“Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!” Fans of the 1960’s sci-fi TV show Lost in Space will instantly recognize those words of warning issued by Robot to protect young Will Robinson. In 2026 , Robot would be blasting out that warning to a new generation of Ontarians as the Ford Conservative manic majority government pushes through Bill 100, the Better Regional Governance Act, 2026.

For an extra dose of danger, couple Bill 100 with Bill 97, Plan to Protect Ontario (Budget Measures) Act, which was just pushed closer to passing in a rare late night meeting of our provincial government. Bill 97 would amend the Freedom of Information Act, restrict public access to information and “explicitly excludes records held by the Premier, Cabinet Ministers, and their political staff.”

Doubling down on danger, Will Robinson!

This attitude has infected municipal politics as well. Claire Ayigh, my research assistant, has noted. “Reports have highlighted that ‘misinformation’ and ‘confidential’ complaints are being used to shut down debate and prevent public scrutiny on key issues, such as land-use planning and legal proceedings.” The gap between provincial and municipal rule is shrinking, as is the democratic voice of the constituents who elect these now omnipotent politicians.

Consider that the recently passed Bill 97 applies retroactively for 40 years! That mean  the office and phone records of Premiers and cabinet ministers shrouded in secrecy for decades, effectively keeping the Mike Harris reign of terror years under wraps. Birds of a feather lie, steal and cheat together. “Hey Mike, what happened to those Ipperwash, Dudley George murder, Municipal health care budget cuts and Walkerton death files?” “Gee whiz Doug, I guess we’ll never know now.” Hearty old boys’ club laughter.

The beat goes on. Yesterday, when I asked my research assistant, Claire Ayigh, who would most likely be the government appointed new Chair for the Region of Peel, this is the answer I received:
“[Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing] Rob Flack is anticipated to appoint [Strong Mayor Annette] Groves as the new Chair of Peel. This aligns with the [Conservative Ford] government’s strategy to streamline regional governance and enhance decision making efficiency.”

That statement is possibly an AI error in accessing questionable sources, but it sure fits Bill 100. If it comes true, Robot’s warning may already be too late. The way I see it.

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NOTE: At the private Annette Groves Community Fundraising Gala (NOT a Mayor’s event sanctioned by the Town of Caledon) held yesterday, Premier Ford announced that current Chair Nando Iannicca would likely be nominated to retain his position. This choice had been indicated previously by the now disgraced former Municipal Affairs Minister, Steve Clark, Ford’s scapegoat for the Greenbelt Scandal that opened up previously protected lands to favoured developers.

UPDATE: Breaking on Facebook: Annette Groves has announced her retirement as Mayor of Caledon. Stay tuned for verification and commentary. And don’t trust AI.

As T.S. Elliot wrote in his epic poem The Wasteland, “April is the cruelest month of all.”

If you are a devote Christian, that poetic line could refer to the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ, religiously estimated to be sometime in April between 30 and 33 CE. Or it could refer to a delusional President Trump posting images of himself as Dr. Jesus. If you are Canadian, the line definitely refers to the weather. If you are a member of the Conservative Party of Canada, it painfully refers to Monday, April 14, 2026.  To honour that day, the following poems … starting with a Limerick …

There once was a Con named Pierre
Who was so puffed up with hot air
He floated away on Majority Day
“Unfair! Cons care” cried Pierre.

One by one the Cons crossed the floor
To sit down at Carney’s front door
In the Liberal tent, they could do more than vent
Those three word rhymes we abhor.

Puffy Pierre just floated away
And hasn’t been seen since that day
But his voice can be heard, still sounding absurd
“Axe the Tax”, “Jail not Bail”, Crime Don’t Pay!

And of course, every struggling English student’s favourite, the more sublime Haiku:

A bright flash of red
A song high from the tree top
The promise of spring.

And for the classicist, a Shakespearean Sonnet:

Is this the way the world will always turn?
From lightness to dark, from darkness to day.
After the ice time, the fire we yearn
After the war work, in peace will we play?
Who will we follow, the wise or the fools,
Who will inform us, humans or machines?
Will we home learn, or in corporate schools?
Will we have teachers or computer screens?
If the world needs changing it starts with “we”,
We need to rise up, and not break or bow,
“If not us, who; if not now, when?” we plea.
it must be us, and it must be us now!
The torch has been passed, we hold it up high
Hope in the darkness, a light to live by.

That’s all for now, but during International Womens’ Week I heard a song that stuck like an ear worm in my mind. The Celtic tune remains, and the lyrics ended something like this:

“You’ve tried to break me but I have a choice,
I’ll not bow my head, I’ll not  bend my knee,
And I will not lower my voice.”

A noble torch to carry in these chaotic days. The way I see it.

