Meredith Hepburn

Loves current events,politics, personal finance+healthy dose of economics, health care thrown in. Slight dusting of humour.

[Jake Landau (He/Him) 🇨🇦🇵🇸🇻🇪🇺🇦 @JakeLandauTO]

We live in a province where the Premier regularly makes aggressive overtures towards court judges who rule against his whims. This is not democracy and this is not order. Doug Ford knows damn well what message his supporters take when he asks for the address of this judge.

[Jenn Neville-Lake @isda1979]

Hi everyone,
Welcome to my free family friendly event in Brampton, Ontario!
It takes place on Sat May 9, 2026 from 10am to 1 pm.
We hope to see you there!
If you are able to share out this graphic on your social media accounts, I would very much appreciate it.  
- Jennifer

[TheTrillium.ca @Thetrilliumca]

TorontoToday has mapped out the Ford government's expropriation plan using the property identification numbers listed in the newly introduced legislation. https://t.co/LOipQp9kdv

[Tom Whittaker @whittakertp]

The only tools left to hold the Premier of Ontario @fordnation accountable are investigations by the Auditor General and Integrity Commissioner. I am pretty sure there is a plan in place to continue to erode their authorities.

[Meredith Hepburn @MerHep]

@euvitin0 It’s the buttons of the pants /trousers versus the shirt. You can often can get button overs to assist.

[Dr. Jill Andrew, PhD (she/her) @JILLSLASTWORD]

Indeed. Why the need to scrub TDSB websites of information to INFORM the public unless the Ford govt has something to hide?

[Marit Stiles @MaritStiles]

BREAKING: The Ford government just voted to fast-track a law that would permanently shield Doug Ford’s phone records from the public, keeping you in the dark about how your tax dollars are being used.

Watch this video where I break it down.

[Lisa Kirbie @lisakirbie]

Good work on the jet, folks. Now, let’s focus on the retroactive FOI changes. This is a very big deal. It’s how we can hold politicians to account and it’s not just for journos and lobbyists, it’s for every citizen in Ontario who wants to question government.

[CUPE Local 416 @Local416]

Fund an independent health and safety review. Modernize prevention across Ontario.

[Marit Stiles @MaritStiles]

What if the person next to you is paying a different price for the same thing? An algorithm decided that. 🏷️💵

Watch to the end to find out how – then go to https://t.co/ml28afQU57 and tell every Conservative MPP to vote YES to banning predatory pricing.

[Barney Panofsky's Best Intentions @mynamesnotgordy]

Local man tells post-secondary students money doesn't grow on trees and then picks private jet from private jet tree.

[Althia Raj @althiaraj]

Probably worth noting that Canada’s foreign affairs minister (and other ministers) mostly fly commercial internationally…

Also Finnish President @alexstubb was on my United flight Monday from Dulles to Ottawa. (I went for a funeral).

Not sure why the Premier needs a jet.

[Fatima Syed / @fatimabsyed.bsky.social @fatimabsyed]

We @thenarwhalca spent a month investigating what Doug Ford's conservation authority consolidation means for drinking water protections. 12 sources & a leaked doc reveal the system built to prevent another Walkerton is in flux, worrying experts

https://t.co/eUtIpONAaN #onpoli

[Meredith Hepburn @MerHep]

@raghu_venugopal He was your best 4legged friend. It’s hard where is silence.

I’m thinking of you Raghu. 💔🐾😢

[Meredith Hepburn @MerHep]

@raghu_venugopal Thinking of you all. 💔💔😢🐾🐾

[Meredith Hepburn @MerHep]

@cathyacrowe @AssignCp24 @CityNewsTO @globalnewsto @CTVToronto @starradiobox @CBCAlerts Thank you for shining a light on these issues,Cathy. Hugely appreciated.

[Captain Dick @CaptainDick12]

This Bill will make it illegal for Municipalities to make their own decisions about environmentally friendly building standards. This doesn't just remove requirements, it makes them illegal. This is an outrageous attack on common sense. Ford is taking Ont. back 100 years.

[Marit Stiles @MaritStiles]

He's always on that damn phone.

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

The air traffic controller cleared the fire truck onto the runway. Seconds later, the same controller screamed “stop, stop, stop.” The plane was doing 93 to 105 mph.

Both pilots are dead.

Everyone will frame this as controller error. One controller was simultaneously managing a United flight that aborted takeoff after an anti-ice warning, dispatching a fire truck across an active runway, and sequencing an inbound Air Canada landing at highway speed. At 11:40 PM. On a mandatory overtime shift at a facility that has been understaffed for years.

A system that assigns one person that workload will produce exactly this outcome. The only variable is when.

The FAA is short approximately 3,000 controllers. The headcount dropped 13% from 2010 to 2024 while flight volume rose 10%. Over 40% of the FAA’s 290 terminal facilities are understaffed. The New York TRACON, which manages the most congested airspace in America across LaGuardia, JFK, and Newark, has been chronically below target. Newark was operating at 59% of its staffing goal. LaGuardia handles 900 flights a day.

The hiring pipeline is broken at every stage. Only 2% of applicants complete the full process. Training takes up to 6 years. The FAA Academy in Oklahoma City is a bottleneck, with roughly 35% of trainees washing out. Congress blocked legislation to build a second academy. In one recent hiring cycle, the FAA brought on 1,512 candidates and lost 1,300 in the same window. Net gain: around 160 controllers for an entire country.

Three things need to happen and everyone who can make them happen has known for years.

Congress needs to fund and authorize a second FAA training academy. One facility in Oklahoma City cannot produce enough controllers for 900 million annual passengers. Members of Congress from Oklahoma have actively blocked this. That needs to end yesterday.

The FAA needs to cut certification time. Six years from application to fully certified controller is absurd. The agency’s own data shows tower simulators reduce certification time by 27%. They’ve installed them at 95 facilities. That should be every facility, and the simulated hours should count toward more of the certification requirement.

The FAA needs to stop plugging staffing gaps with mandatory overtime. Controllers at understaffed facilities are working six-day weeks rotating between morning, mid, and night shifts. The NTSB has flagged fatigue repeatedly. The controller last night was managing overlapping emergencies during a nighttime operation. Overtime is not a staffing plan. It’s a countdown to the next runway collision.

The controller said “I messed up” to a Frontier pilot who watched the whole thing. The pilot responded “No man, you did the best you could.”

One of them is right. The answer determines whether this happens again.

[Josh Matlow @JoshMatlow]

Doug Ford is now exempting himself, his office and his cabinet from Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. FOIs are a basic way journalists hold governments in Canada to account. This crosses the line between a healthy democracy and a decline toward autocracy. This cannot stand.