The vast majority of the people of Ontario are generally good and decent
To the Expositor:
With the 2018 Ontario provincial election looming, many Ontarians will be listening to the various political parties delivering their platforms in attempts to convince voters that their party should be the one to form the next provincial government. Now realistically speaking, I think most people, from all walks of life, have a general idea of the main contents of the Conservative, Liberal and NDP’s platforms, including their core values, ideals and policy choices to govern the province.
What should be much more concerning, though, to all Ontarians is what a lot of people do not know about the internal and sometimes partially hidden agenda of a party, especially at election time! It is of one of those “darker areas” of politics which I want to bring to light as citizens contemplate their electoral choices before going to the polls this time around.
When the majority of Ontarians look at the Ontario Conservatives and their leader Doug Ford what they see is the usual and well known facts about this party: the Conservatives will always have an agenda that includes huge tax cuts for the wealthy and big corporate entities, they will cut the environmental restrictions on big industry, they will attempt to privatize the public sectors, and they will cut funding for public service sectors like healthcare, education and social programs. But, what all Ontarians including the good folks of Algoma-Manitoulin need to know about is an element lurking in the background (for now) that is part of the makeup of the group that Doug Ford is assembling as his potential provincial government, should he ever be elected. Within this group is an ever-growing contingent of radical far right wing social conservatives! This element’s make-up was boosted when Ford booted out an aspiring PC candidate for London-West (who had been campaigning there for two years) and appointed Andrew Lawton as the candidate there. Lawton, who has close ties with the right wing’s Ezra Levant’s Rebel Media Group. On his podcasts, Lawton, on many occasions, openly ranted against climate change, made hateful comments against Jews, Muslims and the LGBTQ community, denied the Holocaust and promoted the global alt right’s white nationalist terror against what he referred to as “The Pussification of the West!”
No one knows the exact extent of the numbers of these far right wing social conservatives within the PC Party (experts say the numbers increased during the PC leadership campaign), but one thing is very clear: Doug Ford is doing his best to protect their presence in the party and only when their bigoted agenda is brought into the public light such as with the social conservative’s inspirational leader, Tanya Granic Allen, will Ford cut his losses and throw them under the bus. Ford knew exactly what Granic Allen was all about right from the get go but he still allowed her to remain a PC member and run as a candidate in Mississauga-Centre. Only when the video evidence of her spewing hate against the LGBTQ community came out and she became too much of a liability for Ford’s already dwindling PR did he fire her!
If by chance, by the time this letter is published, Ford cans Andrew Lawton also it will just be another example of a hypocritical Ford who knew all about Lawton’s bigoted past and will only be acting to try and salvage his own sinking PR.
Now, no matter what political stripe people are, the vast majority of Ontarians are good and decent people who would never condone the bigoted ideals of this element of a potential Doug Ford Conservative government.
At the end of the day we are all human beings and we all need to stand up for the hard fought for human rights that our Canadian Constitution guarantees to all people! Please remember this when you mark your ballot in the upcoming provincial election.
Thank you,
Greg Young
Wiikwemkoong
