For over two years now, a bunch o' the boys have been gathering on Tower Road near MacTier, in Georgian Bay Township, in the heart of Ontario's cottage country, for a little target practice. Here are some pictures, screen grabs from a video which has been lighting up the Internet for some time now.
For just about as long, residents of the area, including members of the local snowmobile club, have been complaining to the OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) abour "reckless shooters" on their turf. The MacTier shooters, they say, have shown up every weekend this summer and left behind thousands of bullet holes and spent shell casings. "They think our laws don’t apply to them," one snowmobile club member told the Toronto Sun.
For some reason, the OPP did diddly until Ontario Premier Doug Ford, having seen the videos -- including one posted on the shooters' own social media -- told inquisitive reporters last Thursday, "I am confident the OPP will catch these guys." Et voilà, as surely as day follows night, the coppers announced today the arrest, over the weekend of a a 24-year-old Brampton man named... wait for it... Gurkanwal Singh.
We don't know if he's the one in the turban, or one of the other bearded gentlemen. The OPP say the investigation is ongoing, but so far Gurkanwal is the only one charged facing charges -- two counts of careless use of a firearm. No information about Mr Singh's nationality or immigration status was released, nor was there any mention of his occupation, although he is thought to be a graduate of the infamous Singh School of Truck Driving.
We also don't know -- and this is the important part -- exactly what it was that the Messrs Singh were shooting at or trying to do. Could it have been a rehearsal for the battle to free Khalistan? Or merely instruction in what to do if surrounded by rival gangs of tow-truck operators or border security agents. See "Your Singhs today (US-Canada border edition)", WWW 3/9/25.
Georgian Bay Township Mayor Peter Koetsier was among the many who voiceed concern over whatever the hell they're doing. "The careless discharge of firearms in populated or shared spaces creates unacceptable risk to residents and visitors, We urge the public to report unsafe behaviour before someone gets seriously hurt."
Tell us, Mister Mayor, what you expect the provincial or federal governments to do? Start rounding up the hundreds of thousands of Sikhs now residing (legally or otherwise) in Canada? Send them all back to the Punjab? Oh my no! That would be racist, wouldn't it...
Today is polling day (the proper name for "election day") in Ontario. Voters are expected to brave the crappy weather to give Mr Ford and his "Progressive Conservatives" (read: cuckservatives) an unprecedented third majory government.
Walt sez: that's better than the liberal Liberals or the pinko "New Democrats", who are neither new nor democratic. Many good lucks to you, Doug.
Ed. here. Walt has sent us this report from somewhere north of the longer of America's undefended borders.
As Ed. told you yesterday, the politics of the Canadian province4 of Ontario has been dominated for most of the post-WWII 20th century by a party with the oxymoronical name of "Progressive Conservative". A 42-year dynasty began just three days after Walt was born, ending only in June of 1985.
The Liberals had their longest run from 2003 until 2018, when the government of proudly lesbian Kathleen Wynne was defeated by a political novice named Doug Ford, the little big [hardly! Ed.] brother of former Toronto mayor Rob Ford. The Liberals finished third, losing official party status.
The question to be answered in yesterday's provincial election was: could Doug Ford, in spite of struggles with a faltering economy and the Covid "crisis", hang onto power? Here's the answer.
The "Ontario PCs" (the monker preferred by Mr Ford) won a second majority government, with twice as many seats as all the other parties combined! But wait, there's more.... The crushing victory forced the resignation of the leaders of the parties of the left and more-left. The Greens' Mike Schreiner held onto his own seat, and his position as "leader" of a party of one.
Andrea Horwath, leader of the socialistic "New" Democratic Party, was re-elected, but is stepping down as leader despite the party regaining Official Opposition status.
Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca failed to regain the Vaughan-Woodbridge riding, and announced his immediate retirement. Although the Liberals won one (1) more seat than last time, they didn't meet the threshold for official party status in the Onterio legislature.
So what happened to the "progressive" parties who were touted by the lickspittle media as likely to reduce the Ford "Conservatives" to a minority? Goodness knows they pulled out all the stops in their efforts to bribe Ontario taxpayers with their own money.
The Liberals, who occupy a place on the political spectrum roughly equivalent to that of the American Dumbocrats, offered a lengthy shopping list, free of any concern about cost, because of course the rich would pay "their fair share", and "efficiencies" would make up any shortfall. Their promises included:
- a "buck-a-ride" for mass transit anywhere in the million-square-km province
- billions for "affordable" housing (especially for Indigenous people, to make reparations for the misdeeds of the evil colonizers)
- more billions for "assisted-living" and "social and community" housing (like council flats in the UK or "projects" in the USA)
- and still more for elder care, home care and hospital care.
