Doug Ford has a grudge against Toronto and he needs to let it go

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is a man with a few simple priorities and a long grudge memory. He has a big thing about energy (renewables bad, paying for top-notch executive oversight bad), and he has a big thing about beer (BEER GOOD! the cheaper and the more easily available the better). But, most of all, he has thing about Toronto.

Mr. Ford never really got over being soundly beaten at the polls for mayor of Toronto, and he is trying his level best to act as the mayor of Toronto even though he is actually supposed to be the premier of Ontario.

One of his very first acts in power was to blatantly interfere with the Toronto municipal elections, which were at that time well under way, slashing the number of councillors in half, and making the remaining councillors work twice as hard for twice the number of constituents. Then, he tried to assume provincial control of Toronto's subway system, which is clearly a municipal concern and is completely integrated into the rest of the city transit system, although thus far he has been stymied in his ambitions in that respect. Then, he threw a spanner into Toronto's mass transit development plan which, after years of arguing and inactivity, was finally starting to come together and reaching the stage where something practical could be achieved (in its place, he offered a half-baked, back-of-a-napkin plan of his own). And now, his latest incursion into Toronto politics is to interfere with the city's urban planning regime in order to allow more tall buildings along subway lines, perhaps a laudable attempt at increasing urban residential concentrations but, hey, that's quite clearly a city responsibility and there is a whole city department that does nothing else but look at such things.

So, why all this blatant interference in municipal politics. Well, Toronto is obviously the province's largest city and the engine that keeps the rest of it running. But, more importantly, he holds a grudge against the city for jilting him. It's like he really still wants to be mayor of Toronto, and is only doing the job of premier as a way of getting to pull at least some of Toronto's strings. Basically, he holds a grudge against those "urban elites" that foiled his plans to run the city. It's a kind of psychological condition, and it's really not healthy. He needs to let go and let Toronto get on with running itself, to allow the councillors who were elected to run it do just that. His interference is not warranted and it's not welcome.