The resiliency and strength of Ontarians continues to inspire me, despite the last 22 months. Premier Ford & the PC government have kept Ontarians suffering in a perpetual lockdown – partial reopening cycle.
The Ontario government’s decisions to close our schools more than any other jurisdiction in North America and the long-term negative effects these school and extracurricular closures will have on our children is shameful.
Ontario needs a new Covid strategy!
A recent Ontario Covid-19 Science Table Brief highlights some of these stats for our provinces most vulnerable, our children. We are two years into the same old, worn out, tried and failed Covid strategy. The science no longer justifies the government’s erratic decision making.
The Ford PC government continues to insist on masking our children in school and barring them from extracurricular activities. The Ford PC government refuses to acknowledge parents as the primary educators and caretakers of their children – our children who Ford’s own Science Table says have shown clinically significant symptoms of depression and/or anxiety “nearly tripled during the Covid-19 pandemic”.
As concerning as the Ford PC government’s incoherent handling of Covid-19 has been, even more disturbing are the policy changes they have rammed through without much attention by the mainstream media.
In October of 2021, the government prorogued the legislature and with that they put an end to my private member’s bill – Bill 150 – that would have made voter fraud in internal party races illegal for the first time in Canadian history. But the Ford government did find time in their legislative agenda to pass a bill that subsidized the operations of each of the establishment political parties with taxpayer money to the tune of millions of dollars every year. The PCs currently receive $5.9 million in taxpayer money annually to spend on their political party operations as they please.
Then there is the legislative change that allows the Toronto Star to get a license to generate revenue that could be worth up to a billion dollars a year! More on that next time.
Until then, I hope you and your family can enjoy the start of the New Year given all the uncertainty around us and please stay healthy and safe.
Belinda Karahalios
