Ontario's "A Plan for Fair Workplaces and Better Jobs" (AKA Bill 148) legislates leave for domestic abuse survivors, provides for 10 days of paid emergency leave, three weeks paid vacation after five years' employment, and a ban on employers requiring their employees to wear high heels.

Doug Ford, AKA Laughable Bumblefuck II, won the Ontario provincial elections with a cowardly, trumpian campaign that kicked off with a bitter leadership race within his own party, whose top spot was up for grabs because the previous leader was accused of getting young party activists drunk and then having sex with them.

Convicted felon and President of the United States Donald Trump is causing significant market volatility and seemingly steering towards a recession.

After the back-and-forth tariff threats that sent markets sharply lower for a second day Tuesday, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Canada's Minister of Finance Dominic LeBlanc and Ontario Premier Doug Ford said they would meet Thursday to renegotiate the free trade treaty known as the USMCA.

Trump, blathering, wants Canada to become the 51st state. As many point out, this makes no sense constitutionally for his party, as the State of Canada would have some 50 U.S. Representatives and 60 electoral college votes. The House and presidency would turn a maple shade of Blue for a generation. — Read the rest

[We're delighted to have Rosemary Frei back with us, this time reporting on a global transformation: once, infrastructure was created efficiently with cheap central bank funding and now it's done with public-private partnerships, at much higher price-tags, creating massive transfers from taxpayers to the biggest businesses and private equity funds in the world. — Read the rest

Dynasties is the latest special series from Canadaland Commons, a podcast that deeply investigates the sleazy, dysfunctional wealthy dynasties that dominate Canadian politics, media and business.

Doug Ford (previously) is the trumpian buffoon elected to the office of Premier of Ontario by rural voters who never experienced his laughable bumblefuckery firsthand (the people of Toronto — who suffered under his tenure on city council while his asshole crackhead brother was mayor — resoundingly voted against him).

Cory published a writeup of my research showing Google offshoot Sidewalk Labs' plan to build a surveilling city in Toronto involves a much, much larger chunk of land than publicly disclosed (in fact about 2,600 acres of prime Toronto waterfront!). — Read the rest

Doug Ford is the laughable bumblefuck who was elected Premier of Ontario by a roster of cheap Trumpian tricks and (literally) a promise to make beer cost $1 in the province (this promise was not fulfilled).

Robbo Mills writes, "Speaking at a press conference at the Provincial Parliament in Queen's Park on Monday, Toronto Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti said Premier Doug Ford's plan to gut Toronto City Council is a good move because it would silence 'left-leaning' voices on council.

Rob Ford was Toronto's laughable, deplorable crack-addict mayor; his brother is a far-right Trump figure, running for Premier of Ontario (having stolen the party leadership through dirty tricks), who created literal fake news when he hired a pretend reporter to follow him on the campaign trail and ask him softball questions.

Doug Ford — alleged hashish kingpin and brother to the dead, racist, violent, sexist, rapey crackhead ex-Toronto-Mayor Rob Ford — stole the nomination to lead the Ontario Conservatives in an upcoming provincial race.

Doug Ford is the leader of the Ontario Provincial Party, a job he got through outright fraud; and it's only getting better: on Monday night, Ford — brother of the dead, disgraced, crack-addicted, racist, sexist, rapey, violent, lying former mayor of Toronto Rob Ford — showed up for a leadership debate in Toronto, cheered on by throngs of supporters, who turn out to have been paid actors pretending to be Conservatives.

David Nickle is a horror writer and a working journalist who covered Toronto City Hall during the Rob Ford years, an era in which the two professions effectively merged. Here, Nickle explains the events that led to his new short story collection Knife Fight and Other Struggles, which includes a tale of a larger-than-life mayor who settles interpersonal friction with, well, knife-fights.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has been diagnosed with Liposarcoma, a rare form of cancer that grows in fat cells in deep soft tissue. — Read the rest

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has pulled out of his reelection race, citing an abdominal tumor for which he is receiving medical treatment. But that does not meant that the family Ford have fucked their last bumble: brother Doug Ford is to take his place on the ballot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqno8WdjMF0

A new video has surfaced of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford swearing, stumbling and cursing in front of City Hall after having his picture taken with a young boy whose mother identified as a fan of the mayor. The mayor, who had promised that he would stop drinking, smoking crack, taking marijuana, hanging out with murderers and notorious gangsters, and suppressing evidence in criminal investigations, would not comment on the video. — Read the rest

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford — who has steadfastly refused to attend the city's massive, economically vital and glorious Pride parade — has pitched a tantrum over the decision to fly a rainbow flag from the auxiliary flagpole at City Hall. The flag was raised in solidarity with LGBT activists and athletes in a project led by Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam at the request of Pride House TO. — Read the rest

The City Council of Toronto has voted to strip Mayor Rob Ford of most of his powers after a totally bonkers session in which Ford vowed "outright war," and compared the vote to "a coup d'etat" and to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

Toronto mayor Rob "Laughable Bumblefuck" Ford — the man accused of smoking crack with gang-members, and whose family are alleged to have ties to the KKK and organized crime — has made a career out of avoiding answering serious questions posed by the press, preferring to address the public via the talk-radio program he and his brother, Councillor Doug Ford (accused to being west Toronto's hashish kingpin in the 1980s) host. — Read the rest