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What set Ford off was a decision by Superior Court Justice Paul Schabas to grant an injunction that temporarily blocks the province from ripping out bike lanes on a few major streets in Toronto. Some cycling activists are arguing Ford鈥檚 plan to remove the lanes violates their to 鈥渓ife, liberty and security of the person鈥� (a stretch, in my nonexpert opinion).

Schabas hasn鈥檛 ruled on the substance of that. The injunction just stops anyone from tearing out the lanes while the case is being decided, on the common-sense grounds that they 鈥渁re more easily removed than rebuilt or restored.鈥�

But it was enough to send Ford off on his tirade about unelected judges who 鈥渙verturn everything, right down to the bike lanes.鈥� Judicial independence, he went on, is 鈥渁 joke鈥� because judges are appointed by governments. Plus criminals are running free because 鈥渢here鈥檚 a lot of terrible, terrible bleeding-heart judges out there.鈥� Finally: 鈥淲e should do what the U.S. does. Let鈥檚 start electing our judges, holding them accountable.鈥�

That last bit is a ludicrous non-starter, as even the premier surely knows. But his challenge to the whole notion of judicial independence is serious. The chief justices of all three Ontario courts took it seriously enough affirming the importance of having courts that are independent of government, and just as important are seen to be 鈥渇ree to decide each case on its own merits, without influence of any kind from any sources, including politicians.鈥� This isn鈥檛 for the benefit of judges; it鈥檚 so the public can have confidence in the courts.

This is so basic to our system that it鈥檚 alarming the chief justices felt the need to defend it in this context. We only have to look to the United States to see how Donald Trump is challenging the courts there and demanding they fall in line with his political demands to realize what鈥檚 at stake.

Ford鈥檚 rant didn鈥檛 come out of nowhere. Last year he defended appointing two of his former staffers to the committee that helps to select Ontario judges on openly political, ideological grounds. 鈥淲e got elected to get like-minded people in appointments,鈥� he said. 鈥淚鈥檓 not going to appoint some NDP or some Liberal.鈥�

There鈥檚 been a decades-long attempt in Ontario 鈥� under Liberal, Conservative and NDP governments 鈥� to get away from the discredited tradition of stuffing the judiciary with party loyalists. The province created something called the in the 1980s to make sure legal expertise, not partisan connections, come first in determining who gets to be a judge.

The system is far from perfect but it鈥檚 been praised as the 鈥済old standard鈥� for judicial appointments in Canada. Ford鈥檚 government has been chipping away at it in the name of getting more 鈥渓ike-minded鈥� judges and justices of the peace appointed. If anyone is guilty of trying to impose ideology and partisanship on the courts, it鈥檚 the premier himself.

On another matter entirely: I admit it; I haven鈥檛 paid nearly enough attention to Australian politics lately. But this week it鈥檚 worth having a look Down Under.

Australians are voting in this Saturday. And there are unmistakable parallels between what just happened in Canada and what鈥檚 unfolding there.

The centre-left government of Labor party Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was heading for defeat at the hands of the conservative Liberal-National Coalition, led by Peter Dutton. Until guess who 鈥� Donald Trump 鈥� came along and upended things. Now . It鈥檚 remarkably 鈥� Canadian.