LILLEY: Doug Ford needs to take a time out after a rough week

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Doug Ford looks like he needs a week off, or at least a long weekend at the cottage with his phone turned off.

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This hasn’t been a good week for the Premier with policy reversals, jumping into a controversy he didn’t need to and announcing he opposed his own minister’s bill before saying he supported it.

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Answering questions from reporters on Thursday morning, Ford seemed tired, like he needed time at the lake.

It started Monday morning with a good news announcement of expanded GO Train service for Milton, where the announcement was made and where a by-election is currently underway. The announcement included more GO Train trips to Kitchener and making every other train on the UP Express from Union Station to Pearson Airport an express.

The plan was that commuters who wanted to use the Bloor or Weston stops currently serviced by UP Express could take the more frequent Go Train, which runs on the same line and services the same stops. But … some people complained, they called the local City Councillor, they called the local MPP – Ford’s Nephew Michael – and by late Tuesday afternoon the UP Express decision was being walked back.

A few angry phone calls and an online petition and Ford was backing up his new policy faster than a runaway train.

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On Wednesday night, after going a whole day without a policy reversal, Ford and his team decided to reverse themselves on the advice given to the PC Caucus and brought Middle East politics into Ontario politics. It’s ironic that this happened because Ford and his team had just spent time telling the PC caucus, in less than gentle terms, that he did not want them speaking or posting to social media about anything related to the war between Israel and Hamas until after the May 2 byelection in Milton.

The next day, Ford not only commented on a ruling from Ted Arnott, speaker of the Ontario Legislature, that wearing a keffiyeh was against the rules, he insisted that Arnott act like the Premier and reverse himself.

The keffiyeh isn’t something people were wearing in the Ontario Legislature before the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas and even if someone tried, it would have been against the rules.

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There are longstanding rules in Canada’s parliamentary system that dictate what can be worn and anything deemed being political or supportive of a cause is forbidden unless permission is sought and granted. Every spring, MPPs representing cities or towns with an OHL team enjoying a playoff run need to ask permission to wear something supporting their local team in the legislature.

Even something as benign as wearing a daffodil lapel pin for the Canadian Cancer Society cannot happen with permission being sought and granted.

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If hockey and cancer are too political, what do you think the rules would say about wearing a keffiyeh in solidarity with the Palestinian people? It is clearly a political act and against the rules.

Speaker Arnott didn’t ban the keffiyeh, he upheld longstanding rules and Ford, along with the two opposition leaders, want that changed because of the large Muslim vote at stake in the Milton byelection. We shouldn’t be changing longstanding rules just because politicians want to pander for votes, which is exactly what each of them are doing.

Ford’s final misstep this week, at least so far, was when he was asked a very clear question about Bill 166. A group of academics, some with a history of anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian activism, had complained that this bill was an infringement on academic independence.

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This bill calls for post-secondary institutions to have anti-racism, anti-Islamophobia and anti-Semitic policies in place. There is no way these academics would be protesting this legislation if it didn’t include anti-Semitism.

When asked about the bill, Ford said he didn’t think it was the way to go and that universities should govern themselves and ministers should use other tools. It was a government bill he was speaking against, a bill brought forward by his minister, and he was speaking against it.

Hours later, Ford’s office “clarified” that he was still in support of the bill.

Anyone can have a bad week, Ford has had a particularly bad one.

Doug, it’s time to go to the cottage and unplug for a while.

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