ADAMS: Queen's Park Is Closed and Ontarians Are Paying the Price

If you want a single number that captures everything that has gone wrong at Queen's Park, here it is: 51.

That is the number of days Ontario's elected representatives sat in the legislature this year. Fifty-one days of debate, scrutiny, and law-making in a province of nearly fifteen million people facing overlapping crises in health care, housing, education, affordability, and public trust.

Fifty-one days is not a work schedule. It is an abdication.

Ontarians worked every one of the other 300-plus days. Nurses worked. Teachers worked. Personal support workers worked. Small business owners worked. Parents worked two jobs and still fell behind. Yet the people entrusted with governing the province—across party lines—largely went home.

And then, in a moment of rare unity, they voted unanimously to raise their own salaries by 35%.

That vote should haunt every MPP who supported it.

A Failure That Spans Every Party

This is not merely an indictment of Doug Ford, though his government has perfected the art of governing by press release while hollowing out public services. It is a critique of every party currently represented at Queen's Park: Progressive Conservative, Liberal, New Democratic, and Green alike.

Not one of them can credibly claim they are meeting the moment.

Opposition parties are quick to denounce Conservative mismanagement—and often rightly so—but strangely reluctant to demand longer sittings, stronger legislative scrutiny, or a legislature that treats today's crises with urgency.

Silence, in this case, is complicity.

Ontario continues to find billions for corporate subsidies with little transparency or accountability. Public money flows easily to well-connected companies, while schools, hospitals, and municipalities are told to do more with less.

Emergency rooms close intermittently across the province. Class sizes grow. Mental health services remain out of reach for too many families. Housing affordability deteriorates further with each passing month.

These are not abstract policy debates. They are daily realities, and they demand sustained legislative attention, not intermittent appearances.

Performative Populism and Empty Targets

The Ford government's populist rhetoric thrives on conflict without consequence. Corporations are turned into political punching bags one day, then quietly subsidized the next. “Elites” are denounced publicly while benefiting privately.

This approach may generate headlines, but it does not generate solutions. And without a legislature actively sitting, questioning, and legislating, there is little to restrain it.

A weak legislature enables strong executive, and Ontarians are paying the price for that imbalance.

Democracy Does Not Survive Absenteeism

The deepest harm here is not fiscal. It is democratic.

Every day the legislature does not sit is a day without public accountability. A day without ministers answering questions. A day without meaningful debate on the use of public funds.

When voters see politicians disengaged from their own responsibilities, they disengage from politics altogether. Cynicism grows. Trust erodes. Participation declines.

This is how democracies decay: not with dramatic collapse, but with quiet neglect.

A Simple Standard Going Forward

Representation is not a title. It is a practice.

Right now, it is difficult to argue that anyone at Queen's Park is truly representing the parents waiting months for pediatric care, the workers falling behind inflation, or the communities watching public services disappear.

Ontario does not need fewer sitting days. It needs more. More debate. More scrutiny. More accountability.

If elected officials believe they deserve higher pay, they should earn it the same way Ontarians do: by showing up and doing the work.

That means longer legislative sessions, empowered committees, and a renewed respect for the seriousness of governing. Anything less is an admission that Queen's Park has grown comfortable managing decline rather than confronting it.

Fifty-one days is not enough.

Not in this province.
Not in this moment.
And not if our democracy is to mean anything at all.

That is the real crisis at Queen's Park. And it won't be solved by another pay raise, another press conference, or another year of absence disguised as leadership.

This piece was written by an individual contributor and reflects the editorial position of The Provincial Times and Left Lane Media Group. Read our Content Policy here.Read our Content Policy here.