Conservative politicians decry government spending and abhor government debt. Unless conservative governments are doing the spending and piling up the debt.
That’s it.
That’s the post.
In the bullshit wall that was Doug Ford’s debate performances over the long weekend, a constant refrain was that the other three party leaders didn’t understand a strong economy, they’d just be all tax, tax, tax and spend, spend, spend. Sure. OK. Whatever. 
Meanwhile, Ford attempted to rebuff the criticisms lobbed in from his opponents over the degraded state of public services like the education and healthcare systems during his six+ years in power by declaring in Trumpian hyperbole that ‘No government in the history of [fill in the blank here] has spent more…’ yaddie, yaddie citing some big number, usually in the billions. A decontextualized number that always failed to answer the most obvious follow up question: Why does Ontario continue to have the lowest per capita spending on [fill in the blank here]? On pretty much everything. The lowest per capita spending on healthcare. The lowest per capita spending per student.
Turns out, like every hypocritical conservative politician, Doug Ford does love to spend government money, just not on the kind of quotidian stuff that actually helps people. It’s all too granular, not flashy enough. Doug Ford loves his flashy announcements on Big Projects that garner a lot of press and, I’m sure, entirely coincidental, lavishes money on his major political donors. Doug Ford especially loves breaking ground on stuff, wearing a safety vest and hard hat. It’s all better photo op-y than actually trying to fix the broken ‘soft’ services like education and healthcare, homelessness and a housing shortage.
Instead, we’re getting new waterfront private spas, subways, subways, subways, lots of new highways, a new highway tunnel.
Not all of which is entirely superfluous. But all are grand posturing (not to mention huge transfers of public money into private pockets) while ignoring the increasing inadequacies of the day-to-day things that people depend on to make their lives better.
Don’t believe me?
Ask the right wing ideologues over at the Fraser Institute.
Through the roof!
Now, unlike the Fraser Institute, I don’t lose my shit over government debt.
If, say, every resident of Ontario had easy access to a family doctor and a nearby emergency department that was open 24/7. If every Ontario student was properly funded, childcare through to postsecondary school, attending well-maintained schools and institutions, with manageable class sizes and teachers not having to provide out-of-pocket books and educational supplies. If there was nobody living rough on the streets, unhoused because of a worsening housing shortage. If everyone suffering from a mental health crisis or addiction problems was being humanely treated and cared for.
That kind of debt I can get behind.
But that’s not the Ontario we’re living in, is it.
That’s not Doug Ford’s Ontario.
Doug Ford’s Ontario is awash in debt because it’s spending money hand over fist to enrich an infinitesimally small fraction of the population who look an awful lot like those who first foisted him into power. Doug Ford’s Ontario is awash in debt because he’s blown a hole in the province’s revenue stream by tossing out crumbs to the rest of us, cutting the gas tax it used to collect, highway tolls, license plate stickers. 
Like every other conservative politician railing about government spending and debt, and proclaiming only they understand what it takes to build and run a Strong Economy, Doug Ford’s performance is a mirage. During his more than six and a half years as premier, he’s beggared too many of us, enriched too few, and left the province vulnerable to whatever shitstorm that’s gathering on the horizon to our south. Had Doug Ford really wanted to Protect Ontario, he would’ve started back in June 2018.