Baranyai: Doug Ford is all about ‘sorry, not sorry’

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Six years ago, then-Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne opened a candidates’ debate with the memorable sentiment: “Sorry, not sorry.” It was a bold acknowledgment that, after five years in office, she was not well loved by voters; still, she stood by her government’s record without apology.

Six years later, “Sorry, not sorry” could serve equally well as her successor’s slogan. Of course, the intonation would be rather different.

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Premier Doug Ford is very good at saying sorry. He has a gift for dramatic course corrections, even if it takes a while to get there. I applaud the premier’s ability to retreat from poorly laid plans, such as legislating away education workers’ right to strike (nearly provoking a general strike), and opening parts of the environmentally sensitive Greenbelt for housing development. At such moments, Ford’s signature move has been to dig in his heels, then pivot with athletic zeal. He owns the mistake, and assures us he has heard the people loud and clear.

Ford said sorry for the Greenbelt fiasco, but his actions say: Not sorry.

If the premier were sorry, would he promote the person in charge of the Greenbelt file – former housing minister Steve Clark – to government house leader, less than a year after Clark belatedly and reluctantly resigned the cabinet post he’d so egregiously mishandled?

The RCMP is conducting a criminal probe of the $8.28-billion land-swap deal. Clark’s former chief of staff, Ryan Amato, conducted a shockingly preferential selection process for favoured developers. Integrity commissioner J. David Wake found Clark’s actions as minister had violated the ethics rules, and recommended a reprimand.

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Whatever the outcome of the RCMP investigation, it’s clear that in the very best case scenario, Clark’s actions are marked by a total failure of oversight on a critically important file. Now, Ford has promoted him after a brief stint on the backbench. Clark’s new job comes with a $21,000 salary bump, and responsibility for co-ordinating day-to-day business in the legislature – a job he’ll have to conduct (rather unusually) from outside the newly appointed cabinet.

The cabinet itself, shuffled as the legislature rose early for the summer, has “not sorry” written all over it. In fact, “shuffle” is inadequate to describe this reorganized cabinet. When you shuffle a deck of cards, you still have 13 cards in each suit. This shuffle brought the number of seats on deck to an unprecedented 36, the largest cabinet in Ontario’s history.

Remember how, in 2018, Ford named 20 ministers to his first cabinet? That was back when the new premier unapologetically focused on “efficient government.”

So focused was the premier, he also slashed Toronto city council (a body where he no longer had any business) from 47 councillors to 25, invoking the notwithstanding clause to bully through the change during a municipal election.

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“It’s about reducing the size and cost of government.” Ford said after convening a midnight session to ram the bill through. “The people are behind us . . . We will never, ever back down.”

Of course, the premier has shown how well he can pivot after digging in his heels. His new cabinet pulls down a whopping $5.7 million in wages. Add in salary top-ups for 32 Conservative parliamentary assistants, and the cost tops $10 million. Rather than reducing size and cost, he has added several associate ministers, who enjoy a $22,000 salary bump, and the added profile of a cabinet position.

The visibility won’t hurt, should the premier call an election next spring, a year ahead of schedule. Sorry, not sorry.

write.robin@baranyai.ca

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