Often in education, dealing with discipline problems, we avoid the WHY question and concentrate instead on WHAT did you do? It’s the Barbara Coloroso school of classroom management. And it worked.
The WHY question leads to, “My father drinks,” or “My mother beats me.” None of that solves the behaviour problem. The WHAT is simple: “I hit Jasmean.” If we had asked WHY did you hit Jasmean, we could have had a myriad of answers. “Is it acceptable to hit someone else in a discussion?” “No.” “How will you avoid this the next time you and Jasmean have a disagreement?” “We will talk it out or I will come to see you.”
Problem solving 101. It’s easy in the classroom with fresh minds. It’s not the same in civics with ambitious politicians. If you need to track down the root of an issue, you have to go to the WHY first. Why is Doug Ford pushing a housing crisis? Why are all of his developer friends supporting this push to unaffordable housing? Why was Bill 3 attached to cash incentives for municipalities to build more homes? Follow the money trail.
This isn’t just a Caledon issue. This is a southern Ontario issue. Wherever there is liveable real estate available someone is going to make a bundle. Unless you get kicked out of messing with Niagara-on-the-Lake, So, why re-route the 413 extension? WHY? Who stands to benefit from housing and close to smooth transportation in those areas? No way it could be the the influential developers who flock to Ford’s fundraisers? From one hand to the other.
This issue isn’t about our little Mayor. This issue is about the Ford’s government’s passing of Bills that allowed this to happen. From Bill 3 onward there’s the “WHY” and then we can get to the WHAT. What do we do about a system that is so corrupted in self aggrandizing greed that it destroys communities and ecosystems.
None of the developers involved are to be condemned. Most are hard working individuals who have struggled through immigration, from construction to development, and have built financial empires. They all give back generously from their profits to local groups, Especially at Doug Ford events. And they put their names on medical facilities and just so we don’t forget how caring they are. I would have preferred The Vaughan General Hospital, but there’s no community adulation to my family’s name in that.
If you want to know the WHAT is happening here, you have to trace the WHY. Follow the money trail. Billions are about to be made on the reroute of the 413, and our abandoned Science Centre is a sign of things to come. Swan Lake is our a canary in a developer’s coal mine.
Yes indeed, It’s like Leonard Cohen sings, “Everybody knows!”
The way I see it. 
Hey skid. Good questions and I agree that one has to look upstream to Ford’s agenda. I would however not be quite so quick to let our our little Mayor off the hook. People with integrity stick to their words – words matter. All along the way from campaigning to governing, are decision points. Groves chose to take on Strong Mayors Power. Groves chose to cave to external pressures to set in motion the 12 zoning bylaws. Groves chose to advance the filling of a 44-acre lake to help out a “prominent developer”. Those were all within her control. She and Doug are using the same playbook. It’s doesn’t have to be this way.
Agreed. Equally true though that our little puppet dances to the strings pulled by Doug and the Developers. Follow the yellow brick road all the way from Erin to Milton. Who do you think pulled the strings to get the 413 rerouted? Which developers stand to gain by having the new route run by their properties. Love of money is the root of all evil, and these DD puppeteers love money. Sometimes the choice comes from being told: “Give us what we want or we’ll cut your strings little puppet.”