But wait (as Vince Offer used to say), there's even more! Rent controls for anyone not covered by all the new housing; cheaper food; cheaper gasoline; cheaper daycare; new and better schools; a "dementia care" network to help people like Sleepy Joe Biden (if he moves to Canada after his long overdue retirement); more nurses, more surgeries, more mental health workers; more money for seniors, a possible four-day work week and "living wage" for all. All this would be paid for by, errr, someone else.
The NDP offered similar slices of pie in the sky, while saying that they thought of it first, and that they were the only party with a chance of defeating the "Conservatives". (Ms Horwath didn't specify the odds of that happening, which were about 100-1.)
For his part, Doug Ford, simply promised to get things done:
- build a new superhighway to make it easier to go around rather than through Toronto (a pretty good idea!)
- train more future workers, particularly skilled tradesmen [tradespersons? Ed.]
- make it easier for educated immigrants (with degrees) to practise their professions (there are enough "refugee" Uber drivers already)
- build more hospitals and expand the capacity of the province's health-care system.
The beauty of the PC plan -- if you could call "more of the same" a plan -- was that it consists primarily of things that are already budgeted for and in progress. Mr Ford promised no radical changes in policy or priorities. That's not who he is. He's uninterested in policy, and certainly not ideology. He's a politician of the "extreme centre", a middle-of-the-road guy, the epitome of pragmatism. And that, it seems, is exactly what the people of Ontario want.
There are lessons for both liberals and conservatives in Mr Ford's crushing of the leftist ideologues. Canada's federal Liberals and their NDP hangers-on should learn that large numbers of voters are fed up with ideology-driven tax-and-spend policies that benefit every minority and pressure group in sight, but not the silent majority who (along with their children and grandchildren) must pay the bills.
There are implications for the federal Conservatives too, as they search for a new leader. The current front-runner is Pierre Poilievre, who holds himself out as a real conservative, although "social conservatives" snort when they hear that. Mr Poilievre is the attack dog type, snarling and going for the throats of the feckless liberals, not a folksy retail politician like Doug Ford.
If Canadian Conservatives are interested in beating the Trudeau Liberals, rather than just scoring debating points, they might look again at Jean Charest, l'homme d'hier. He's the type who would appeal to the mushy middle, and those are the people who gave Mr Ford two massive victories in a row, the second even greater than the first.
The trouble is that if M Charest were to become prime minister, the people of Canada would be only marginally better off than they are now, through not having endure any more Trudeau virtue-signalling. What should you do if you're a conservative Canuck? Is a dilemma....
Quote of the day: "The premier’s guiding philosophy of Ford Nation combines populist rhetoric and conservative principles. It’s a concoction of lower taxes, reducing government interference, supporting individual rights and freedoms — and giving more power back to the people. These are ideas that many Ontarians, both conservative and non-conservative in ideology, strongly believe in and support." Michael Taube, in the National Post, 3/6/22.
Further reading: "Lessons from the Ontario election", by Warren Kinsella, Toronto Sun, 3/6/22. Subhead: Doug Ford won -- and won for his party and team -- because he is a HOAG: A Hell Of A Guy.
Ed. here again. In my earlier post we left Walt and the South Park boys (Walt doesn't appear in the video) somewhere in Canada, after their City Airlines plane, piloted by Tuong Lu Kim, made an unscheduled landing. The boys wanted to see Canada's "new prime minister", Blackie McBlackface. Walt, however, wants to see what will happen to the forces of conservatism in today's general election in the province of Ontario.
Here at WWW we have a policy of not covering or commenting on regional -- state or provincial -- politics, unless there's some national or international issue involved. Walt insists the results of the Ontario election will show whether Ontarians, a pretty middle-of-the-road herd of sheep, are ready for real conservative politics and politicians.
The answer will have implications for the Conservative Party of Canada, which will in Sepotemnber choose yet another leader, from a slate of wannabes ranging from social conservative (Leslyn Lewis) to liberal (Jean Charest), with a pseudo-conservative (Pierre Poilievre) the current front-runner.
Ontarians are funny -- "funny curious", not "funny haha" -- in that they prefer having opposing parties in power federally and provincially. So it is that for the last century or so they send mostly Liberals to Ottawa and mostly Conservatives to the Pink Palace at Queen's Park in Toronto. The party known federallyn as "Conservative" is still called "Progressive Conservative" at the provincial level, and that oxymoron tells you all you need to know about the clever mugwumpery that has kept it in power for so long. As former premier "Brampton Billy" Davis used to say, "Bland works."
