Doug Ford’s Cabinet shuffle

Thursday, 20 June 2019

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has shuffled his cabinet, demoting some of his most senior ministers, and bringing in untried and inexperienced new people. Why did he do this? Will it make a difference?

He did this because his popularity is now below that of the previous Premier, Kathleen Wynne, at the time of the last election. He was booed at three recent public events, the last being the victory celebration for the Toronto Raptors’ NBA championship win. His party is now in third place after the Liberals and the NDP, with the Greens coming fast behind them. A cabinet shuffle looks like he is doing something positive. At his news conference today he emphasised two points: his government’s achievements; and that he was going to do better.

Will this shuffle make a difference? No. Ford is a puppet. He’s beyond his depth as a Premier. He had no experience in Provincial politics, and I suspect he had close to zero knowledge of Provincial powers. His promise of a Buck-a-beer shows how little he knew and understood. I think that apart from his vendetta against Toronto, he is not in fact the originator of his government's policies. He has to rely on his political team for advice. That team is cabal of self-styled Libertarians who hate government and have attempted to inject their minimal-government philosophy into Canadian politics. They are using Doug Ford to carry out their political aims.

Moving people around the offices at Queen’s park will make no difference to the damage that’s been done to Ontario.

Update 10 July 2019: One of his demoted ministers misbehaved at a concert recently: she attacked the owner of the Ottawa Senators, blaiming him for their poor performance. The new Minister of Educatiion has said he wants to negotiate with the teachers' unions as soon as possible, and that he is willing to listen. In the meantime, several schoolboards, having crunched the enrolment numbers, have announced cuts to programs because of Doug Ford's raising the average high school class size to 28 from 22. Innumerate people tend to think of averages as typical. Does Ford hold this mistaken idea? I don't know.

Update 11 July 2019: Bombardier announced that it would be laying off half its Thunder Bay work force by November as the orders run out. Result: Douig Ford blames Ottawa, and  Federal Labour Minister Pat Hadju blames Ford. Doug Ford claims he's "signed the cheque" for Ontario's share of the infrastructure projects. Hadju released a number of letters from her ministry to Ontario asking Ontario to get with the program. Which they haven't done. Ford apparently doesn't want the Trudeau Liberals to get any credit for roadbuilding and such. Meanwhile, transit and other infrastructure in Ontario isn't being built.

Incompetence rules.