Bloated benches

Zucchini envy

🦃 PROGRAMMING NOTE: I’ll be off for Thanksgiving and will get back to regular programming Tuesday morning. Enjoy the last long weekend before the fall session — perhaps with a Ghost of Queen’s Park-themed beer.

ABOVE THE FOLD

DOUG FORD’s cabinet is getting an extra helping of gravy this Thanksgiving.

That’s because there’s a couple more additions to the Parliamentary Assistants’ bench: Rookie MPP TYLER ALLSOPP, who just won the Bay of Quinte byelection, is PA to Long-Term Care Minister NATALIA KUSENDOVA-BASHTA, while STEVE CLARK is back in the inner circle as PA to the Premier himself. Global News got the jump. Clark — sidelined amid the Greenbelt drama — was also named Government House Leader this summer.

Timing is everything: Promoting Clark is yet another sign that Ford is adamant there was no wrongdoing in the Greenbelt matter, which the RCMP has been investigating for a year now. That investigation could upend possible plans for an early election.

It also affirms the fact that the…