It's been about a month since the invoices scandal broke and then sunk, seemingly without a ripple, after a couple of days' worth of blathering in the regular news cycle. Looking back, I have to say this surprised me; I honestly thought that episode had the potential to be hugely damaging to the Ontario Cons in general, and (possibly) to a certain fatass in particular. And right before a federal election, no less. Maybe that explains why it quietly went away, and so quickly. And maybe it was wishful thinking on my part to assume it would be a much bigger deal than it apparently turned out to be...but I dunno.
A major political party using and abusing its own voting base is hardly a new or unusual concept...but I've never heard of one trying to rip off its own supporters in such a blatant, brazen, open fashion before. This may well be a first in modern world history. And the amounts of money the Cons were allegedly trying to extort from their own people weren't exactly peanuts. It would have been bad enough if they'd been trying to snatch comparatively modest sums like, say, 50 bucks per person, but when you get into the $300 and up range? These are some extremely tough times we're living through, and that kind of cash can make all the difference for households that aren't doing that well. Add in the whole "preying-on-the-elderly" angle that comes into play here with the Cons' base, and you have an extra layer of sleaze on top of a grift that was ugly enough to begin with.
And who, ultimately, is to blame? Someone in Ford's office had to give the go-ahead for this nasty little scheme to be set into motion, and it positively reeks of the small-time criminality that's clung to Ford ever since his days as a drug dealer. Ah, well. Maybe there'll be further developments after the election. if the authorities investigating it treat it seriously. And if the Liberals/NDP decide to pursue it...as they certainly should.
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