John Baird is trying to gain support for demolishing the gun registry, on the advice and behind the scenes manipulation of the American NRA, so he is once again falling back on the old "divide and conquer".Toronto "elites".
Unfortunately for the buffoon, as Chris Rands reminds us, Stephen Harper was born and raised in Toronto. In fact according to William Johnson in his biography of the man, he was an "elite" from an upscale WASP neighbourhood. His father was an executive at Imperial Oil. Doesn't get much more "elite" than that.
Oh, oh!
Yet this is not stopping the Reformers from sending out fundraising letters to incite their base, with the tired old "coalition" nonsense.
John Baird is blaming “Toronto elites” for pressuring rural opposition MPs into switching their vote to save the long-gun registry. This, as Conservative Party strategists issued a memo to their supporters darkly suggesting the Liberal-NDP coalition is alive and well and fighting hard to save the controversial program. As next Wednesday’s vote approaches, the rhetoric over the future of the long-gun registry is escalating. The Harper Tories are trying hard to paint this as a fight between rural and urban Canadians."Michael Ignatieff's Coalition"? The coalition was Stephane Dion and Jack Layton in 2008 and Ignatieff was the one who pulled the plug on it.
Under the headline, “Michael Ignatieff’s Coalition is working hard to save the registry,” the memo says: “On September 22, MPs from all three parties will have a choice. Will they stand with their constituents – the law-abiding farmers and hunters unfairly targeted by the registry? “Or will they follow Michael Ignatieff and his Coalition partners who are determined to maintain the registry regardless of the cost and effectiveness?”
In 2004 the Coalition was Stephen Harper, Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe. In 2000 the intended coalition was Stockwell Day and Gilles Duceppe.
These guys must really be getting desperate.
The fact that Harper spent his early years in Toronto doesn't make him a Toronto PM. His seat is in Calgary and he's not a Toronto MP.
ReplyDeleteNeither was John Turner when he was PM (albeit briefly). Turner was at that time the MP for Vancouver Quadra.
Harper's father may have been an "executive" with Imperial Oil and lived in Leaside and Etobicoke but the areas there are more for the lower-middle managers not the high-flown executives.
Harper has spent more of his life out of Ontario and is hardly an Easterner in his thinking and values.
As for the "elites". Harper so desperately wants to be in it, it's painful to watch. Yet he can only summon a minority and only like-minded persons rather than intellectual minds. Cabinet is more an echo chamber rather than a forum for discussion.
Any person who exhibits such overweening control of everything that touches him is a totally insecure and vain person. His difficulties and shortcomings are what keep him in minority government territory.
The next election will either see him come back with a minority (and he'll be dumped publicly like Thatcher) or as leader of the opposition and he'll be gone by that year's end.
It was meant to be sarcastic, not accusatory. It's just that whenever they get into trouble they pull out the "Toronto" card like it was a disease.
ReplyDeleteThis just shows how ridiculous the whole thing is. Michael Ignatieff was born in Toronto but raised around the world, since his father was a diplomat. Their home base was Ottawa. Jack Layton was born and raised in Montreal.
Using Toronto as a wedge issue shows how desperate the Harper government has become. Clearly they are grasping at straws.
My aunt lived in Toronto most her life and my cousins were all born and raised there. I love Toronto.
We just need to neutralize the "Toronto elite" nonsense by reminding Harper's "base" that he was born and raised there.