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Premier Doug Ford's Ontario

Doug Ford’s Office Launches Vulgar, Sexually Demeaning Attack on Journalist​


Cody Welton, Doug Ford's Deputy Chief of Staff, fired off a vulgar series of personal attacks against a journalist late on a Friday night

From link.

A top staffer in the Office of Ontario Premier Doug Ford has taken an unusual approach to media relations following a story about conflicts of interest in the Premier’s Office.

Cody Welton, Doug Ford’s Deputy Chief of Staff, publicly suggested the journalist who broke the story is a virgin — more specifically, a “cave dweller” who “looks like he’s never had the physical embrace from a partner.”

On Friday, Ford faced criticism after fielding soft-ball questions during a press conference from someone who, it later turned out, was a former federal Conservative candidate.
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https://twitter.com/x/status/1375570780688367618

Ford personally called upon the former Conservative candidate to ask the question, something the President of the Ontario Press Gallery later characterized as an “abuse” of how the process should work.

Ford’s Office spent the better part of the evening lobbing personal attacks against journalists who questioned why a former Conservative candidate was able to pose softball questions at a Ford press conference.

Several hours later, Canadaland reported that Toronto Sun columnist Brian Lilley, himself an “active member” of the Queen’s Park press gallery, currently lives with Ford’s press secretary — something not previously disclosed to Sun readers.
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https://twitter.com/x/status/1375628912059940867

Lilley, the article noted, had previously launched personal attacks against journalists for being in relationships with non-partisan public servants.

Enter Cody Welton, Ford’s $172,000 per year Deputy Chief of Staff, who waded into the conversation on Twitter late Friday night.

In response to the story, Ford’s Deputy Chief of Staff did not dispute any of the facts reported by Canadaland, but instead issued a personal attack aimed at the virility of Jonathan Goldsbie, the journalist who first broke the story:
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https://twitter.com/x/status/1375631377723441157

Welton’s LinkedIn account indicates he is “currently working in the office of Premier Doug Ford as Deputy Chief of Staff,” and is trusted to handle highly sensitive files like “issues management, media relations, and legislative affairs.”

Welton also lists himself as a member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.

Welton did not respond to multiple requests for comment from PressProgress about his vulgar, sexually demeaning tweets.

In subsequent tweets, Welton reiterated “I stand by my comments” and called the Canadaland journalist a “disgusting human being.” ...
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W. K. Lis said:
Copied and paste from behind the paywall...


‘We will never stop’: Ford government approves 6 new zoning orders as backlash grows​

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Looks like at least one is going down in flames. The Flato develop in Markham is directly under the main departure path of the new Pickering Airport. Despite heavy pressure from a number of lobbying groups they have been unsuccessful in getting the feds to cancel the new utility airport. ( BTW utility and industrial aviation is above pre-pandemic levels )

pickeringairport.org

Proposed Markham Development Ignores the Future Pickering Airport? - Friends of Pickering Airport

Print 🖨 PDF 📄 eBook 📱By Ted Nickerson There have been articles recently in the Toronto Star (February 18 and 26, 2021) reporting on a residential development proposal for north Markham. The City of Markham had asked the province to issue a Minister’s Zoning Order (MZO) to permit the development...
pickeringairport.org pickeringairport.org
 
36FJGBDYUFEYHFPSNMAJIMKB5Y.jpg

From link.
 
Doug Ford For The People Corporations


Friends with benefits? An inside look at the money, power and influence behind the Ford government’s push to build Highway 413​

The premier’s office says the 413 would serve a growing population and relieve pressure on existing highways. Ontario has approved controversial MZOs to help fast-track development on lands owned by some of these major developers.

From link.



Eight of Ontario’s most powerful land developers own thousands of acres of prime real estate near the proposed route of the controversial Highway 413, a Torstar/National Observer investigation has found.

Four of the developers are connected to Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government through party officials and former Tory politicians now acting as registered lobbyists.

If built, the road will raze 2,000 acres of farmland, cut across 85 waterways and pave nearly 400 acres of protected Greenbelt land in Vaughan. It would also disrupt 220 wetlands and the habitats of 10 species-at-risk, according to the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority.

One developer, John Di Poce, employed the head of the Ontario PC party’s fundraising arm for several years and three other developers employ the chair of Caroline Mulroney’s 2018 PC leadership campaign as a government lobbyist. Mulroney is now Ontario’s transportation minister and will play a key role in future decisions about the 413 highway.

