I thought I was in complete control of the moment. I’d read – both aloud and to myself – all the appropriate practice phrases. I arrived right on time for my first CBC Radio News announcing audition at the main Toronto studios. They gave me the audition scripts – a newscast, a piece of poetry and lists of words in French, Italian, German and English to just read aloud during my audition.
I had time to review the copy, then I entered the studio to record my audition. Everything went swimmingly – including the French, Italian and German. But then I tripped up on an English word. I came across the word “epitome,” paused and said:
“E-pi-tome,” with the emphasis on the first syllable, as if I’d said “epic tome.” And the moment I mispronounced it, I knew I was wrong and I wished I could’ve quickly crammed the word back in my mouth to say it properly the first time. But it was too late.
I thought of my verbal miscue back in 1970, as I watched and listened to the media conference staged by the Ford government on Tuesday morning in his home constituency of Etobicoke North. Reporters were told the premier would be making a bold new annoncement to the people of Ontario.
Oh, but first, the premier needed to be introduced by our own MPP, Peter Bethlanfalvy, the finance minister. He came to the lectern and the first words out of his mouth were to praise “You know, we’ve got the Holy Trinity of ministers here,” he said. “Christine Hogarth, Kinga Surma … and the great MPP for Etobicoke North, who also happens to be the premier of Ontario.”
When that fell flat, he fell all over himself praising the premier for always saying that “he’s not going to toll anything,” but that he, Bethlanfalvy, still had to pay a toll – probably the toll on Hwy 407, which the Conservative government of Mike Harris sold off for $3.1 billion to an international consortium instead of more wisely using 407 tolls to help fund critical provincial programs in health, education and housing.
Then, after kicking the federal government on everything from the cost of living to Bank of Canada interest rates (over which it has no control) to environmental policy, Bethlanfalvy handed it off to the premier.
“I want to start by thanking all the people of Circle K and over at Timmy’s,” he said, “for my double-double and the best egg sandwiches around.”
He then took his turn bashing the federal government for the state of the economy. Avoiding the obvious parallel with the Greenbelt fiasco, Ford praised his own plans to build the Bradford bypass and Highway 413 and eventually announced the extension of his program to pay the provincial gas tax cut at the pumps through to June 2024.
Then, he finally took questions for the elephant in the room – the scandal surrounding the estimated $8.3 billion developers’ swap of Greenbelt lands.
One reporter (quoting Freedom of Information documents revealed Monday) asked how it was that 18 Minister’s Zoning Orders (MZOs) were given to developers attending a wedding party for Ford’s daughter.
Ford didn’t answer the question, but waxed eloquent about how allocating MZOs speeds up process, part of which was the same process that forced Ford’s previous minister of housing Steve Clark to resign in disgrace.
Another reporter referred to emails that Environmental Defence lobby group obtained legally via Freedom of Information legislation. Those emails revealed that former political appointee Ryan Amato told bureaucrats how concerned he was that land near Nobleton, Ont., needed to be cleared for development, and had maps to illustrate.
“Did you instruct your staff to deal with those lands owned by Shakir Rehmatullah?” the reporter asked. Ford said, “I don’t know which lands you’re talking about. But no, I didn’t.”
Another reporter followed up a little later by asking, “If you didn’t know about the land, but you instructed staff to pull them all, which do you mean?”
“I told Minister Calandra to pull all of them,” he said, and then Ford used that infamous Nixonian phrase, “Let me be perfectly clear…” And he clearly wasn’t.
All this, and the RCMP has only just begun its investigation. And if that weren’t enough double-speak, the premier wrapped up his media conference, on Tuesday (Oct. 31), wishing everybody a “Happy Halloween.”
And thinking he was still a pretty good stand-up comic, he added, “I was thinking I would dress up as a media person.”
Well, repeating that word that haunted me 50 years ago – this is the “epitome” of a provincial government with foot-in-mouth disease.
I just discovered your piece on Carol Hodgkins-Smith and her collection of art by her father Arnold Hodgkins. Arnold was my father-in-law. I knew his paintings were now in Canada’s War Museum in Ottawa, but never knew how various people intervened to make that happen. Thank you, Ted. And thank you, Carol.