A News Commentary by Niagara At Large reporter and publisher Doug Draper
Posted March 29th, 2026 on Niagara At Large
At anti-Ford Government rally in St. Catharines, Niagara. Photo by Niagara resident and community activist Emily Spanton
For those of us who have had it with the all of the cuts to public services and assaults on our environment and democratic intitutions coming from Ontaio Premier Doug Ford and his Trump-like Connservatives over the pasts eight years, it was a sight to behold!
More than 300 citizens from across our Niagara Region – and that is likely a very conservative estimate – rallied along Glenridge Avenue, in front of the Pen Centre shopping mall in St. Catharines this past Saturday, March 28th against what Ontario’s Ford government has been doing and is continuing to do to gut our public health care and education services, along with hard-fought measures to protect our environment and to deconstruct so many other programs and institutions that generations of Ontarians put in place to make our communities healthier, freer, more democratic to live in.
Niagara residents gathered at rally along Glendale Avenue near Pen Centre. Photo by Emily Spanton
When I got out of my car to talk to people participating in what organizers from citizens coalitions across Niagara plainly called the “Rally Against The Ford Government”, the relentless honking of horns of support from motorists driving by was so loud that we could often hardly hear ourselves speak.
In attendance were some of the usual community activists who have been fighting the good fight for the common good for many years and even they were overwhelmed by the number of people who were now holding up signs and marching with them.
Photo by Emily Spanton
“Some of us have been in this fight for almost a decade,” said Marcie Jacklin, a community activist and conservationist who drove from Fort Erie to attend the rally. “So the best thing about today was seeing so many new faces.”
“There was lots of great synergy,” she added when it was over, and “my ears are still ringing from all the people beeping their horns in support.”
Indeed, it was hard to witness this and not come to the conclusion that growing numbers of people – young and old, alike – have had it with all the baloney they are being fed about how taking a wrecking ball to their public services and institutions is going to make life better for them.
Just over the last few months in Niagara alone, the Ford government over-road the long tradition of our elected members of our Regional Council who will serve as the Council’s chair when it appointed Bob Gale, a failed Ford candidate in the last provincial election, to the Chair’s seat.
No long after that, Gale wrote a letter to the Ford government on Niagara Region stationary and without the approval or knowledge of the Regional Council or local municipalities, calling out for forced municipal amalgamation. As controversial as that was, he only resigned from the Regional Chair post when a citizens group in Niagara circulated evidence that he owned a copy of Adolf Hitler’s vile, hate-ridden book Mein Kampf that was signed by Hitler himself.
We also have the Ford government working to eliminate locally elected school board trustees in Niagara and absorb our Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority into a handful of agencies across the province that would significantly reduce the say citizens have in our region over the protection and preservation of our natural heritage.
The list of moves by this government to give Ford King-like powers over what happens to our communities goes on and on and on, which brings us back to why so many people across Niagara came out on a very chilly day this past March 28th to demonstrate their opposition.
Another photo of rally by Emily Spanton
It was encouraging to see this but the number of people participating in such public demonstrations has got to grow.
It isn’t enough to drive by rallies like this and flash a thumbs up or honk your horn. That is too easy.
Get involved with others in our communities and help make sure we elect and have political representatives at all levels of government who have our interests at heart.
And we have a good opportunity to start with the municipal elections scheduled to take place in Niagara and other regions of Ontario this fall. Let’s elect people to our municipal councils who are on our side.
It is our future at stake and that of those not yet born or too young to vote. Get involved!
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Doug Draper, Niagara At Large
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