Quoted: A melodramatic George Smitherman on what he’ll rue for now and forever
I didn’t see it coming. For the rest of my life I will regret that.
—Former Ontario health minister George Smitherman during hearings held earlier this week at Queen’s Park, admitting he wishes he had foreseen the multi-million-dollar scandal that would overtake Ornge. Perhaps has was blinded by an irrational love for his own progeny—as the health minister from 2003 to 2008, Smitherman helped create the publicly funded air ambulance agency—or perhaps the bureaucrats at the health ministry should’ve been better at their jobs, as he alleges. Regardless, ol’ Furious is disappointed in himself. But to feel contrite for the rest of his life? Come on, Smitherman. If you want to take a regret to your grave, allow us to suggest something else you failed to see coming: that Rob Ford would walk all over you in Toronto’s 2010 mayoral campaign. [Toronto Star]
You know, I’m not sure if Smitherman would’ve been a good mayor or not. From what I understand he can be highly abasive and doesn’t always play well with others, but if he’d bothered to take the last election seriously (at least until the end) we’d probably be spared the train wreck that’s Rob Ford’s mayoralty. That alone should be his lifetime of regret.