care system (including a lack of family doctors and insufficient hospital funding), our education system, public transit and housing. It appears that Ford has shrewdly planned for this election to occur before the RCMP report on the Greenbelt scandal is released and the federal election campaign gets underway.
The trade war with Trump is a weak excuse for an election at a time when we need the premier to have have his nose to the grindstone. Let’s give Ford the mandate he deserves, not the one he wants: let’s send him packing. He is fiscally irresponsible and not trustworthy.
We need a premier who has a genuine ambition to do right by the province and the taxpayers. Brian Drake, Toronto Ontario residents have been receiving their $200 “vote for me” cheques in the mail. In the televised leaders’ debate on Monday evening, Ford again called it a rebate of taxpayers’ own money, though the government was already running a projected $3 billion deficit.
This so-called rebate is more like an extra $3.1 billion loan to be repaid with interest by Ontario taxpayers and their children over decades. It’s the latest in a series of spending boondoggles, which includes the rushed expansion of alcohol sales, the luxury spa at Ontario Place, the Greenbelt land swap, Highway 413 and more.
Respect for taxpayers’ money is nothing but an empty Ford slogan that voters should reject, together with that bribe, on Feb. 27. Mark Goldstein, Mississauga.
