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Ahead of the holidays, Ontario has descended into a dumpster fire of politics under Doug Ford's “Progressive” Conservatives.

After a 19-week summer hiatus and just a brief fall sitting, Ford’s government has now launched into an extended 15-week winter break, leaving the Ontario legislature shuttered until March 23, 2026.

This assault on democratic accountability coincides with Ontario’s descent into political chaos, as the Ford government drowns in scandal and fails the education system that every taxpayer is forced to fund.

It started with a massive corruption bombshell in the 2.5 billion dollar Skills Development Fund that has left Labour Minister David Piccini scrambling for talking points after the Auditor General's scathing report revealed the program is anything but fair, transparent, or accountable.

The report found that 64 lower-scoring applicants got approved for millions after hiring lobbyists. Many of these lobbyists have cozy ties to the PC party, and some recipients are big donors or unions that backed Ford.

The allegations include that Piccini's office overruled bureaucrats, picking pet projects without proper documentation. One company received funding after the minister attended their lobbyist's lavish Paris wedding and sat rinkside at a Leaf’s game with one of their directors.

The opposition is demanding Piccini's resignation, the NDP wants an integrity probe, and a forensic audit was even sent to the OPP for investigation.

Ford, in usual fashion, defends it all – claiming that the program is ‘great for workers,’ even though it smells like classic cronyism, rewarding friends and insiders with taxpayer dollars while real workers get left behind.

All of this is happening while Ford’s government has barely shown up to work. With just 51 sitting days in 2025 before disappearing into an extended winter break, Queen’s Park has become a masterclass in how to evade accountability.

That absence matters because while the government is away, Ontario’s schools are unravelling, sacrificed to ideological posturing instead of academic integrity and the basic supports students desperately need.

The latest Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) results dropped (after a suspicious delay), and they're dismal.

Half of Grade 6 students and over 40% of Grade 9’s aren't meeting the math standard. Reading and writing saw tiny bumps, but overall? Minister Paul Calandra even admits the pace of improvement is "not adequate." He’s launching reviews and advisory bodies, but this is after years of the PCs' "back-to-basics" curriculum, which has obviously been a massive failure.

While Ford's government has seized control of major school boards like Toronto, Ottawa-Carleton, and others, appointing supervisors over "financial mismanagement" and deficits.

Opposition parties and union-affiliated advocates call it a power grab to centralize control, especially in urban areas, and an attempt to silence elected trustees. Ford also passed Bill 33, giving the education minister massive new powers to intervene, approve school names, and more – all while underfunding education and simultaneously receiving a massive influx of Canada’s share of immigration since 2018.

It's students who inherently pay the price for all of this, with growing achievement gaps, unchecked mental-health crises, rising classroom violence, and “inclusion” policies that undermine discipline and learning.

Regardless, the taxpayer trough stays wide open. Ontarians deserve better than insider deals, politicians on permanent vacation, and public services in freefall — from classrooms to hospitals.

Ford tries to talk tough, going so far as to call Trump a tyrant, while conjuring up a fake U.S. tourism slump to appease his Liberal friends, only for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to slam his misinformation mongering.

“Actually, we’re smashing tourism records (and winning Stanley Cups),” DeStantis posted on X, pointing to record-breaking tourism counts.

Actually we continue to break tourism records (and win Stanley Cups). https://t.co/hi2HwUmm6n pic.twitter.com/fTjZkLAKxg

— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) December 16, 2025

As Ontario families face soaring costs and crumbling schools, Doug Ford’s “Progressive” Conservatives choose vacation over vigilance and deflection over delivery.

A New Year, if you can call it that.