Ford takes heat over Horwath comments Ontario Premier Doug Ford is drawing criticism over remarks made towards NDP leader Andrea Horwath during an exchange regarding the government’s plan to reopen the province. The debate broke out between Ford and Horwath Wednesday afternoon, during Question Period in Queen’s Park.
During a conversation about reopening plans in Ontario, Horwath said it was disturbing to see how quickly the government was rushing to reopen the province, and it was surprising that his decision was considered the best by the government. “When will the premier start listening to hospitals, doctors, their specialists and try to prevent the province from going to the third wave and lockdown?” Horwath said, prompting Ford to state that his government had listened to and accepted the advice of the Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. David Williams, since the beginning of the epidemic.
Ford went on to say that he never made arbitrary decisions. He then addressed Horwath, saying that instead of “sitting there and criticizing from day one, why don’t you come and join us to the people of Ontario.” Ford would then go on to state that listening to Horwath was like “listening to nails on a chalkboard listening to you.”
Horwath then went on to say how far the premier could go when the opposition asked a question and Ford did not respond. Horwath called on Ford to retract his remarks, saying that “every woman in Ontario deserves an apology” for his comments. “There’s no way that the premier of Ontario should be using those kinds of sexist terms… I’m not going to be dissuaded from doing my job and fighting for Ontarians, and that’s what I would rather be doing than having to deal with Mr. Ford’s comments.
We all have differing opinions all the time and that is supposed to be the place where we have those debates and if Mr. Ford doesn’t like hearing what I have to say, then then he’s in the wrong position.” Mike Serener, leader of the Green Party of Ontario, also commented that Ford should immediately apologize, calling the comments “unacceptable,” while Liberal leader Steven Del Duca said that Ford’s comments were “misogynist rhetoric,” and called on Ford to retract his comments immediately
