Socialism in Ontario

A CRITICISM OF THE NDP’S ‘HOMES YOU CAN AFFORD’ POLICY

Ontario is in a dark place. The province has had to endure the Covid-19 pandemic under the premiership of Doug Ford of the Progressive Conservative Party, a faux-populist whose 2018 election campaign was a reactionary movement based on hate and the promise of one dollar beer. He became a darling for those in the working class looking for an excuse to delve into white nationalism and those in the middle class that fancy themselves blue collar despite having none of the trappings, all while being funded by billionaires in return for favours once he reached office. He traded on the ill reputation of his late brother, former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, who made international news for being a drug addled, racist embarrassment before unfortunately being afflicted with aggressive cancer and passing. Doug’s pledge was to lower taxes for the middle- and upper-class while cancelling a planned increase to the minimum wage, a classic right-wing play to the fiscally concerned whose idea of progress is a tightening of the noose. It should be no surprise then how Ford has used the power of his position in the service of ultra-wealthy developers.