‘Disgraceful’: Ford’s political rivals lash out after he jokes about hospital overcrowding

Doug Ford’s political rivals didn’t find his joke about Ontario’s overburdened health care system very funny.

At a ribbon cutting ceremony for King Animal Hospital on Tuesday, Ford seemed to make light of Ontario’s hospital woes, joking that overflow patients can attend the new 60,000 square foot animal hospital for their MRIs and CT scans.

“By the looks of it we know where we can send the overflow patients now for MRIs and CT scans and everything else, so keep some extra room for some other patients,” Ford said to scattered laughs.

If you’re one of the many Ontarians on a long waiting list for a knee MRI, it was hardly a knee-slapper.

His rivals at Queen’s Park weren’t amused either.

Ontario NDP Leader, Marit Stiles, was quick to pounce on Ford’s questionable quip.

“First the Minister of Health called Ontario’s doctor shortage ‘not a major concern,’ ” she wrote in a post on X. “Now Doug Ford thinks the crisis and chaos he’s created is a laughing matter. The jokes on you, Doug. Ontarians are tired of being taken for granted. It’s time for change.”

Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie called the joke “disgraceful.”

“After six years of deliberately underfunding our healthcare system in order to justify his agenda to sell it off and privatize, Ford is now joking that if you’re waiting for an MRI, you should just visit a vet clinic,” she wrote in a statement. “This isn’t funny.”

“It’s disgraceful.”

A Ford spokesperson played it off as a harmless reference to the sheer size of the four-storey animal hospital, adding that the Ontario government has made record investments in the public health-care system, including dozens of new MRI machines and CT scanners in hospitals.

Crombie wasn’t buying it.

“Jokes can be funny. But they can also be revealing. And this ‘joke’ exposes who Doug Ford is really fighting for. His rich friends in private, for-profit care, not you or your family.”

With files from The Canadian Press