By Pepper Parr
August 16th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
The free burgers were said to be quite good.
The crowd at the most recent Ford Fest; that occasion when the Ford Nation shows up for the free hamburgers, which we are told were pretty good.
The crowd was not bad – the weather would have had an impact. It did rain before it ended.
There were demonstrators but they were kept far enough away to ensure that they didn’t have an impact.
Premier Doug Ford and his government.
The Premier spoke for 20, used a Teleprompter. The country’s longest serving Mayor, Gord Krantz spoke as well. Gord didn’t need a Telepromter
If there were any RCMP operatives in the crowd they weren’t wearing their uniforms.
The Premier talk about all the good stuff he was doing. The number of “good” jobs he created and the healthy economy.
The suggestion that Ford, who has a 31% rating as a Premier and an RCMP investigation taking place – it should be obvious that this is not the time to go to the people and ask to be re-elected.
No mention of the Highway 413 plans; not even a whisper about the Greenbelt scandal.
Todd Smith: Former Minister of Education who was appointed June 6th, 2024 bailed out on August 16th, 2024
Jill Dunlop – newest Minister of Education
He thanked Todd Smith, the Cabinet Minister who bailed out earlier in the day.
Odd for a Member of Cabinet to announce his plans to resign the morning of the day the Premier is hold his premier public event. From an optics point of view it was terrible – But the Premier, being the affable guy he is – said that he loved Todd from the bottom of his heart.
Todd Smith was made Minister of Education June 6th, decided it wasn’t for him and bailed out on short notice as well.
For a loyal Cabinet Minister to pull stunt like that – one has to wonder. The resignation was immediate – which means a by-election within six months. Quinte is pretty solid Tory country so they should manage to hold it
Jill Dunlop is the newest Minister of Education; she has a steep learning curve ahead of her.
Several week before announcing the resignation Smith and his wife visited the Joshua tree in Colorado – maybe that influenced his decisions.
The Ford Fest took place at the Country Heritage Park in Milton
The Joshua National Park is where two distinct desert ecosystems, the Mojave and the Colorado, come together in Joshua Tree National Park. There’s a story that when Mormon immigrants travelled across the Colorado River in the 19th century, they saw the outstretched branches of the Joshua tree and believed they were guiding them through the desert, similarly to Joshua being a guide in the Bible. Historical records suggest that this isn’t accurate.
