SNOWSTORMS!

Welcome to a Canadian November in 2022 and it's TWO giant snowstorms!

Whoa! Wait a minute there, Stevie Boy, there's only one storm battering Ontario right now! 

I beg to differ, my dear friend. 

ONE storm is the granddaddy of them all, hammering western NY state first, then creeping its way northeastward into southern Ontario, blanketing all in its wake under record setting snowfall. Some of the areas surrounding Buffalo, NY, have reported almost 1.75 m (5+ feet) thus far with more expected before the weekend plays out. The squalls reached us here in Wasaga overnight, making for white out conditions when I arose at 6:30 am, and they don't appear to have any threat of lightening over the next little while.

The OTHER storm is the informational white out that Ford Nation is battering Ontario's citizen's consciousness through a sheer crap-storm of misinformation and outright lies that are soapboxed daily, mostly thanks to jabbering of the Minister for Education, the right honourable (??) Stephen Lecce. Yes, I'm still technically employed by that same education system and should choose keep my yap shut, but how can one sit idle when Ford et al use yours and my tax dollars to fuel such an outrageous campaign of destruction by actively creating strife through the vilification of education workers, blatantly lying about their complicency in the battle. The screen shot for one of Lecce's latest tweets would like voters to believe that in 33 years, Ontario's students have missed almost 12 years of school due to strikes. 

And he's the supreme leader of Ontario's math curriculum?

I can't tell the general public how to think, but I am not at all prepared to acknowledge that Lecce wishes kids back in class if he's trying to sway opinion using such a ludicrous claim. It staggers the imagination that he and his PR team thought that one would slide through!

Let's be clear about storm ONE. This baby is easily in the top 10, if not top 5, of winter storms to hit the western NY area, and with you and I caught square in its crosshairs, it may just make the top 5 for these parts. While the pundits claim that my part of the world ... Georgian Bay area ... will most likely not get slammed like Orchard Park, just south of Buffalo, but the generated chaos will be significant enough. According to CBC, "New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called in the National Guard, deploying about 150 members to help with snow removal and resident needs in the hardest-hit parts of Erie County. At a news conference on Saturday afternoon, Hochul said she would sign a request for a federal emergency declaration to seek reimbursements for expenses on storm response." 

Have it told you lately how much I dislike the snow?

Let's also be clear about storm TWO. Ford's cronies would have Ontario think that CUPE education workers are the bottom-of-the-barrel, lazy, entitled cretins that can't resist feeding off the public tete, and they're banking on public opinion being based on the mass media and not on the collective grey matter. If the events of last week were not enough to raise concern ... the whole NON-bargaining process kaput because you could ram legislature through using a foot-to-the-throat suppression of rights and freedoms ... then the consistent attempt to throw a white-out of confusion across our collective retinas via misinformational red-herring statistics should raise the alarm bells. Ford Nation has already approved $330+ million handout to parents prior to the political protest of November 11th to use as they see fit to offset the impacts of the pandemic, then they announce millions more for, "free childcare to eligible healthcare workers & childcare workers for the duration of any work stoppage." The combination of those two "bribes" alone would offset all requested increases CUPE has made. Kudos to CUPE and OPSEU for banding together and forcing the PCs to eat crow on their Draconian measures.

Look, let's call "a spade, a spade". I admit I am completely biased. When it comes to the education system, if you had invested over 30 years in an altruistic effort to prepare the next generations to look after us when we're no longer able, you'd likely have a soft spot for it too. 

Do I think that Ford's PCs are completely wrong? 

Not in the least. 

Do I think that they have stepped completely across the line of decorum? 

Absolutely so! 

Do I think the PCs and CUPE need to meet in the middle so disruption to schools is minimized. 

100% YES! 

Do I think that our EAs, office staff, custodians, etc deserve to be acknowledged for their commitment and vital contribution to Ontario's students? 

1000% YES YES YES!

I'm willing to help shoulder the added financial load, for sure, but there's tens of billions inequities and injustices in uncollected monies from business taxation, mismanaged accounting, and misguided grants that would make treating these classroom super heroes with the much deserved respect they are due an absolute reality. 

And, at the risk of gaslighting, CUPE is only step one of multiple negotiations that Ford/Lecce have to solve over the coming months.

Yep, TWO massive storms!

The good news is that one of them won't last much more that a day or two more.