Cat Out of the Bag

Cat Out of the Bag

On June 24, the Ontario PC government was sworn in and Ministers announced to the public. A report from the Premier’s Office claims that the new cabinet is going to deliver on the government’s agenda to “build the infrastructure necessary to unlock the full potential of the province’s economy, including highways, transit and the road to the Ring of Fire.” 

Now having a majority, despite less than 18% of the electorate voting for it, the PCs feel they can “let the cat out of the bag” on what their election campaign sought to do – establish the infrastructure that the massive private interests require to rip and ship Ontario’s natural and human resources to the highest bidders in Canada or globally. This includes the “critical minerals” that sit on the traditional lands of First Nations that have not consented to their extraction.  

The naming of newly elected MPP and mining executive George Pirie as Minister of Mines, with a specific mandate, from Ford, not the people, to develop the Ring of Fire says clearly that in Ontario the rich are in charge and they use the elections to get the outcomes they require. Talk about mandates and plans all hide that the people have no role in setting the direction of the province and even when they refuse to participate in the fraud en masse by refusing to vote, those in power think they can just carry on business as usual.  

No discussion was permitted during the election precisely because Ontarians do not support a direction for the economy based on the aim of paying off big private interests at the expense of the people and the natural environment or a direction that makes Ontario an appendage of the US war machine. Thus without a public deliberation on this agenda and whether Ontarians support it or not, how does the government actually believe it will simply be able to do as they please? Will they just rule by decree and force using the new powers they gave themselves concerning security corridors leading to the border? Do they think that Ontarians will just submit and suddenly accept it now? This will not be the case.  

“With big challenges ahead, including an uncertain global economic climate, now is the time for unity and working together,” said Premier Ford. “Our government will be relentless in delivering on our ambitious plan to grow our economy and build infrastructure as we leave no stone unturned when it comes to solving the historic labour shortage. It’s all hands on deck.” 

Use of the terms “uncertain global economic climate,” calls for unity and “all hands on deck” are Ford’s message to the private interests who want to be served that the PC government will do everything in its power and even outside of its powers to place Ontario at their disposal. It is also a message to his rivals and to the people of Ontario, who are now being shown the cat that was in the bag, that they must submit or be defamed as being against economic development and criminalized for not going along with the plan they are just now revealing.