Doug Ford just dropped a new baking video and Ontario residents are furious
People have been placing a lot of demands upon Doug Ford lately, pleading with the premier to leave the greenbelt alone, stop messing with municipal democracy, and do literally anything to address Ontario's crumbling healthcare system aside from resorting to privatization.
In return, he has given us a how-to video for decorating sugar cookies.
Yes, Ford has answered once again answered the cries of his people with a Martha Stewart-style video in which he makes festive treats while sharing fond childhood memories, similar to what he did with his famous cherry cheesecake and pumpkin carving tutorials.
"Hey, how you doing everyone, I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas," says Ford in the video, published at 6:03 a.m. on Dec. 23. "I'll tell you about our family. We love baking. I love baking cookies. As you can tell, I haven't missed too many Christmas cookies."
Ford narrates the process of putting white icing on the sugar cookies, waiting for it to dry, and then using additional coloured icings to produce holiday-specific snacks.
"I'm going to start off with Frosty the Snowman. Give frosty a couple eyes. And now we're gonna use a little bit of the red icing. Put a big smile on Frosty," he says while putting a face on a cookie that is sort of snowman-shaped.
"You know we always did? I did it with my kids, we did it when we were younger — we always left the big cold glass of milk. And we left a whole bunch of cookies. But you know what else we did? We left the carrots for the reindeer."
The video concludes with Ford eating a cookie, as he is want to do, and praising the food as "delicious."
One of my favourite things to do over the holidays is bake and decorate holiday treats that I get to share with my family and friends.
— Doug Ford (@fordnation) December 23, 2022
Merry Christmas and happy holidays, Ontario! pic.twitter.com/C8fLBxvSP4
Wholesome as the concept of this Christmassy content may have been, Ford is taking a heck ton of backlash over his newest video.
Replies started coming in just minutes after the premier's sugar cookie tweet went live and, as of 1 p.m., I have yet to find a single one of them with positive sentiment out of nearly 1,600 comments.
"This is insulting. Healthcare workers are working nonstop, kids are sick, there is a severe shortage of beds for the homeless with storms coming, people are struggling to put food on the table, etc. and you tweet this?" reads one of the top replies.
"For a guy who says he 'works 24/7' you sure do seem to have a lot of free time for cookie baking, pumpkin carving and cheesecake pouring. It's a wonder you have any time left at all to be mayor of Toronto," joked another, referring to the new "strong mayor" powers Ford has approved for John Tory to use as needed to benefit the province's interests.
"I don't want to see you fake bake," reads another still. "I want to see you stop plans to destroy the Greenbelt and Ontario Place, do something about the epidemic of unhoused people, and run a non-corrupt government, for starters. Then you can have a cookie."
He only has 6 cookies and they’re for his rich donors and himself not for frontline heroes.
— Kahlan still masked (@Kahlan791) December 23, 2022
Very sorry to hear about your colleague.
Comments like this can be found all over the replies to Ford, along with some less-relevant tweets poking fun at his weight and coining new nicknames like "Domestic Diva Doug."
Many are expressing confusion over the fact that Ford or anyone on his team thought that this video would go over well... or at least not appallingly.
A recent poll conducted by Environics Research on behalf of the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) suggests that 80 per cent of Ontarians believe the current healthcare system is in a state of crisis.
Some 55 per cent of respondents blamed the crisis directly on the Doug Ford government.
Ironically, Ford published his cheery holiday baking video just days after a coalition of unionized healthcare workers published an open "all we want for Christmas" letter (and delivered a physical card) to Ford regarding his controversial Bill 124.
"Bill 124 helped create the staffing and health care crisis. The courts were clear that it is a clear violation of workers' constitutional rights. This government is not above the law. They need to accept this decision," said Unifor Ontario Regional Director Naureen Rizvi on Dec. 21, referring to the bill and Ford's appeal of the Ontario Superior Court's ruling against its existence.
"We will continue to fight for health care workers and to protect everyone’s charter rights. Premier Ford has failed Ontarians, failed our health care system and failed our health care heroes."
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