The Bellowing of Walruses

Vincent J. Curtis

25 Feb 21

RE: Horwath calls for trustees to be fired.  Hamilton Spectator 25 Feb 21

Walruses are known sometimes to bellow just for the joy of hearing their own voice.  Many politicians are the same way.

We haven’t heard much from Andrea Horwath since the beginning of the pandemic.  The sound of silence must have been killing her, and she called for the Minister of Education, Stephen Lecce, to fire the four embattled school trustees on the grounds that everyone else in the fish market is calling for them to resign, and they won’t.  Those fish mongers’ barking, in turn, is based upon a lawyer’s opinion of a student’s perception.

Since the trustees are elected, they can’t be “fired” by the Minister of Education, though, who knows, in these days of COVID many people are claiming authority they don’t legally have.  I think the Minister knows the limits of his powers in this case, and so, I think, does Andrea Horwath.  It would be shocking that with all her many years in the Ontario legislature, the Leader of the Opposition wouldn’t know what a Minister can and cannot do; and equally shocking that,  knowing that a Minister cannot do something, demand that he do it anyway.  Suppose Jagmeet Singh deigned to “fire” Ardrea as head of the provincial NDP?

Sound and fury signifying nothing is typical of politics, but what is concerning here is the lack of respect by all these progressives for democracy and free speech.  Elected officials get fired by the electorate, but they also speak on behalf of the electorate.

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