Ontario Premier Doug Ford has named Jim Warren, a former aide to former Premier Dalton McGuinty, to serve as chairman of Ontario Lottery and Gaming (OLG).
Ford, a progressive conservative, thinks highly of Warren, an avowed liberal. It is widely considered that Ford made the appointment to reassure the public that he has no partisan motives. The previous chairman, Peter Deeb, left the job earlier this year for “personal reasons” that coincided with a police investigation, details of which remain murky. No charges were ever filed.
According to the Toronto Star, last year Ford assailed OLG for awarding executive “fat cats” big bonuses in the middle of a pandemic that put scores of people out of work.
“There’s a couple thousand people that are struggling, can’t put food on the table, and … these big wigs—the fat cats, I call them—are all making a fortune,” he said. “For all these big smart guys, they aren’t too frigging smart.”
Warren, once an OLG vice president, also owns a consultant firm, Riseley Strategies.