The downfall of dictator Viktor Orban in Hungary also sounded the death knell for Stephen Harper’s dream of eviscerating the Liberal Party of Canada. Before he was soundly defeated in yesterday’s national election in Hungary, Orban had stated in 2023, “International cooperation between right-wing conservative governments is more important than ever. Chairman Harper is a great ally.” Chairman Harper?

Yes, since 2018 our former Prime Minister has been the Chair of the International Democracy Union, a coalition of over 80 right and far right wing governments. The Conservative Party of Canada is the only Canadian member of the IDU. Interestingly, all of the stops on Pierre Poilievre’s recent “diplomatic” trip to Europe as Canada’s “official Leader of his Majesty’s Loyal Opposition” were to IDU affiliates. Besides being IDU’s Chair, Harper also appears to be their travel agent.

Also interesting is that Viktor Orban’s dictatorship in Hungary was so far right that his Fidesz Party was removed from official membership. Poilievre and the Conservative Party of Canada were asked by the Canadian Press “if Ottawa should have stronger ties to Orban’s government.” No answer. None needed now, but this all goes to show the true stripes of of our loyal opposition, and the total irrelevance of its leader.

Despite American media appearances, and his recent leadership endorsement by the Party Faithful, Mr. Poilievre is losing his caucus, Not since 1869 has Parliament seen this many floor crossings, and that was to establish the Confederation of Canada. Today’s three federal by-elections could confirm a solid Liberal majority and be the final nail in the coffin for a faltering Conservative Party and Poilievre’s lack of leadership.

On the other hand, right wing politics are alive and well in Ontario as Boss Doug Ford makes Mike Harris’s dream of a Common Nonsense Revolution a reality. Provincial control of school boards, sidelining trustees, devolving the curriculum, enabling Strong Premiers, Strong Ministers, and Strong Mayors was the starting point. Now the government wants to completely take democracy out of municipal politics by giving the provincial government the power to appoint Strong Regional Chairs.

I live in Peel Region, an amalgam of Brampton, Mississauga and Caledon elected representatives. Want to take a bet on who the first appointed Strong Chair for Peel Region will be? As Leonard Cohen sings in Everybody Knows:

“Everybody knows that the dice are loaded,
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed.
Everybody knows the war is over,
Everybody knows the good guys lost.
Everybody knows the fight was fixed;
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich.
That’s how it goes,
Everybody knows.”                               The way I see it.

Dear Readers, it is with a heavy heart that I announce the cancellation of April Fools’ jokes for this April 1, 2026.  Due to the vast surfeit of actual April fools, AI fakes, and a disillusioned, disheartened and dissatisfied society, our world needs more than a joke.

What our world really needs is a complete and thorough cleansing of all of the April fools who are causing so much angst and anger across the globe. At the top of the list are the three Supreme Leaders who are now having a pissing contest in the Middle East: Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald J, Trump, and the mysterious Mojtaba Khamenei.

The biggest joke in this unholy trio is Mr. Trump, who has now “totally obliterated” the same military and nuclear targets many times over. Now, even the neediest students in my first Grade Five class knew that the word obliterate meant ” to destroy, to totally wipe out.”  Obliterate was what the Chicxulub Impactor asteroid did to the dinosaurs. However, the very existence of these three fools may put that event into question.

Along with Mr. Trump on the North American side of the ledger are the hyper masculine displays on the public stage by the bombastic and theatrically aggressive Pete Hegseth, the President’s Secretary of Defense, of War, of Excursions and most recently, of Endeavours. “Kill  ’em all” Pete does not believe in taking prisoners or leaving survivors, an attitude which serves Mr. Netanyahu’s interests quite nicely.

Sadly, no one in Palestine, Iran, and the other Middle Eastern countries is laughing after being drawn into a war started by Israeli-USA aggression. Before this conflict began, the Strait of Hormuz was open to shipping. The global disruption to energy, fertilizers, food and other goods has been caused totally by Israel’s ultra-orthodox quest for total control of the Middle East, and MAGA mega stupidity. The most cruel joke is that Mr. Trump is asking the other Gulf states who have been targets of Iran’s defensive response to pay for the cost of his Iran war.

Hilarious. That’s like starting a gang fight in a schoolyard and then asking all the innocent bystanders who got hurt to pay for your bandages and broken baseball bats. As former President Barack Obama said In a recent interview, “You cannot make this stuff up. If you saw it on Saturday Night Live you’d say “Oh, that’s going a little too far.”

They may be laughing in the Knesset and the White House, but the rest of the world finds these April Fools guilty of very unfunny war crimes against  humanity. Consider this: Israel has been ranked as one of the happiest ten countries in the world, How can you be happy when 75,000 dead lie scattered around your borders, the victims of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), what “Bibi” calls the “most humane and moral army” in the world.

T.S. Elliot was right. “April is the cruelest month of all.” That’s not a joke.

The way I see it.