Queen’s Park Today – Daily Report June 11, 2019

Quotation of the day

“You Sir, are no . P.S. You’re lucky my mum’s not active on Twitter.”

Canadian film and TV star responded to Premier Doug Ford invoking his ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ grandfather to prop up his government’s agenda.

Today at Queen’s Park

On the schedule The summer recess is on until Monday, October 28.

‘A longstanding injustice for Independent candidates:’ Hillier launches constitutional challenge to campaign finance law Independent MPP Randy Hillier has launched a Charter challenge in the hopes of creating “a ​ ​ level playing field for all those who seek public office” and to “diminish the stranglehold that political parties have over our democracy.”

Hillier believes election fundraising rules favour partisan political candidates, and the former PC — who was ejected from caucus in March — filed a Superior Court application arguing the Election Finances Act is unconstitutional.

Hillier’s application claims the law violates democratic rights of citizens by restricting how Independents can raise money to run their campaigns compared to candidates tied to political parties.

For example, an MPP can continuously raise funds through their party riding associations, but Independent members can only solicit donations during the much shorter writ period.

“This poses significant hurdles and barriers for Independents that other elected members do not face and that were enshrined in law by successive governments intent on preserving the party system,” Hillier said at a press conference at Queen’s Park Monday.

Moreover, the per-vote taxpayer subsidy Hillier would have earned based on his share of the vote in 2018 goes to the local PC riding association. (The PCs are gradually phasing out the Liberal-established per-vote subsidy as part of looser fundraising laws. It was introduced to offset tighter rules that the then-ruling Liberals were forced to bring in after a political fundraising scandal, including a ban on MPPs attending fundraisers, which the PCs have overturned.)

Hillier, who has gained a reputation as a rebel around Queen’s Park, served as a PC MPP from 2007 until Premier Doug Ford kicked him out of caucus for not being a team player. Hillier had ​ ​ claimed he was ousted by backroom operatives after he spoke out about allegations of possible illegal lobbying.

Kiefer Sutherland takes aim at Ford for Tommy Douglas comparison Canadian actor Kiefer Sutherland responded publicly to Premier Doug Ford’s government for ​ ​ ​ ​ suggesting his social democrat grandfather Tommy Douglas “would approve” of its agenda. ​ ​

“I personally find your comparison of your policies to his offensive,” Sutherland wrote in an open letter, which he tweeted Monday. ​ ​

He was referring to a recent tweet from the premier pumping up a Financial Post op-ed penned ​ ​ ​ by Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod that invoked the late former NDP ​ ​ premier — celebrated as the father of universal health care in — to prop up the current government’s fiscal policies and criticize the New Democrats in official Opposition.

“Mr Ford, Your tweet has recently come to my attention and I can only tell you that you are correct, my grandfather Tommy Douglas was fiscally responsible,” Sutherland wrote. “Contrary to your argument, it was never at the expense of social and human services to those in need.”

“So I can only ask, as the grandson of this man, for you to stop posting his picture and using his name as part of you political agenda. After all, I knew Tommy Douglas and you Sir, are no Tommy Douglas.”

Sutherland closed by suggesting his mother Shirley Douglas would also take offence. “You’re ​ ​ lucky my mum’s not active on Twitter,” he said.

The war of tweets continued with Minister MacLeod promptly firing off another salvo.

“I used to like this show — which overtook a very expensive bus shelter ad in fall of 2017 outside Queen’s Park,” she posted, sharing a photo of an ad for Sutherland’s political drama TV series Designated Survivor, in which he plays the U.S. president. ​ ​

“Alas, it’s more difficult to be a politician than pretend to be one on TV,” MacLeod wrote.

Ford’s so-called offending tweet had quoted MacLeod’s op-ed. “It’s time to make government work for the people again — not the other way around. I think Tommy Douglas would approve,” the @fordnation account posted last week.

MacLeod argued Douglas, who tabled balanced budgets throughout his 17 years as Saskatchewan premier, and the current Ford government are on the same page in the fiscal policy playbook.

“It may seem odd that a Conservative minister from Ontario would speak so highly of the former socialist premier of Saskatchewan,” MacLeod wrote. “But whatever our competing views on the role of government, Tommy Douglas recognized, as few have since, that a vision is meaningless without the means to make it a reality.”

MacLeod also threw shade at the NDP and news media for spurring “click-bait headlines” featuring “frightening language such as ‘slash,’ ‘ripping away resources’ or ‘taking the axe’ to one thing or another through ‘secret plans.’”

“I wonder what Tommy would make of his NDP descendants at the Ontario legislature. Not a day goes by when the slightest trace of fiscal discipline isn’t met with outrage from the opposition benches, accompanied by charges of ‘putting our children at risk’ and ‘abandoning the most needy,’” she wrote.

Topics of conversation

● Ontario and City Hall are back battling it out in the province’s top court over the Ford government’s controversial decision to cut the number of council eats nearly in half in the middle of the civic election. On Monday, general counsel for Ontario’s attorney general Robin Basu argued the council-cutting legislation does not impair freedom of ​ ​ expression and reiterated the government’s claim it aimed to address so-called dysfunction at City Hall. ○ The city on the other hand argues the move violated Charter rights to freedom of expression and caused an “unprecedented disruption” to citizens as it came while the municipal campaign was already underway. ○ Back-to-back hearings are being held at the Ontario Court of Appeal Monday and Tuesday. Last fall a lower court judge ruled the provincial government’s cuts to council unconstitutional, but that was stayed by a higher court, meaning Premier Doug Ford did not need to pull the trigger on his threat to use the Charter’s ​ notwithstanding clause.

● If you watched the Raptors in Game 5 of the NBA Finals last night you might have seen the Ford government’s new high-impact ad warning Ontario’s youth about the dangers of ​ ​ concussion in sport air during the commercial break. It’s part of an awareness campaign

and linked to Rowan’s Law, which was spearheaded by now-Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod when in opposition, and which is named for Rowan Stringer a ​ ​ ​ 17-year-old rugby player from who died in 2013 from second impact syndrome. ○ The province’s recently revived Trillium logo also got the Jurassic treatment. ​ ​ ○ The sporting event was also homebase for an ad from third party advocacy group Engage Canada that characterizes CPC Leader Andrew Scheer as Doug ​ ​ ​ Ford’s ‘yes man.’ ​ ​ ​

News releases Ontario Power Generation ● Ontario Power Generation is moving to new digs and consolidating its 15 offices from around the GTA, Niagara and Durham region to Clarington, which is also in Durham, next to the existing Darlington Energy site complex. The wholly-owned Crown corp’s new campus is expected to be completed in 2024. ○ “This new campus will also help OPG reduce its real estate footprint and reduce the use of commercial leased space thus reducing costs that will benefit the Ontario ratepayers,” OPG CEO Ken Hartwick said in a news release. ​ ​

Queen's Park Today is written by Sabrina Nanji, reporting from the Queen's Park press gallery.

What did you think of this Daily Report? What else would you like to see here? Email [email protected] and let us know. ​ ​

Copyright © 2018 Queen’s Park Today. It is a violation of copyright to distribute this newsletter without permission.