A date that will live in infamy.
January 24, 2018
For it was on this cold, chilly Wednesday not six months before the provincial elections that Patrick Brown, the young, handsome, seemingly squeaky clean leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party (PC), was hit with sexual harassment allegations.
Patrick Brown was #Metoo'd on this day.
Once looked to with hope he could help fix a province that under a decade and a half of Liberal tax-and-spend poilcy had bloated to a provincial debt load of over $22,000 per capita (becoming the world's largest sub-sovereign debtor in the process), all it took was one single allegation for him to be cast down, his keys to the kingdom revoked.
That $22,000 per capita debt and largest sub-sovereign debtor really jumps out at you, doesn't it?
To put this into perspective, if the projected 2018 interest on Ontario's debt was a person, at $11.4 billion dollars (https://www.ofina.on.ca/borrowing_debt/debt.htm) they would be the fifth richest person in Canada (http://www.canadianbusiness.com/lists-and-rankings/richest-people/100-richest-canadians-complete-list/)
Again. Just the annual interest growth - which conveniently enough is the fastest growing sector of the debt.
Scary, isn't it?
Nobody liked Kathleen Wynne - and no it's not because she was a lesbian (https://globalnews.ca/news/4066197/kathleen-wynne-ontario-premier-discrimination), but because under her stewardship she turned what had been historically Canada's wealthiest province into a basket case with over twice the per capita debt-load of California. She clearly needed to go, even essentially conceding the race during the first round of political debates (https://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2018/06/02/wynne-concedes-she-will-lose-thursdays-election-urges-voters-to-elect-liberal-mpps-as-a-check-on-ford-or-horwath.html)
Under her Liberal government, Ontario changed from a 'have' province to 'have not' province in 2006 (http://business.financialpost.com/opinion/now-that-ontario-is-a-have-not-province-it-has-changed-its-tune-and-wants-more). Ontario used to give money to provinces that don't have their things in order (ahem, Quebec)...now they receive it from the government because they're in such bad fiscal shape.
As much as I try to remain impartial and bias-free, as a born and bred Ontarian living abroad, I just can't. I may have forsaken the province, but I still have friends and family that I care about who are stuck there.
With the keys to the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway, close proximity to the United States of America (Canada and America represent the largest neighboring trade partnership in the world) , less arable farmland than only Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta (https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/95-640-x/2016001/article/14807-eng.htm), a robust university system featuring no less than six world top 250 universities (https://www.washingtonpost.com/apps/g/page/mobile/local/us-news-global-top-500-universities/1409/) and of course Toronto - by far Canada's largest city and a true economic engine, there's absolutely no reason on paper why Ontario shouldn't be a paradise (with 5 months of winter).
But life doesn't play out on paper, it plays out in its own theater.
So with Patrick Brown being told to kick rocks after three years of by most metrics competent leadership of the PCs, and the election looming just six months away, the Ontario PCs looked to be in a crisis; a despised regime was ripe for the picking, and yet they had no viable leadership candidates.
Enter the Duggy, also known as Doug Ford, known today as the Premier of Ontario
https://cdn.torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/doug-ford-qa-1-803x603-1520968133
I know what you're thinking and allow me to clear that up: hey, isn't that the dude who got caught on video smoking crack and famously denied the sexual assault allegations on him by saying 'I have enough (pussy) to eat at home! [sic]*.
(
No, it's his younger brother. Say what you will about Rob Ford's demons and proclivities, you can't say he didn't care about his constituents (https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/rob-ford-was-an-excellent-coach-who-forged-a-connection-with-his-team/article29394593/)
Similar to his brother during his brief time as the mayor of Toronto, and to a lesser degree similar to Donald Trump, Doug Ford rode into office on a wave of Populism, so naturally, he's worse than Hitler (https://ricochet.media/en/2217/why-canadas-white-supremacists-want-doug-ford-to-win). Because wanting to keep your own money that you worked for instead of giving it to an inefficient bureaucracy to disperse to people who can't or won't help themselves makes you a racist or something like that...and any politician who wants to help the people instead of the donors and special interest groups is a threat.
As shown by his winning of the election, and the subsequent demolition of the Ontario Liberals the people didn't care about these sorts of character attacks: perhaps what has been happening south of the border has made people weary and distrustful of the mainstream media.
Good.
The mainstream media is now bought and paid for by a small cadre of the ultra-wealthy - and they report what they're told to report.
Regardless of your personal distaste for either man (45 or Doug Ford), their success proves right a key component of human nature, and that is that when people are presented with two equally distasteful choices, they will vote with their wallets and not their hearts. Regardless of your personal distaste for either man, both are in power now and will be there for a while.
Donald Trump started his job a year and a half ago and everyday people - by which I mean hardworking Americans and not Central American and Mexicans who somehow feel entitled to live in America - are seeing the dividends, be they tax cuts, the prospect of peace in the Korean Peninsula or a robust projected 2-3% annual GDP growth (https://www.thebalance.com/us-economic-outlook-3305669).
Populism is making a comeback, from Donald Trump to Brexit to Viktor Orban and Sebastian Kurz of Austria, there's just too many exceptions to prove the rules there. Populism is a vague and somewhat new term, but the idea itself has been around since at least the time of the Roman Empire, and only recently has it become a bad word. People have a strong desire to be told things that they want to hear. This is true whether or not these leaders follow through on their promises.
Which all brings us back to The Duggy.
Ontario is a mess.
And it may be beyond saving.
But there is one thing Doug Ford can do that could seriously alleviate a lot of the built up pressure on the once wealthy province.
But it's a very messy and ugly thing.
With a population of over 13 million people, the Ontario government somehow staffs at least 1.1 million people...Former Ontario PC leader Tim Hudak famously said so in 2014 （https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thestar.com/amp/news/ontario_election/2014/05/28/who_are_the_11_million_public_servants_tim_hudak_is_talking_about.html).
I used to work for the Ontario government. I still have friends that work for the brick and mortar Government, and I have other friends in industries (especially within the construction industry) that rely on those sweet, sweet government contracts to put food on the table, and what I am about to propose will hurt them, but it needs to be done.
Whether you're from Ontario or not, if you're into crypto, part of the reason is probably because you want your money controlled by you and not some bloated, runaway government. Why should some bureaucrat thousands of kilometers away, who has no way of relating to you or the issues you face daily, get to decide for you how much of your own hard-earned money you get to keep?
The already beleaguered Ontario tax base is subsidizing the living, salary and pensions of almost one in ten of the people who live within the province.
If given a chance to ask Doug Ford one question, I already know what it would be.
Do you have the balls to audit the provincial government, Duggy?
Any time a government gets too big, it either becomes corrupt and incompetent (as we see in America, China, and the European Union), results in the wholesale suffering of the people (Maoist China, Stalinist Russia, Nazi Germany). Sometimes revolution brings about a more fair and stable system (French Revolution, American Revolution), but this is rare. We are not proposing revolution, but they have a way of happening when people have had enough.
RedBeard Media will be keeping an eye on this situation.
