Nothing matters anymore

Another election comes and goes, this time in Ontario, where well reasoned progressive values and ideals ran against populist conservative ideas and lost.
Ontario just voted for a party and leader who pledged $1 beer, 10 cent/litre fuel price reduction, multi-billion dollar tax cuts that benefit the 1%; all are uncosted liabilities to the Ontario budget that poses a deficit and debt risk like none seen before. But, who cares about that, right?
What Ontario is getting is a new regime that will shift to austerity to fund these promises; because the tax cuts pledged therein will not fund themselves. Doug Ford and his PC party campaigned on a trickle-down platform, and the mathematical fact is that trickle-down economics has never worked in the history of ever. NEVER. It won't magically work this time either. So, enjoy your $1 beer Ontario, its going to cost you teachers, nurses, highway maintenance, child protection services to start with.
But none of that matters because now Ontario has a regime that will drain the swamp...and by drain the swamp (to paraphrase from Donald Trump), what it really means is that a new crop of friends and insiders will take their place at the trough. In with the blue team, out with the red team.
Everything should have cautioned voters against doing this. Shady nominations, un-costed election platforms, questions over a certain leader's business acumen, extremist candidates with hard line socially conservative views (including on race, women's rights, etc). None of it mattered. The NDP offered a bold and costed platform that addressed the mainstream and progressive reality in Ontario; and better, they weren't the 15 year incumbent who's voters were done with.

Instead, voters opted for the emotionally charged, populist ultra-conservative ideas with little regard for their real world impact, or their actual fiscal cost.

So be it. Voters spoke, they voted in less than impressive numbers, and decided that Doug Ford's version of Trump politics is better suited for Queens Park.

I fear for the state of my democracy. These are unsettling times.

My 2 bits

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