Sign, sign, everywhere a sign

The first sign what a Doug Ford administration would look like came when the premier-elect decided he would forgo protocol and speak first after polls closed on election night. Rather than be gracious and allow Kathleen Wynne and Andrea Horwath to thank supporters and concede defeat, he played Bigfoot, and launched into his televised remarks less than a minute after Wynne had begun hers. He knew exactly what he was doing; it was a graceless gesture.

The second scary thought is that a key advisor to the Ford administration will be former premier Mike Harris. When Harris was in power, he treated Toronto like it was the “revenge of the rubes.” I guess it played well in Shelburne and Coboconk and probably will again. Now that the NDP dominates downtown Toronto ridings, I fear those bad old days returning.

Angry voters have pushed Ontario into the global movement away from liberal democracies. The cult of the leader is king. I don’t in the least like the direction we’re taking. It is narcissistic, mean-spirited, and not at all how this country was built.

Moreover, no female prime minister or premier has ever been re-elected in Canada. The answer has to be plain old misogyny – and in the case of Wynne – add homophobia to the mix. How else to explain the depths to which her personal popularity sank. Disdained policies can only drive numbers down so far. The veneer of civilization is very thin. Every once in a while, it gets scratched and shows its true self underneath. This election was one of those times.