MidlandToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via our site. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is from Simcoe County Greenbelt Coalition member Gary Machan in response to this week's report from the Auditor General about the Greenbelt.
As Lord Acton once proclaimed, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Here I can distinctly recall saying when the scandal first broke about a handful of Tory backers benefiting from the breaking of Doug Ford’s word to the people of this province that he would not touch the Greenbelt that Steve Clark wouldn’t have to be tipped off because the developers told him what to do in the first place.
Sure enough, this is precisely what happened is a textbook example of what transpires when a government has repeatedly been handed a majority government. Absolute corruption. Sure, Steve Clark can pretend that his chief of staff never told him about the sweetheart deals that were made with these developers, but who with an IQ above room temperature would believe him?
Put yet another way, it is preposterous to think that the Minister’s own chief of staff would cut a deal with a handful of developers of this magnitude without alerting, or what was most likely the case, being instructed by the Minister to do so. And most especially since the land getting flipped was on the Greenbelt; something which the vast majority of Ontarians oppose, even conservatives as it turns out.
Just consider for a moment, 83% of Ontarians do not believe there is any need to build on the Greenbelt. And when you break down the data, 75% of Conservatives feel the same way. Unlike Doug Ford, a whopping 85% of Ontarians believe that governments should be actively involved in housing solutions focusing on land where servicing already exists! (Source: Environics Research Poll conducted for the Alliance of a Liveable Ontario.)
Ultimately, you cannot have good governance in the absence of trust. Dalton McGuinty broke it around the erasure of emails regarding an energy plant, and now the people’s trust in Doug Ford has plummeted. The premier is trusted by only 10% of Ontarians. Housing developers it’s even less at 6%. Albeit the tragedy of repeated scandals is everyone eventually gets painted with the same brush to the point that 41% of Ontarians don’t know who to trust.
Dare I say, holding power is a double-edged sword. You can do great good, but there is always the temptation to misuse it such as has been on full display over this latest sordid tale involving the Greenbelt. Fortunately, we do have some checks and balances. An Ethics Commissioner who was clearly lied to, and an Auditor General who didn’t mince words in her scathing review.
The big question is what will happen next? Most likely, Steve Clark’s chief of staff will be the fall guy, take one for the team. And yet, will that restore any faith in the way that Ford conducts his business? I mean to go from promising the people of the province he would never touch the Greenbelt (pre-election) to calling the Greenbelt a scam (post-election) does an enormous amount of damage in eroding trust which is the bedrock of a functioning democracy.
Ultimately, if there is any solace to be found, it is in the fact that eventually Doug Ford’s term will end. Since it is quite evident that none of his Ministers have yet to demonstrate any leadership on this matter, I suspect we might see a sudden resurgence of the Liberals; especially with an established contender like Bonnie Crombie at the forefront.
Gary Machan
Oro Medonte
