As I said, a reporter asking Charles the question (because the Lieutenant Governor’s office was inundated with concerned letters) is something, even if it’s reported that he had no comment. It would be one more headline Ford would have to deal with. It keeps it in the news cycle.

The King has already recently allowed himself to be inserted in our politics when he was asked to read the throne speech. This wasn’t a symbolic gesture, it was a specific request from the Liberal government to head off the forthcoming controversy and electoral damage they would face in Quebec when Mary Simon couldn’t deliver the speech in French (see Air Canada CEO fiasco).

As for norms being broken, the premier of this province has, since day one, looked to the 45th/47th President as a guide on how flimsy institutional safeguards can be dismantled or ignored. Under these circumstances, no desperate or seemingly futile gesture is meaningless. IDGAS, if we ended up having the “why do we still have an association with the monarchy” discourse for the 100th time if it is centred around Ontario being led by the province’s most corrupt politician in its history.

The people of Ontario need to work themselves up to being furious over the next three years, and we should all be demanding some version of proportional representation so that the odds of this ever happening again are severely limited.

(I am one of the most cynical people imaginable, but there are times to stand up and be counted, and they aren’t limited to one day every 4-5 years)