Ontarians elected Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives in hopes of a return to sanity after so many years of Liberal progressive social radicalism. 

The sad reality has proven Ford to be a counterfeit conservative who has cynically betrayed those who placed their trust in him. Nowhere has this been more evident than in education.

A new study finds that “critical theory”, which pushes radical progressive views of race and gender, has been prevalent in Ontario schools during the past ten years, in spite of the fact that Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives have been in charge for six of them.

This research comes in the form of a master’s thesis written by Stephen Reich titled Does Ontario’s Ministry of Education Promote Critical Race Theory in K-12 Education?. 

Reich traces the onset of critical theory in Ontario’s education to amendments to the Education act in 1992 made by Ontario’s then-premier Bob Rae, in response to the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles and the Yonge Street riots in Toronto inspired by them.

While deeply regrettable, no one could say this direction was surprising, coming as it did from the lone NDP premier that Ontario has had in its history.

Reich’s research finds the use of terms like “systemic racism”, “intersectionality”, and “micro-aggression began in the 2000s, peaked in the 2010s under the Liberal government, and have continued to be used under our current PC government. 

Shockingly, Reich finds that under Ford’s PC government, critical theory terminology geared toward students has increased dramatically when compared with the previous Liberal governments. 

“The PCs under Doug Ford used 83% more Critical Theory language in publications aimed at students in the K-12 classroom than previous Liberal governments”

Stephen Reich

This is proving to be a betrayal of Ontario’s students, who need academic instruction, but are instead being versed in empty virtue signalling.

Jamil Jivani, federal MP-elect for Durham has observed that Ontario education under Doug Ford is “…focused on race politics, meanwhile the average student is still struggling with math, with reading, with writing.”

Jivani’s concerns are precisely reflected by Stephen Reich, in the overview to his thesis:

"I find that the Ministry – even under the Conservatives – has increasingly adopted CT terms while poorly and inconsistently defining them. I attribute this to opportunistic framing, institutional isomorphism, and elite agenda-setting, arguing that the Ministry is generating disregard for empirically-tested teaching methods necessary for literacy, numeracy and critical thinking proficiency. Additionally, CT’s pessimistic divisiveness threatens social and civic cohesion." 

Stephen Reich

 Premier Doug Ford, far from being the breath of fresh air he promised, has doubled down on every facet of radical woke ideology that Kathleen Wynne brought to Ontario.

Under Ford, Ontario’s education system imparts more radical ideas than anyone thought possible.

We must regain control of our children, of our schools and of our society from the forces bent on destroying it.