When Premier Doug Ford threatened to invoke the notwithstanding clause to override a court decision striking down his law reducing the number of seats on Toronto municipal council, constitutional law professor Carissima Mathen wrote in the Globe and Mail that “Doug Ford’s powers are not limitless — thanks to a system he neither understands nor values.”

The premier has continued to demonstrate that the extent of what he neither understands nor values poses serious problems for the people of this province: people with minimum wage jobs, people too young and powerless to advocate for themselves, people counting on all levels of government to tackle climate change and, most recently, people whose first language is French.

In June, the PC party plowed its way to a 76-seat majority. From the moment a victorious Ford trampled over the custom of affording the losers the chance to concede first, he’s been setting a new tone for the political culture in this province.

Staffers giving standing ovations at ministerial press conferences, in part to drown out the questions of reporters, sounds absurd. And it is. Just like spending tax dollars to post signs at the border saying, “Open for Business.”

It is also corrosive. There needs to be a dialogue between governor and governed — and because there are millions of people in this province, that dialogue must be mediated by media and interest groups, government institutions and elected politicians.

Ford abolishes the French language services commissioner and the French language university planned for Toronto, then invites any upset Franco-Ontarians to give him a call on his cell. Some do and report that he even called them back. What a guy. Either he doesn’t understand or doesn’t care that meaningful communication with Ontario’s 14 million residents and well over half-a-million francophones requires much more than this nonsense.

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Caroline Mulroney, the attorney general of Ontario and minister responsible for francophone affairs received a standing ovation from members of the PC caucus at Queen’s Park, after offering justifications, in French, for the government’s proposed cuts. There is one francophone in that caucus. Not many more speak French at all. And yet, a large number of those applauding hadn’t even bothered to put on a headset to hear a simultaneous translation of what Mulroney had to say.

Have the standards we set for our elected representatives, and by extension ourselves, sunk so low that nobody is ashamed to clap and hoot and holler for reasons they literally don’t comprehend? Progressive Conservative Prime Minister John Diefenbaker once said that “Parliament is more than procedure; it is the custodian of the nation’s freedom.” I dare say he assumed that Parliamentarians would act like responsible adults, show themselves fit to carry this custodial obligation.

Wednesday night, MPP Amanda Simard did just that, when she denounced the government cutting off funding to the established office of the commissioner and nascent Franco-Ontarian University. She appears to be the first member of PC caucus to criticize one of the government’s actions. There has been a lot to criticize, question, challenge and denounce. Surely expressing a principled, reasoned stand is the least (the very least) we can expect of all elected representatives, regardless of party stripe.

Ford successfully campaigned to lead the PC party and become premier. There is no doubt that even a substantial number of people who voted for the Progressive Conservatives did not fancy Ford at the helm. Still they endorsed their local MPP and gambled on “the other adults on board” helping to keep things on course.

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Well, the silence from virtually all members of caucus, but especially those in senior leadership roles, has been deafening, and the complicity obscene. What is passed off as party discipline is in fact a cone of silence, enabling an assault on a range of services and safeguards designed to protect and serve Ontarians.

Ontarians expect more backbone. Unless PC MPPs start to show it, this will descend further and further into farce. If there are any PC MPPs really “for the people,” will they please stand up?

Thomas McMorrow is an associate professor with Faculty of Social Science and Humanities and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology.

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