Ontario's legislature is heading into a lengthy break, and the governing party is leaving behind a controversy that the opposition has no intention of forgetting. At the center of it is the government's purchase of a private jet for almost 29 million dollars, a deal that was quickly resold after a public outcry. As lawmakers prepared to rise, opposition parties used their final time in the chamber to keep the issue alive.
The timing of the break itself became a point of contention. The legislature is set to be away for an extended stretch, putting both the lighter jabs and the more serious opposition attacks on hold for nearly five months. Critics argued that the long absence comes at a moment when many residents are struggling to make ends meet.
Interim Liberal leader John Fraser was among the sharpest voices. The only reason we are not here is Doug Ford cannot take the heat, he said, rejecting the suggestion that the timing had anything to do with municipal elections. They cannot take the heat, he repeated, insisting that the legislature had sat during municipal election periods before.
Fraser turned the jet purchase into a piece of political theatre on the floor of the legislature. He placed a mock set of pilot's wings on the premier's desk, attached to a paper whose message on the back read that Air Ford has been grounded. The stunt was designed to keep attention fixed on the aircraft long after it had been sold off.
The premier's reaction, by Fraser's account, was blunt. He told me where I could put it, Fraser recounted. Asked where that was, he would say only that the language had been colourful, a moment that captured the tense and personal tone the dispute has taken on inside the chamber.
For the opposition, the deeper criticism is about priorities. While this premier is off jetting around on the taxpayer dime, they said, families are left worrying about how they will afford their rent and how they will feed their families. Parties, they argued, could be using this time to pass additional affordability measures rather than leaving the legislature empty for months.