The Ford Government's first budget is out. They call it "Protecting What Matters Most." We spend eight hours locked in a room with bureaucrats, reporters and cheap pizza to find out what exactly does matter most to Doug, once you put a dollar sign on it.
With electricity demand set to rise and Pickering’s nuclear plant set to close, Doug Ford’s government is now scrambling to keep the province’s lights on.
The province has got a housing crisis, and the only prescription is… more mayoral powers?? Allison and Jonathan probe the comically flimsy pretense under which Doug Ford has fundamentally, if casually, reshaped how Ontario’s two largest cities are governed. Because what doesn’t quite kill Toronto and Ottawa, apparently just makes their mayors stronger.
Allison and Jonathan talk with Jacobin’s Luke Savage about why the NDP so often provokes indifference, while its American and British counterparts sometimes seem poised to spark revolution. Might a new leader succeed where Andrea Horwath did not?
Plus: The Premier’s new cabinet offers unprecedented representation by members of the Ford family. Because it’s 2022.