Waiting for Drummond: The Play

Waiting for Drummond

Call it a case of politics imitating art.

These days, Queen’s Park seems to be re-enacting Samuel Beckett's famous absurdist play, "Waiting for Godot," a two-act work in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait and wait, in vain, for a man named Godot who -- spoiler alert -- never arrives.

Except that, at Queen's Park, we are not waiting for Godot, but rather for Don Drummond, the former federal finance mandarin, TD Bank economist, and now chair of the Commission on the Reform of Ontario's Public Services. We're waiting for the release of his report on how the Ontario government can spend more wisely (and spend less), and get back to balanced budgets.

And, despite the interviews Drummond has given to Martin Regg Cohn at the Toronto Star and Adam Radwanski at The Globe and Mail, everyone is waiting with bated breath to get their hands on the real McCoy. It even seems that the regular business of governing has been put on hold until the report comes out on February 15. In other words, we’re waiting.

So, we at The Agenda thought this was too good an opportunity to let pass without having a bit of fun.