I just want to tell one last story, before we finish. So I get a letter
dropped at my house. I get a lot of letters dropped at my house.
And I read it, and it’s from a young gentleman named Arthur.
They lived a few blocks away. Real passionate. This is what kills me —
I’d rather get drilled down by the reporters than sit and talk to these kids, because
it rips your heart out when you talk to them. So I took it upon myself to
hop in my pick-up. I drove over to the house. I didn’t tell them
I was coming. And he goes to a French school. And it was all written in French.
The Mother translated [the letter] in English on the other side for me. So
I go over and I knocked on the door and this little guy comes out, and I said,
“Are you Arthur?” And he says, “No, I’m Marcus.”
I said, “Is your Mom home?” And he said, “No, they’re out in the back having dinner. Come with me.” He was great. He was like a little butler.
He put his mask on. I had my mask on. So we went in the backyard.
The nicest family you could ever, ever meet. So I met Arthur. And I’ll tell you,
he’s going to be the future premier. So I sat and asked him, I said, “Arthur,
this is the situation. I’m going to bring it to cabinet.” I was very
upfront with him. “But I’m really concerned with putting the kids in the classroom.
If there was a choice, do you want to go back to class, or do you want to…”
I said, “are you going to camp?” He said, “Yeah, I’m going to camp.”
I said, “Well, I’m just as concerned about that. Which one would you want?”
He goes, “Well, I want to go back to class.” So after we go back and forth,
back and forth — he was a tough negotiator, by the way, I gotta get him in
some of the negotiations — but in the end, he said, “I’d be happy
if we had a graduation day.” And that’s for all grades — not just 8 and 12 —
and then he gets to go to camp and have a great summer.
What a great young man he was.
- Ontario Premier Doug Ford, June 2, 2021, explaining the rationale behind keeping schools closed until the fall