The time has come for real political resistance to Ford and his austerity agenda, writes doctoral student Ryan Kelpin. At the heart of this specific union contract are the foundations of decades of anti-worker politics that must be confronted head-on. These are battles that are won in the streets by rank-and-file unionists and their allies. We must support them.

Ultimately, by handing expanded powers to Tory and the mayor of Ottawa, Ford is working to privilege the pan-suburban coalition and the conservative, privatist, and consumerist politics his base subscribes to. This is both a means and an end to achieving smaller government, normalizing the language of efficiency, and centralizing decision-making.

We are now into the third week of the ‘Freedom Convoy’ that has besieged downtown Ottawa. What we have witnessed is a total abdication of responsibility by all levels of government, exacerbated by Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who has cowered in the face of any crisis that was not artificially manufactured by himself and his party.

It is clear we need to expand our resistance and critique of the Fraser Institute beyond the reports it publishes and the ideologues and media pundits it puts in front of the television cameras. If these ideas go uncontested, we stand to lose a growing number of students to far-right economic views. The Peter Munk Centre for Free Enterprise Education is a real threat and we should treat it like one.

On the first day of 2021, the Province of Ontario quietly used the holiday season to appoint former premier Mike Harris to the Order of Ontario. This is a feeble attempt to cast Harris as a benevolent Ontarian, whitewash his disastrous neoliberal policies, and sweep under the rug his role as Chair of the Board for Chartwell Retirement Residences—one of the most poorly managed for-profit long-term care corporations in Canada.

Before and during the pandemic, Ontario Premier Doug Ford has implemented a right wing agenda to undercut democratic decision-making, attacked Toronto’s city council, and abused parliamentary procedure to silence debate and critique. For Ford, the goals are simple: making government more “efficient” at the expense of basic democratic protections and privileging the power of capital over public institutions.

Since winning the provincial election in 2018, Ontario Premier Doug Ford has made critical interventions in landlord-tenant relations. In declaring Ontario ‘Open For Business,’ Ford has made a concerted effort towards privileging landlords and developers at the expense of tenants in both market and legal adjudication. The question is, will we let him?