There are plenty of examples where the blowback to a planned move is so great that the politicians behind it decide to chuck the idea themselves.

Even Doug Ford has done it. During the provincial election, he went from wanting to open the protected Greenbelt around the GTA for development to promising not to touch it.

And he was crystal clear about what changed his mind.

“The people have spoken — we won’t touch the Greenbelt. Very simple. That’s it, the people have spoken. I’m going to listen to them … Simple as that.”

Clearly, it was not that simple. Because the people are speaking again, only this time he’s not listening.

When news of the premier’s surprise plan to slash Toronto city council in half was first revealed last week, the people spoke. Citizens packed Toronto council chambers and the provincial legislature, they held protests and they demanded the city fight this assault on local democracy that has upended a municipal election already two months underway.

But Ford is not listening to them.

Perhaps they are the wrong people. The right people, we are left to believe, are the “tens of thousands of people across this province” that Ford claims to have spoken to during the provincial election, and trots out as justification for every action he takes.

The trouble with that way of thinking, as NDP Leader Andrea Horwath points out, is considerable.

“He’s not a king. He shouldn’t be governing by edict from his throne in Etobicoke. The bottom line is he is an elected official in a democracy and democratic processes require public debate, they require consultation, especially when it involves the changing of your democratic systems.”

Not anymore. Not in Doug Ford’s Ontario, anyway.

On Monday, his government tabled the Better Local Government Act, which will reduce Toronto council to 25 councillors from 47 in October’s election and goes back to appointed chairs in four regional governments.

In response, Toronto council voted overwhelmingly to dispatch the city legal department to try and find some constitutional or legal grounds to challenge Ford’s legislation.

So, the fight begins. And so it must. Something so egregious as this can’t be allowed to pass unchallenged.

But it will be an uphill battle, and as yet there’s no obvious route to success. People are waking up to the realities of what it means for a city to be a creature of the province. Especially now, under this premier who plays by his own personal rulebook.

Meanwhile, in the legislature Ford calmly itemized the numerous benefits he sees to having fewer elected officials — from fictional money savings, to how it will make everything, all the way down to the city clerk’s job, “easier.”

If that weren’t enough, it’s also good for the environment.

“I can assure you that when we have 25 councillors, it’s going to be 500,000 less sheets of paper. I’m protecting the environment. I’m protecting trees,” Ford said.

If the stakes weren’t so high it would be laughable.

We already knew that Ford held almost every politician that wasn’t his late brother Rob in contempt. Now we know he feels the same way about the basic tenets of democratic government.

This legislation is not about making Toronto’s government better. It’s about settling political scores and remaking the politics of Canada’s largest city into something closer to Ford’s vision of what’s best.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Giorgio Mammoliti, one of a handful of Toronto councillors on Ford’s side, summed up the motivation nicely: “There’s going to be less left-leaning politicians in the city of Toronto and that means it’s a great thing.”

On the night that Ford was elected premier he promised to govern for all the people. “Those who didn’t support us, I want you to know I will work even harder to earn your confidence,” he said.

Right now, those statements seem about as worthless as Toronto’s 47-ward maps for the upcoming election.

Read more about: