On this morning after Ontario elected Doug Ford, a man often compared to Donald Trump, as premier of Canada’s largest province, I have a question.

Democracy is a numbers game; bear with me for a moment.

The conservatives led by “Canada’s Trump” received just 2,322,422 of the 9,888,888 votes available in Ontario to registered voters.* That won Ford’s party 76 of the 124 seats in Ontario’s legislature.

Counting some 42 per cent of voters who didn’t show up, less than 25 per cent of Ontario citizens voted for so-called “Ford Nation.” True, Ford did slightly better than Trump, who rules with less than 20 per cent of votes cast in 2016 by all adult Americans. But only in a winner-take-all system would Ford’s party rule the majority with support by less than one quarter of voters.

My question is, what were 75% of you people in Ontario thinking and doing on election day? How did the massive majority of you allow this to this happen?

Yes, yes, we all know you disagree with each other, we hear you bickering. But exactly what was so important that you’d rather be ruled by a buffoon than stop bickering? Most of you know better than to hand your lives over to an utterly unqualified leader, so how could you forget democracy’s truism, “divided we fall?” What sparked such spite that you cut off your nose to save face? Was it Toronto’s bike lane wars? Bathroom signs? Pride parades? Grudges against previous governments? Dislike of anybody who doesn’t look, act, and think exactly like you? For those who did vote, not for your new “Trump” but without strategy, where was your head, to cast your vote with your heart in a winner-takes-all system?

Actually, I misspoke. Here’s the big question. No, it’s the only question: What are Ontario citizens, and all Canadians, going to do to fix the stupid, toxic election system, and bring in democracy?

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Readings:

“Mr. Ford is unfit to be premier” – a Globe and Mail editorial written by a board that failed to make an endorsement, perhaps paralyzed by the indecision that helped more than four in 10 voters sit out the election.

“The Ford family’s history with drug dealing,” a Globe and Mail 2013 investigation.

“… the only justification for handing Ford a majority government is a terminal case of Trump envy.” – Michael Harris writing in iPolitics.

“It’s not hard to see why Doug Ford, the golden-haired former football player fighting to be the next premier of Ontario, has been compared to President Trump.” – The New York Times

Explainer: “Doug Ford has won Ontario’s election. What happens now? A guide” – the Globe and Mail

 


deborahjonescanada

Curious free range human. Creative writer, journalist, photographer