Premier Doug Ford is sorry. Sorry, he says, for his government’s panicked reaction to the legitimately frightening modelling it was presented with last week. It went too far because the cabinet moved too fast, he says, and he sincerely apologizes. The opposition at Queen’s Park — the New Democratic, Liberal, and Green MPPs — are as one in their dismissal of Ford’s apology, and it’s not clear whether the premier’s attempt to mollify his critics will actually help end the political crisis the government has walked itself into.
Perhaps the second-most damning thing anyone can say about this government is that it seems to be belatedly, timidly, and once again by half-measures moving toward some kind of paid-sick-leave policy for workers who are exposed to COVID-19 — but not because of the public-health crisis the province is in, or else it would have moved months ago. Instead, workers might get the barest of respites because of the political crisis Ford personally finds himself in.