Doug Ford has always been a consummate BSer. He’s been BSing Ontarians since before the pandemic.
Now he wants us to believe that there was nothing the province could do to stem the Omicron variant threatening to overwhelm hospitals – and mess with everyone’s plans for the holidays (again).
The dude has been half-assing the province’s response to COVID from the get-go, and now that he’s been caught with his pants down yet again he’s deflecting – while trying to play catch-up.
Last time it was the feds who were allowing the virus to enter the borders. Now it’s just a matter of circumstance that we’re here caught in the COVID quagmire again – although he did take a backhanded swipe at the feds for not delivering enough rapid tests at a press conference Wednesday afternoon.
If you haven’t heard, the province has announced that booster shots will now be made available starting Monday to Ontarians 18 years of age and older after Ford told us last week that they wouldn’t be available until the new year. The province has also announced that rapid tests will be made available free at pop-up testing sites in malls, retail outlets, holiday markets, public libraries and transit hubs and some 660 LCBO outlets starting sometime in the coming days.
Had the province done the right thing from the start and distributed rapid test kits that Ford called “a game-changer” back when they were delivered by the feds more than a year ago in November 2020, we’d at least be able to stay ahead of subsequent waves of the virus.
But no. Dougie had to do what he always does – play politics and curry favour by giving them away to his business friends (chambers of commerce have received testing kits free for their employees but it’s unclear to what extent they’re being used). The rest of us, meanwhile, are forced to buy them from Shoppers Drug Mart at $40 a pop.
The rollout of booster shots was also unnecessarily delayed. Now it’ll be weeks before they start taking effect while Omicron numbers are set to double every three days, according to the latest estimates of the province’s COVID science advisory table.
The province has also announced that capacity limits at sports stadiums, recreational and entertainment facilities such as concert venues, theatres and cinemas, will also be cut to 50 per cent starting December 18. Here too, the province failed to make enforcement of masking mandatory when they increased capacities at the venues in the first place months ago.
The Ford government can’t continue to hide behind excuses that no one saw this coming. The fact is the premier threw the precautionary principle out the window a long time ago when it comes to managing this virus – which is to say hope for the best but prepare for the worst. There has been lots of the first part and zero on the last.
All Ontarians should be angry, but according to the polls, Doug is eyeing electoral victory come next spring, despite the mess he’s made in his pants during the pandemic.
Yup, for Ford winning re-election has always been what his pandemic response has been about. Every move he’s made during the crisis has been with a view to saving his own political skin – not to mention, placating wing nuts in his rural caucus who could care less that the virus is running rampant in Toronto.
Ford’s response to the pandemic has not only been inadequate, the resulting back and forth has led to fatigue among Ontarians, who are now not just sick and tired of the pandemic but losing faith in their government institutions to manage the crisis.
That was probably the point anyway for Doug, who not only mistrusts government in general but by most accounts barely communicates with the public service charged with implementing his government’s policies.
Ontario, you’ve been set up.
