Premier Ford, This Is For Your Own Good.

The groundswell matters.

Now, Douglas. I dislike reminding you about the last time I had to take a severe tone with you. Remember that? It was eleven years ago, give or take. You were a lowly City Councillor then, and you made a move on the Toronto Library System. You said there were more libraries in your constituency than there were Tim Hortons coffee shops, implying that there should be more of the latter and fewer of the former. Now, Douglas, that was a fib.

It also missed the connection between coffee drinkers and readers. I appreciated the giant marching Timmy’s coffee cups at this year’s Santa Claus Parade — where were you, by the way? – and I’m partial to the Timmy’s Ice Caps myself, but they don’t rule out books:on the contrary. I understand that the real estate on which some of those libraries stood, or stand, was very tasty, and knocking a few of them down would reap rich rewards for somebody, but that was not to be. Or not then.

Believing that literacy and access to reading is one of the foundations of a democracy, I defended the libraries on Twitter, to my then mere 20K Followers. I reposted a petition, and so many signed it that the site crashed. No stranger to scuffles, you riposted. I quote: “Good luck to Margaret Atwood. I don’t even know her, she could walk by me I wouldn’t have a clue who she is.”

(At that time I looked like this, as we can both testify.)

Well, Douglas, that dismissive putdown wasn’t very nice. It also wasn’t very adroit. I suppose you thought you were flipping the bird to one of them there elites, and that this would delight your base. But the upshot was that over 300 people printed my face off the Internet and stuck it onto their own faces and came down to a meeting at City Hall. What a nightmare that must have been for you! For months afterwards I would hear shouting and waving as I went about my little errands: “Yoohoo! Margaret! We recognize you!”

Not being stupid, you lept into damage repair mode, ambushed me from behind a house plant at an Arts funder, got the picture in the paper, and made it appear as if all was hunky dory. Wow, I thought. Fancy footwork! Dougie pulled a fast one. No flies on Dougie!

However, it was the rest of your comment that deserves further attention: “… she’s not down here, she’s not dealing with the problem. If she did, tell her to go run in the next election, and get democratically elected. And we’d be more than happy to sit down and listen to Margaret Atwood.”

Now, that’s interesting. It’s also pretty contemptuous of the very people elected lawmakers are supposed to be representing. No taxpaying citizen deserves a hearing of any kind unless they’re a member of an elected body? What kind of a Politburo is that?

You’re doing it again, Douglas. Disregarding the voices of people. It’s eleven years later, and now I look like this:

And I’m upset. And so are a lot of other people. Dougie’s pulling a fast one again – a very big fast one, a very FAST fast one! So fast that he hopes it’ll whip through without anyone noticing. But the bear has been poked, and it’s not coming unpoked any time soon.

Now I’m taking a break to go to the liquor store for a large bottle of Writers’ Tears Irish whisky, so I can prepare myself for the relaying of Hard Truths. It will hurt me more than it will hurt you, guaranteed.

It’s not too late, Douglas. You could pull another fast one and fix this before my next post, in which I will outline why so many folks are so pissed at you, and at the #Bill23 committee, and at all the power grabs, and at all the fibs that have been told.

(To be continued)

https://nationalpost.com/posted-toronto/margaret-atwood-i-wouldnt-have-a-clue-who-she-is-doug-ford/

https://nationalpost.com/posted-toronto/doug-ford-says-he-appreciates-that-atwood-doesnt-think-hes-stupid