Ford’s gimmicky new bills sign he’s focused on Bonnie Crombie
Ford is putting forward legislation to make Crombie’s life difficult, not to make yours better
I didn’t think the Ford government would get to the point of passing gimmicky legislation so quickly, but here we are.
Often, governments pass legislation that mean nothing but might excite part of their base or generate positive headlines when they are on their way out.
In the last week, the Ford PCs have promised to introduce two bills to ban future governments from taking specific actions, which means they are bills that mean absolutely nothing.
Well, meaningless except for trying to make things difficult politically for their new opponent, Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie.
First, Ford took great joy in standing at a Pioneer gas station in Mississauga and announcing that any future government would need to have a referendum to impose a provincial carbon tax.
Now, Ford is promising to ban all future Ontario governments from bringing in new toll roads – the 407 will, of course, be exempt.
One of the central tenets of our Westminster Parliamentary system is that no current government can bind the hands of a future government.
You can’t pass a law telling a future government, in a future parliament, how they must act. The government of the day can simply ignore it and pass a new law which will, of course, take precedence over the existing law.
This is why, in reality, bills requiring a balanced budget, or a fixed election date, are meaningless.
