Just when it looked like Doug Ford could do no wrong…
The premier has been riding high in the polls ever since COVID-19 came to town. In a matter of a few weeks, the pandemic has managed to turn around what looked like a moribund first term in office into a shot at redemption for the premier.
But it turns out he broke his own rule to Ontarians to stay home and took a quick trip to the family cottage on Easter Sunday. That news caused a “furor” last week – at least, that’s how one reporter described it when she asked about it at his regularly scheduled presser on Friday.
The premier explained that he hadn’t had a day off in two months and went up to check on the pipes. He says they burst a few years back. He says he drove up at 5:30 am and was back by noon.
I’ve had occasion to drive up to the Ford cottage and that drive sounds about right.
I have no way of knowing if the premier is telling the truth. I do, however, know something about cottaging (and plumbing). Like the fact that pipes don’t burst in the spring it’s not cold enough. And yes, I checked the weather on that day, which was around historical averages for this time of year.
Besides, any cottager knows that you drain your pipes when the cottage is not in use. The Ford place is reportedly under renovation. All the more curious, then, that the heat wasn’t on.
Also, most cottagers know to leave a spare set of keys stashed in a safe place outside so you can call a neighbour to check on the place if you need to.
“There is one set of rules for Ontarians and another set of rules for the premier,” Liberal MPP Mitzie Hunter told the Star. Hunter also described the trip as “indefensible.”
“Yet another politician saying one thing and doing another,” NDP leader Andrea Horwath said Friday.
Aha, the real Ford exposed. Ford could have just said he needed the drive to clear his head. He’s entitled (is that even the right word?) to at least that much, no?
But that explanation might not have gone over so well, given Ford’s repeated pleas for cottagers to stay home during the Easter long weekend. Making matters stickier for Ford is that news of his cottage visit broke only a day after his call with cottage country mayors on plans for the coming Victoria Day weekend. A few of them are encouraging seasonal folks to stay home. Ford, however, has told mayors to “get ready” because people, they be coming.
The coronavirus has exposed many fault lines, the one between haves and have-nots, poverty and privilege as much as any. And nothing says status and privilege like owning a cottage.
Queen’s Park observers have offered that Ford’s sojourn may end up tarnishing what has been a good run for him politically. Campaign Research, for example, has his approval rating these days at a whopping 76 per cent.
But it’s the questions of trust that Ford’s visit raises that are more problematic.
As fatigue over the lockdown sets in (and it’s starting to) and the pressure (rush?) to open for business mounts, trust in our politicians will matter more than ever. It’s what’s got us this far and allowed us, so far, to avert a larger tragedy. Social cohesion depends on trusting our politicians.
The danger, of course, is that stories like this will do the opposite. As controversies go, Ford’s cottage visit is not a defining moment. But the media’s job is to report and report they will. Some will exercise more restraint than others in the way stories are framed.
The CBC, for example, reported that Ford “briefly visited” his cottage. Others framed his response as a “defence.” But by and large, little room is given to reasonableness when so many Canadians are being asked to sacrifice so much.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has also been the focus of questions about his Easter Sunday visit with his family at the PM’s official summer residence at Harrington Lake. The visit was defensible – the PM hadn’t seen his family since his wife Sophie was cleared of the virus some weeks earlier. That didn’t stop some commentators from suggesting, however, that it amounted to a mockery of rules that have been set. Last week, it was renovations at one of four cottages at Harrington Lake that captured the attention of some of the Conservative-party-friendly members of the Ottawa press gallery.
By comparison, the criticism of Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer for flying on a government jet into Ottawa with his family over the Easter weekend received comparatively less criticism. That’s partly because unlike Ford or Trudeau, he’s not the one calling the shots on the COVID response.
For those that are, there’s little room for error. We found that out again today when Ford let slip that he had his four daughters over to the house to enjoy Mother’s Day dinner with his wife, thereby breaking social distancing rules.
@nowtoronto
