“Keep on the Sunny Side,” a tune penned by Ada Blenkhorn in 1899, wasn’t just a popular song, but a philosophy of life. As the song goes, if you always look on the bright side, “the storm and clouds will in time pass away.” The song was about good triumphing over evil and boundless optimism — and in 1899, folks needed both.

Fast-forward to today and one can only wonder if the Ford administration has adopted the “Sunny Side” as its theme by broadcasting success before actually experiencing it. One would think they would have learned a lesson from the Trudeau government about sunny days. It is easier to talk about sunny days (political success) than to produce them.

Some of us have been around for a while and have seen many governments come and go. Few would have predicted the current Ontario Progressive Conservative government interfering with many policy fields so soon after the election. There doesn’t appear to be a measured plan for the future, and if there is, it isn’t in plain sight.

Instead it appears that the Ford administration will imitate the mood, theme and purpose of Mike Harris’s Common Sense Revolution of 1995. Harris campaigned on reducing spending on health and education, more efficient use of taxpayers' money, reducing welfare budgets, and cutting taxes. He promised the end of big government and less government interference in a person’s daily life. But did he deliver? Yes he did, and after Harris and Ernie Eves, we had 15 years of Liberal governments.

The Ford administration continues the Harris years with a unique conservative philosophy of governing. It has little to do with support for the average citizen because the underlying idea is and was… individuals need to get off their duff, get to work and if they work hard, they might be successful. While that sounds like a keeper way of life, it sure doesn’t apply to most people who are just trying to make ends meet — and the government hand-up programs were a way to help them out.

Compare that conservative philosophy of Harris/Ford with the Bill Davis brand. Davis’ progressive conservatism easily matched Ontario. The so-called Red Tories espoused a different kind of conservativism that recognized equality of opportunity, support for public programs in health and education and a specific openness to good ideas. Davis recognized that without government intervention, many people would fall behind.

So far the list of government interventions is growing, including the line-by-line examination of every budget. Many constitutional experts predict Ford’s autocratic foray into restructuring Toronto will survive a court challenge. Few would guess that the present government would interfere with the sex-education curriculum in schools after all the revisions and discussions. And who would have thought that the present government would have ended the basic-income pilot program that held so much hope for folks to get a hold of their lives. It looks like lots of folks are in for hard times.

These may be uncertain times for some, but Ford’s foray back to the future, reliving the Harris years, will be worse for a lot more people. Ford would have been better to take a page from the Davis political book. If he did, Ford would really be on the sunny side of life.

Terry Miller is a long time Brampton resident and former Peel Region and Brampton City councillor. The Scene column appears each week.



