I have only two words for Tim Hudak: Forget. You. They are words I never thought I’d use in print, and I don’t use them lightly. But when you actively promote hate, when you target my friends, my neighbors, my fellow citizens and single them out for hatred and condemnation because of who they are, and when you do it while campaigning to represent ALL Ontarians in order to score points with bigots… well you can go forget yourself Hudak, sincerely. I apologize for my language, I really do, but this is so sickening, so appalling, so fundamentally depressing, that I truly am at a loss for words…
Year: 2011
Horwath Wins Ontario Debate, MSM Miss the Boat
Reading coverage of the Ontario leaders debate, one would be forgiven for thinking that it came out a wash, with no leader really picking up support out of the televised platform. In a Globe article published this morning Adam Radwanski even opined that “despite their better efforts, they [the Leaders] most likely succeeded in hardening their own support rather than moving votes”. Now, it’s easy to doubt your own instincts, or be confused about the victor in this debate, especially if you missed the show. After all, each party’s spin teams took to twitter and other social media platforms with a vengeance before the debate even ended, pronouncing it a decisive victory for their candidate. But the proof is in the pudding, as they say, and for that I turned to the only comprehensive and scientific post-debate poll…
Absolute Power Corrupts Conservatively
After five long years and two election victories with minority governments, Stephen Harper won his first majority last May in surprising fashion. Despite having numerous unpopular social policies, Harper managed to win an additional 23 seats guaranteeing full control in the House of Commons.
The election brought down Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, who even lost his own seat, and formally resigned the next day. In Quebec, BQ leader Gilles Duceppe lost his seat as well and resigned as support for the Bloc Quebecois completely vanished. The only shining light…
The curse/blessing of Internet activism
As I clicked on yet another internet petition, this time designed to stop the reckless destruction of Oceanic Eco-systems ( AAVAZ.ORG “24 hours to end Ocean clear-cuts”), I realized that I was participating in what has become an increasingly alarming or encouraging trend, depending on how you look at it, in political activism: the internet social network driven protest. In a 2007 interview with CNN, Canadian celebrity lefty and best-selling author Naomi Klein made the following observation about this novel form…
The Arab Spring meets fall in New York, but you won’t find #OccupyWallStreet on TV
BREAKING NEWS: New York City is under occupation and has been for a few days. You’d think that would be breaking news, wouldn’t you? Even if it’s not the whole city, just the financial quarter. And even if it’s not an invading army, but people upset with the way their own country is running things (in this case, the economy). After all, domestic upheaval in Egypt and people occupying a public square in Bahrain was headline news all around the world just a few months ago, wasn’t it? Come to think of it, the lack of media coverage of the Occupy Wall Street protest is just like the Arab Spring. State controlled media completely blocked the protesters’ side of the story…
Riding the Lightning
With the emergence of Rick Perry in the race for the Republican presidential nomination and the fast approaching day of execution for Troy Davis, the debate revolving around the death penalty has begun to heat up yet again. The practice of capital punishment has been used by virtually every society since the dawn of civilization and continues on in modern times, but why is this ancient act of social revenge still present in some of our so-called “civil” societies…
Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing
It is becoming increasingly difficult not feel a fair amount of pity for American Christians. Having the fortune of spending several weeks in the Carolinas with my family, perhaps the most striking thing to a visitor traveling through “God’s Country” is the sheer number of churches. In one town, which was little more than a single extended road, I counted thirteen. In another, eight, including four on opposing corners from one another. It should go without saying then that despite advances…
On mergers and other idiotic ideas…
There’s been talk of union, of merger, between the Liberal Party of Canada and the federal New Democrats now that a grand iconoclast has passed into the great hereafter. Perhaps it will be developed into a kind of ‘unite the left’ initiative, much like the successful ‘unite the right’ campaign of the late-1990s. In fact, if there is serious consideration of a merger between the Grits and NDP at the federal level, there’s little doubt in my mind that it will be subsequently marketed specifically as a united alternative to Stephen Harper and the ruling Conservatives…
Habeas what? Harper government set to renew controversial clauses in Anti-Terrorism Act
If anyone tells you that Stephen Harper’s gang of neo-cons subscribe to some sort of libertarianism, you can spit in their eye for me (to quote the great Barney Gumble)!
The libertarian school, though I strongly disagree with it, basically calls for less government (if not abolishing it entirely!) intervention in our lives. Yet the basic premise of the Federal Anti-Terrorism Act including the sunset clauses that is currently being championed by…
9/11 – Keeping the Fear Alive, Ten Years On
Ten years after that fateful Tuesday morning in September 2001, the world continues to mourn the tragedy that saw four hijacked airplanes take the lives of nearly three thousand innocent people from around ninety different countries. The terrorist attacks on the United States have been marked every year with memorials, the reading of the names and of old news coverage of the events to go along with a new credible imminent terrorist threat. While a tragedy of such size and sophistication is always worth remembering, it is more important to reminisce…