The legislation is arbitrary insofar as it chooses carbon pricing, a bugbear of the right, as a target. Because why would a carbon price need a referendum and not, say, a tax cut? Or a hike in the provincial sales tax? Or the building of a costly new highway or its sale to private interests? Each of these issues has financial implications for the public — and potentially considerable ones, at that.

Ford didn’t seem concerned about accountability and direct democracy when he was fiddling with Toronto’s city-council composition during an election or when he was crushing labour rights with the costly and unconstitutional Bill 124. His government didn’t worry about a referendum when it opened sensitive and protected land in the Greenbelt to developers or sold out Ontario Place for a luxury spa. The Progressive Conservatives weren’t in a rush to consult deeply or hold a referendum in any of these instances.