George Baumann has had enough.In a letter to city officials Friday morning, the election worker, one of thousands brought on to help carry out the citywide election Oct. 22, said he was tendering his resignation in a scathing letter.“Having witnessed the breathtaking corruption and bizarre antics of U.S. President Donald Trump for the past two years, it never occurred to me that the government of Canada, through the careless creation — without limits or restrictions — of this small ‘escape clause,’ could have created a ‘wild card’ loophole that virtually guarantees that our decline into a police state will be swifter and more certain than theirs,” he wrote.He was speaking to Premier Doug Ford’s recent move to use the rarely invoked “notwithstanding” clause to enforce a cut to the size of Toronto city council for the upcoming election.Baumann, in an interview with the Star after forwarding his emailed letter to the newsroom, said he was hired as a tabulator officer whose responsibility it would have been to take ballots at a polling station and ensure they are counted. He said the city has accepted his resignation. He previously worked in a federal election and the 2014 municipal election, he said. “Wishing not to appear behind the times, or participate in this mockery, I will abstain from voting in this and all future elections,” Baumann added in his resignation letter.The longtime Torontonian and central Etobicoke resident said he was once a card-carrying Ontario PC party member, but he resigned that position too during the last election.“I’m not a Doug Ford supporter,” he said, adding his preference was Christine Elliott and that Ford doesn’t have the “right stuff for the job.” He said Ford has ignored proper process by interfering in the Toronto election in the midst on an ongoing campaign.“You don’t try to fix the engine when the plan ...
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