Another of the developers, Michael DeGasperis, hosted Ford and PC MPP Stephen Lecce in a private luxury suite at the BB&T Center in Miami to watch a Florida Panthers’ NHL game in December 2018. In a statement, spokespeople for Ford and Lecce said both politicians paid for their own tickets to the game and no government business was discussed.

That was shortly after the Ford government had resurrected the proposed 413 highway. The previous Liberal government had shelved the project in 2018 as concerns about urban sprawl and its impact on the environment grew.

The provincial government has handed down extraordinary directives in at least three instances since April 2020 to help fast-track development on lands owned by some of these major developers around the proposed highway.

In the past year, Ford’s government has signed controversial minister’s zoning orders (MZO) for two properties in Vaughan near Highway 400 close to the terminus of the 413’s route and a parcel of land in Caledon near a proposed interchange.

Most of the developers in the group are also prolific PC donors, contributing at least $813,000 to support the party since 2014.

The group of developers own 39 properties covering 3,300 acres that are conservatively valued at nearly half a billion dollars, according to land registry documents. The value of those lands could rise dramatically if the highway is built and residential, commercial and industrial development is allowed to spread along the route.
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Who owns land around the proposed highway?​


A Torstar/National Observer investigation found 39 large properties associated with major developers near the proposed route of Highway 413.

The developers include the Cortellucci, DeGasperis, Guglietti and De Meneghi families, John Di Poce, Benny Marotta, Argo Development and Fieldgate Homes.

The proposed 60-kilometre route of the 413 highway would extend northeast from Highway 401 near Milton looping around the built-up edges of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) to Highway 400 north of Vaughan. It would pass through parts of Greenbelt land just south of the Oak Ridges Moraine, a protected environmentally sensitive area.

One study commissioned by the previous Liberal government estimated the proposed highway would save drivers a mere 30 to 60 seconds of driving time. The Ministry of Transportation contends that it would save drivers 30 minutes.

In an emailed statement on behalf of Ford, Mulroney and the transportation ministry, the premier’s spokesperson said the 413 highway is needed because “even with significant investments in transit, the major highways in York and Peel regions are all forecasted to be operating over capacity by 2031.”

“There is a very strong case for moving forward with this project when considering the forecasted population growth this region will experience in the coming years,” said Ivana Yelich, the premier’s spokesperson.

The highway, also known as the GTA West Corridor, is under increasing criticism from residents, environmental groups and, now, local governments who are questioning the need for a new road and a price tag estimated to be anywhere from $6 billion to $10 billion.
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On Humber Station Road, just south of Bolton, the Muia family are among those waiting and worrying about the fate of the highway. The 413 hangs over them like a shadow, figuratively for now but perhaps literally some day.

The highway would pass right over the roof of the family house at the location of what will be the Humber Station interchange. Their two-acre property will become pavement and concrete, bridges and ramps.

Vince Muia is 86 and he wasn’t planning on going anywhere. “I hoped to pass away at my property,” he said.

When the highway was first conceived some two decades ago, it was meant to be part of a bypass that extended all the way to Fort Erie. Now, only the 60-km stretch from Milton to Vaughan remains.

The environmental concerns that have dominated discussion around the highway – rallying together citizens from across the GTA – are not new. The detrimental impacts to the GTA’s farmland, waterways and Greenbelt have been discussed for the past two decades – and that was, in part, why the project was shelved by the Liberals.

When the Progressive Conservatives revived the project late in 2018, they also pledged to review the environmental assessment (EA) for the highway, allowing for a more “streamlined process for assessing potential environmental impacts.” This would allow for early works along the highway route such as new bridge construction or expansion to begin before the completion of the EA, expected in 2022.

“The previous Liberal government prematurely cancelled the environmental assessment on the GTA West Corridor, never released the lands, and, as a result, left hundreds of landowners in limbo for years without any plan to alleviate congestion in the Greater Toronto Area,” Yelich said.

“Our government is doing the due diligence that was never done on this project by following through with the Environmental Assessment process, which is among the most stringent assessment processes in the country, to determine if the GTA West Corridor is a viable project for York, Peel and Halton regions,” Yelich added. “We are fully committed to the consultation process.”

