this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2023
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Ontario

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"Premier Doug Ford says the province will review and “re-evaluate” all lands in the Greenbelt — including those that are part of controversial land-swap deals that have engulfed the government and forced the resignations of a cabinet minister and his chief of staff."

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[–] SirFancypants@lemmy.ca 14 points 1 year ago

“I encourage the integrity commissioner to hold people accountable that don’t follow the rules”

LOL, the supreme irony of Doug uttering these words during his presser

[–] Blapoo@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

removed, he better do more than a walk back. Selling govt land to his rich buddies should cost him dearly!

[–] n2burns@lemmy.ca 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Just a correction, it's not government land. It's land protected by the government, but it always was privately owned.

[–] Blapoo@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

Good point, thank you.

[–] Rocket@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Selling govt land to his rich buddies

You really think he went back hundreds of years in time to see those lands transition into the hands of private interests?

Seems like it would be a lot easier to just lift the Greenbelt restrictions placed on the already established private landowners than to invent a time machine, no?

[–] Luci@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Another poster shower us there is a nicer way to point this out.

Be better.

[–] Rocket@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

It may be nicer, but is much less successful. While both comments have received the same number of arrow button presses at the time of writing, only mine got a reply, making it the clear winner in total number of reactions and also by virtue of a reply being worth more than an arrow button press.

If you want to write friendly private journal entries to yourself, that's great and all, but the purpose of a discussion forum is to get feedback from other users. As such, one has to play to the crowd in order to attract their feedback.

[Edit: It has taken the arrow button press lead now. Clearly nice isn't what the audience wants to see, unfortunately.]

[–] n2burns@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My comment was clear and concise. No reply was needed!

[–] Rocket@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I agree that a reply wasn't needed, but the audience ate it up. It has almost as many arrow button presses as the first and just as many replies. Why deny the adoring fans? Their taste is not to mine either, but if I want to satisfy my own tastes, I can keep to myself. We're here because of other people and they have made it clear what they like.

[–] Luci@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No. You can be civil regardless of the forum or media when giving feedback.

[–] Rocket@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I would be if that is what the audience wanted, but given that we have a perfect head-to-head comparison right here to see what they want, clearly that is not what the audience wants to see. My approach garnered 53 arrow button presses and three replies. The other only saw 25 arrow button presses and one reply.

The winner is clear. The uncivil approach attracted more than twice as many fans. It's not my cup of tea either, but if it were about me I could go to my private journal. Like it or not, we come here to play for the audience.

[–] Luci@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There is a weighted bias on the direction of the arrow presses. Clearly my replies are off topic and shouldn't count towards your metric.

[–] Rocket@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

There is a weighted bias on the direction of the arrow presses.

The arrow buttons convey no information other than indicating that an audience is near. It is a poor man's analytics system. That is all. Naturally, people are only going to let someone know that a comment was seen if they like it – for a couple of reasons:

  1. It takes time out of one's day to press a button. There is an opportunity cost to that. Nobody is going to literally pay for content they don't like when there is no obligation to. How stupid would that be?
  2. As before, the reason we come here and not write in our private journals is because of the audience. Even if we ignore that there is a cost to pressing the button, why would the audience want undesirable content to know that it has been seen? Wanting to be seen is the whole reason for its creation! The audience obviously would want to hide the fact that they exist in such cases to not further incentivize creation of such content.

If you receive no button presses or replies, that's when you know that you've created something nobody is a fan of. When the fans are interacting with your work, you know you've created something they want. And it is clear what type of work brings out more fans! This is a community. Your personal tastes are irrelevant.

Clearly my replies are off topic and shouldn’t count towards your metric.

If off-topic is what the audience wants, off-topic is what the audience gets. It's not for me to decide. Again, if it were for me I'd write in my private journal.

[–] Luci@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Rocket@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Case in point. I take the civil and informative road, as you suggested I do, and I get the least passionate response to date. I suppose I still mustered something that grabbed your attention, but it is quite apparent that you prefer where I started. You put way more effort into displaying your fanhood back then. Now it seems you're bored. And, fair enough. Most people do find civil discussion boring, as also demonstrated at the top of the thread.

That said, I like what you've done overall and want to show my own appreciation to you, so I let it be known that you have been seen once more.

[–] Luci@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago
[–] jerkface@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

He's consistently shown he won't do that. It's time we block him.

Edit: I can't see this comment anymore. :-)

[–] Luci@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

Great idea!

[–] TemporaryBoyfriend@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 year ago

"We'll say that we'll re-evaluate it until we come up with something else to outrage Ontarians, then continue to do nothing but profit from our open corruption."

[–] Ulrich_the_Old@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This reminds me of the last Ontario election where 57% of eligible voters stayed home and did not vote. You are being governed by a criminal who got 18% of the vote. DO BETTER!!!! VOTE NEXT TIME!!!!

[–] deborahh@mstdn.ca 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

@Ulrich_the_Old @moormaan ... worth adding: in an election where polling places were cut by 75% in the province's biggest city*, and new provincial legislation muzzled opponents from placing the usual ads in run up to the election.
#DougFordIsCorrupt #ONpoli #TOpoli

* edit: see comment on this thread re: cutting of polling places (not done by Ford government)

[–] c_9@mstdn.ca 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@deborahh @Ulrich_the_Old @moormaan Ford is terrible and corrupt, but for clarity he does not control Elections Ontario polling site decisions. EO is an non-partisan independent agency (Elections Canada too), and it was COVID-related voter space decisions that were a big part of that consolidation of locations in one riding, Toronto Centre.

Just wanted to clarify that piece for anyone reading who's unfamiliar with how elections work in Canada, as I work with EO & EC during elections.

[–] deborahh@mstdn.ca 1 points 1 year ago
[–] jerkface@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

It's like the more power a person's single vote has, the less they care about it. Human psychology, man.

[–] randy@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 year ago

The Auditor General's report suggested the government re-evaluate the 14 parcels that were slated for removal from the Greenbelt. But they are "not pausing development on the 14 parcels"; they're re-evaluating all lands in the Greenbelt. So it sounds like Doug is doubling down on disregarding the AG's suggestion by instead looking for more to remove.

Seems like a cheap trick to act like they're listening to reason, while doing the exact opposite.

[–] xfint@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 year ago

This will all blow over and the families of wealthy cronies will live in luxurious estates built on that prime green space.

Part of me wishes the more enterprising types out there never let them have a moment of peace and quiet on that land.

[–] jerkface@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago

Ford has insisted that he had nothing to do with it, and all reports so far have failed to show that he did. But we all know that no one would be carving up the Greenbelt in the first place if it wasn't for Ford and his cronies. Eventually a piece of evidence will come out that links him, and he will be forced to change his story.