Way to go Don Cherry. I hope You're Proud of Yourself

After calling any of us who care about the plight of workers in Rob Ford's Toronto, 'Left-wing Pinkos', Don Cherry must be so proud of the mess that he has helped to create.

And while I don't agree with some of Thomas Walkom's column on the subject, he does make a good point, when discussing the private firm that will get rich off this:

Ostensibly the attack on unions is driven by fairness: We hurt, therefore you should too. In fact, it’s driven by resentment. When Holyday says that Toronto city workers earn more than those who pay taxes, he’s not being technically accurate. Plenty of Torontonians make more money than civic employees.

But he’s tapping into a sense of class snobbery among those who think that garbage collectors deserve no more than the barest minimum.

Walkom suggests that the city will save money. They never do. They just change the dynamics of the money earned, from workers to owners.

Many successful people will include in their bios the fact that they are the son/daughter of mill workers or labourers. But they forget that their parents had good union jobs that they were able to have for decades. And those good union jobs provided benefits, like dental plans, so that they didn't have to go to job interviews as adults, with bad teeth. Or chronic coughs from living in damp houses all their lives.

And the pay from those jobs went back into the economy, helping to increase the service sector. Many students worked their way through university or college working in restaurants. Now former union workers are taking those jobs, which has had an impact on student employment.

As Walkom says:

Still, for most Canadians, the attack on unions is self-defeating. To a large extent, the North American middle class exists because of unions. As unions disappear, income disparities grow, poverty increases and society becomes more insecure. The U.S. is evidence of this.

And as expected, the people are fighting back:

"Rod Ford’s Budget Committee is right now working out the details of the opening round of his attack on poor and working people in this City. Ford campaigned on the basis of stopping the ‘gravy train’ at City Hall, but his Budget plans show how exactly he defines ‘gravy’," the group says on its website."The proposed cuts are real and they are deep - this is the information we have managed to gather so far, but can imagine are only the tip of the iceberg."

It's Mike Harris all over again. And the Ford crew are just as callous, with Rob's brother Doug telling them to get a job.

If Don Cherry was any kind of human being he would stand in solidarity with those workers. After all, he owes much of his success to the working class. But he's joined the Corporate Welfare State, so instead just snubs his nose at them.

He should be ashamed. I was once proud that he came from Kingston. Now I wish he'd say he came from somewhere else. Like maybe the bowels of Hell.