Ontario’s NDP and Liberal leaders are both pledging to kill the 413 highway, saying it’s costly, harmful and unnecessary.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said Ford is “benefiting his developer buddies who in turn end up filling the coffers” of the PC party while Liberal Leader Steve Del Duca said the premier is “focused exclusively on rewarding billionaire Conservative donors.”
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Developers' ties to the PC party​


A Torstar/National Observer investigation tracked the connections of some of Ontario's most powerful land developers to Doug Ford's PC government.

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Continued at link.
 
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What I find amusing (albeit in a black-humour way) is how when it comes to this Ford/Trump kind of tinpot right-populism, it doesn't even seem to configure in their heads as "corruption"; more like little boys who are so proud to know all of these big shots and have them on hand. Like the macro-world is nothing more than a fantasy projection of their own micro-world. Not so much that they're ethically bankrupt; more that they chose to never grow up and learn what "ethics" was all about...
 
Jonny5 said:
I looked back a few pages and didn't see this. Was it covered that Toronto Sun columnist Brian Lilley, who is still assigned to actively cover Queen's Park for the paper, is living with and presumably in a relationship with Doug Ford's Press Secretary?


www.canadaland.com

The Columnist Who Covers Doug Ford for the Toronto Sun Lives with Doug Ford’s Press Secretary

Brian Lilley has been involved with Ivana Yelich since at least 2019
www.canadaland.com www.canadaland.com
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It strikes me that the broader media is well aware of this relationship, yet doesn't report it at all.

That's not the only intimate relationship that probably deserves more public scrutiny.

I don't care about people's sex lives/marriages. I do care about conflicts of interest, people who owe people; and people who might be subject to blackmail.
 
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American influence plus a merger of the PC and Reform parties federally.

Bob Rae and prior politicians had smarts. Then in and around 1993 we had a major recession which lead to Rae Days while at the same time the Reform Party was seeing a surge. The surge of the Reform Party led to increased support for conservatism across Canada and the eventual merger with the PC's.

In 1995 after Bob Rae nearly tanked the province, Mike Harris took over and made things worse via the Common Sense Revolution. The Common Sense Revolution then lead to the Liberals picking up the pieces... then after years of spending we got Doug Ford.
 
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Yes but you need to understand something. Ontario politics is cyclical switching between the PC and Liberal parties.

The only major party that will never get elected again in Ontario is the NDP and for good reason. They cannot seem to find a decent leader that is likeable. I am a former NDP member and liked Howard Hampton. I was friends with Jack to the point where we had a beer together after the Labour Day Parade.

The NDP has a grassroots mentality that leads them to finding lackluster candidates for leader. Andrea Horwath likes to hear herself talk but I would not trust her as Premier.

When I tried to speak out about her airheaded leadership I was ostracized by the party for not drinking the kool-aid.

They need to focus less on the earthy, hippy, working class folks and more on what actually matters.
 
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Richard White said:
American influence plus a merger of the PC and Reform parties federally.

Bob Rae and prior politicians had smarts. Then in and around 1993 we had a major recession which lead to Rae Days while at the same time the Reform Party was seeing a surge. The surge of the Reform Party led to increased support for conservatism across Canada and the eventual merger with the PC's.

In 1995 after Bob Rae nearly tanked the province, Mike Harris took over and made things worse via the Common Sense Revolution. The Common Sense Revolution then lead to the Liberals picking up the pieces... then after years of spending we got Doug Ford.
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That's a somewhat simplistic view of things (and one can argue about some of your statements) but (though I certainly do not like Mr Ford or his cronies, I think it is par for the course that all political leaders have fervent fans and equally fervent enemies and these are based on both their perceived personality plus their policies and competence. In the last few decades, both Ontario and Canada have seen political parties move into and out of power and that is a healthy thing. Of course, we (plus those in US and UK and...) have MANY people who would PROBASBLY make better leaders for our provinces/countries but being a politician is not something many people actually want to do. Apart from the drudgery of running in elections, one has to create coalitions and one loses a real 'private life' - and all your previous actions are under a microscope. . As is clearly being seen now, there are almost always conflicting priorities (currently, "the economy" and 'health') and striking the correct balance between them is extremely difficult. (It also changes as situations (or information) changes so one needs to be constantly re-evaluating one's choices and 'selling' the revised direction.) People tend to put political leaders on pedestals and they often cannot live up to the almost impossible expectations.
 
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