New Agent General position exists because Doug Ford tries to create jobs for friends

QUEEN’S PARK — Ontario hasn’t had Agents-General since the early 1990s, but Doug Ford is filling one of the positions again Friday after reviving the retro $185,000-per-year positions as patronage gifts for friends and political allies.

The positions ­– in London, Chicago, Dallas and New York City – were created by Ford to be handed out to Conservative insiders, including a former PC party president and family and friends of Ford’s then-chief-of-staff Dean French. Ford was shamed into revoking his Agent-General appointees to London and New York after it was revealed that those positions were created for a cousin of French’s wife with no relevant qualifications, and a 26-year-old friend of his son, also with no relevant qualifications.

“A new appointment is happening today because Ford resuscitated these cushy posts back in June 2019 to reward party insiders, friends and family — so why are we stuck with these positions? They were scrapped 27-years ago because, back then, they were pointless, do-nothing relics of the past,” said Taras Natyshak, MPP for Essex and the Ontario NDP Critic for Ethics and Accountability. “As usual, Ford tried to do a favour to a pal, and makes the rest of us pay for his bad choices.”