Some people in Ontario might think they’d really lucked out if the province was willing to spend a small fortune making their city better

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There is a certain type of Torontonian who can’t stand Ontario Premier Doug Ford and who will instinctively oppose anything he does, even if it’s something that will make their city demonstrably better.

The latest example of their civic irrationality is the outsized fuss over the decrepit Ontario Science Centre. Ford’s government abruptly closed the centre last Friday after receiving an engineering report that warned part of the roof could collapse as early as October.

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Anyone who paid attention to how Ford handled the pandemic will know that erring on the side of caution is his favourite lane. Think of the issue from a politician’s point of view. The headline “Government closes science centre prematurely” is vastly preferable to “Government ignores engineering reports, science centre roof collapses on children.”

Plus, the government has already announced plans to build a new $387-million science centre at Ontario Place. Why pour money into a building that has no future?

Casting rationality aside, Ford critics rushed to parse the engineering report and found that most of the roof was OK for now and, in their opinion, the centre could continue to operate safely. Yes, there are structural problems, but Ford........

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