IDEAS
DOUG FORD AND HIS CONSERVATIVE GOVERNMENT:
CONSULTING BUT NOT LISTENING
BY FEDERICO CARVAJAL T he day shuffled his
after Doug Ford cabinet,
Never mind that the Progressive Con- the
outgoing Minister of Edu- cation posted a farewell message on her twitter ac- count, in part touting the
“largest consultation” in the Ministry of Education’s history. What followed was, per- haps predictably, a barrage of responses from parents, teachers and other educators deliver- ing a dose of reality as only social media can. People who have been paying attention to the damage the Conservative government has imposed on public education this past year pointed out the significant distance between the Minister’s rhetoric and reality. In a post-truth era, where politics is dom-
inated by one-line slogans and superlatives, the Ford government has sought to justify its austerity agenda by telling Ontarians it is what “the people” want. With that phrase, repeated on every media release, the govern- ment has sought to pass its drastic changes to public programs as simply delivering what people have asked for.
8 ETFO VOICE | FALL 2019
servatives under Doug Ford ran on vir- tually no platform, or the fact that since taking office the government’s cuts have been met with widespread opposition and, in some cases, they were forced to retreat, amend or withdraw. Over the past year, we have seen an un-
precedented number of public consulta- tions in the education sector. They asked the public to tell them whether cell phones have a place in the classroom, whether children should be taught about consent and whether public sector employees should have their compensation frozen. There is nothing wrong with a govern-
ment consulting the public; the problem arises when those consultations are nothing more than window dressing. The Ford gov- ernment has indeed engaged in massive pub- lic consultations. What it hasn’t done is listen to the tens of thousands of Ontarians who have expressed concern, disagreement and opposition to the government’s plans. It has disregarded the voices of “the people” it pur-
ports to represent, along with the important voices of researchers and experts in the field. Consultations are this government’s way
of justifying a legislative agenda that is not based on an election platform or a plan ar- ticulated in public discourse.
EDUCATION CONSULTATIONS
In the fall of 2018, the government launched its first round of education consultations. The consultations sough feedback primar- ily from parents, although eventually it was broadened to include stakeholders and the public, on a range of topics. The govern- ment asked for input on how to improve student performance in STEM, how to bet- ter prepare students for the skilled trades and how to include coding in the curricu- lum. It sought feedback on improving stan- dardized testing, ensuring students learn additional life skills including financial lit- eracy and managing cell phone use in the classroom. Finally, the government asked what parents wanted to see in a new health and physical education curriculum and
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