In 2023, People Power Must Prevail Over Ford’s Assault On Our Environment and Democracy

“Fascism – a way of organizing a society in which a government ruled by a dictator controls the lives of the people.” – Britannica Dictionary

A New Year’s Message from Doug Draper at Niagara At Large

Posted December 31st, 2022

In the weeks and days leading up to this past spring’s provincial election, there were at least some Ontarians out there, including columnists for the mainstream news media, who argued that Doug Ford was a man who has evolved for the better as a human being.

The pandemic matured him up in ways that made himseem warmer  and more open and transparent, they said. In other words hewwas  no longer the bombastic, overbearing thug he was when he road shotgun for his late brother Rob. the late Toronto mayor,  back in the days when they were both wreaking havoc on Toronto city council.

Well guess what!

Here we are – some seven months after that provincial election – and Doug Ford has ripped off the sheep’s coat, only to expose himself as the same bully and thug that he used to be. Only rhis time smothered over in a thick, smoldering sauce  of Mussolini-style fascism.

Within months of winning a second majority government – this one with a mere 40 per cent of the 43 percent of eligible voters in Ontario who bothered to show up at the polls (the lowest voter turnout for a provincial election in Ontario history) – Doug Ford and his Tory puppets, including Niagara West MPP Sam Oosterhoff, have rammed down our throats Bill 23- a piece of legislation that will gut precious food-growing lands in our Greenbelt, and weaken other environmental protections on behalf of snakes in the development and homebuilding industry.

Niagara West MPP Same Oosterhoff and Premier Doug Ford, standing together with land speculators and house builders to diminish and destory our democacy and natural heritage

These neo-Nazi-like totalitarians have also press forward with legislation designed to destroy our local democracy, starting with dictating who are Niagara regional chair will be and ‘smart mayor’ rules that diminish the say of our elected municipal councillors

Meanwhile, as you may still view on a video of the disgraceful Niagara Region Inauguration Meeting of November 24^th, 2022, the majority of our Niagara regional councillors, including most of the mayors of our local municipalities, just rolled over and played dead. The over-riding message appeared to be – ‘Oh well, I guess we are a creature of the province and Ford is going to do what he wants to do anyway, so why fight it.”

That leaves we, the people, to fight it.

If we can’t count on our Ontario government or enough of the municipal representatives we elected to do the job, then it is up to us to fight for our democracy, and for what is left of our precious food-growing lands and natural heritage.

That will be our major challenge as citizens of this Niagara region and province in 2023.

For the sake of our children and future generations, let’s hope we are up to it.

We cannot count on politicians and government bureaucrats to speak up for our environment and democracy.

WE HAVE TO DO IT ON OUR OWN.

Let us also make a New Year’s resolution to never get fooled by the likes of Doug Ford, his minions and enabler in the corporate syndicates of development and land speculation again.

In that spirit, here is a song to listen to as we  rein in the New Year in Niagara and Ontario. To hear it click on the screen below –

NIAGARA AT LARGE Encourages You To Join The Conversation By Sharing Your Views On This Post In The Space Following The Bernie Sanders Quote Below.

“A Politician Thinks Of The Next Election. A Leader Thinks Of The Next Generation.” – Bernie Sanders