In 2017, after sitting on the wrong (read: opposition) side of the Ontario Legislature, the "Ontario PCs", as they now style themselves. to avoid using the dreaded C-word, chose a new leader, Doug Ford, who promised to move the party at least an RCH to the right of centre.
He lied. Elected premier in 2018, he rode out the Covid "crisis" and other problems by the same old mix of big government, deficit financing and handouts to all and sundry, used by Liberal governments in Ottawa and (before Ford) in Toronto.
It worked. Mr Ford is now the odds-on favourite to be re-elected today, perhaps with an increased majority. The hapless Liberals (who lost official party status in 2018) are fighting it out with the socialistic Not-so-new Democrats for second place.
Shown below, left to right are: Mr Ford, Liberal leader Steve DelDuca, the NDP's Andrea Horwath, and Mike Schreiner, leader of the Green Party. Mr Schreiner hopes to double his party's representation in the legislature from one (himself) to two. The other two are likely to lose their jobs and, in the case of Mr DelDuca, his own seat.
This time, however, there are two new, seriously conservative -- socially as well as fiscally -- in the running. They are the Ontario Party, headed by Derek Sloan, and the New Blue Party (no kidding), led by Jim Karahelios.
Both are disgruntled former "Conservative" MPs/MPPs, who feel (with reason) that real conservatives have been shut out of the traditional parties, betrayed by leaders like Mr Ford and former CPC leader Erin O'Tool, who campaigned from the right and governed from the centre-left. Both of the new parties are polling about 2%, just as Max Bernier's People's Party of Canada did on its first outing.
Walt is in London (or somewhere near there), waiting to see if real conservatism has at last taken root in Canada's most populous (if not popular or populist) province.
Well, I seem to have gone around the horn there, as Fred C. Dobbs would say. There's no room left for the True Names story I promised in the headline. I'll put that up later.
Canada's state propaganda agency ["broadcaster", shurely! Ed.] was quick to post a lengthy tut-tut when Statistics Canada reported recently that the number of hate crimes reported to police across Canuckistan went up 37% in the first year of the Covid "crisis" compared with the previous year.
Police-reported hate crimes targeting race or ethnicity rose 80% in 2020 compared with 2019. Of course, the CBC opines, the real numbers much be must higher. since such crimes are horribly under-reported. Besides, it is well known that white Canadians are incorrigible racists.
Statscan says reported hate crimes targeting East or Southeast Asian people went up 301%, those targeting black people went up 92%, those against Indigenous people went up 152%; and those against South Asian people went up 47%.
Statistics on hate crimes categorized by religion were not given, but incidents of anti-Semitic and Islamophobic crimes, such as the spray-painting of hateful graffiti on schools and "places of worship", have been much in the news lately, especially in the "Greater" Toronto Area.
The latest such incident occurred Saturday morning in the GTA bedroom community of Mississauga ON, when a man walked into a mosque and attacked worshippers with a hatchet and, errr, bear spray.
Speaking on behalf of the mosque, Nadia Hasan of the National Council of Canadian Muslims said a group of about 20 men were in the middle of a dawn prayer when the attack happened."Some of the men turned around and they very bravely decided that they were not going to let him attack them," she said, "so they tackled him to the ground and apprehended him until the police showed up."
Inspector Knacker of the Peel Regional Police said some congregants at the mosque received minor injuries from the bear spray. People were shaken up but are recovering, Ms Hasan said, "but for the most part, folks are still processing what’s happened and are trying to kind of see how they can ensure that their communities remain secure."
Canadian politicians of all parties, from all levels, were quick to signal their tolerance and virtue on Twitter. Ontario Premier Doug Ford said his "heart goes out to the Dar Al-Tawheed Islamic Centre community who were attacked this morning. There is NO place in our province for such evil and hateful acts. We must ensure those responsible are brought to justice."
Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie said she was "shocked and angered" by the assault. "This unprovoked attack on a place of worship is absolutely unacceptable and I strongly condemn it." The leader of Ontario's far-left "New" Democratic Party, Andrea Horwath, said "in response to an evil, violent act of Islamophobic hate, the Dar Al-Tawheed Islamic Centre community acted courageously to keep folks safe. We all stand with them."
Ontario Liberal leader Steven Del Duca said she was "appalled by this frightening attack in Mississauga." Then, quick to score a political point, he tweeted, "This is why @nccm’s #OurLondonFamilyAct to take meaningful action against Islamophobia is so important. Ontario Liberals continue to stand with the Muslim community against all acts of hate."
Toronto Mayor Jello Tory said he was "shocked to hear about the violent attack" on the congregants of the mosque. :We stand with the Muslim community in Mississauga, Toronto and across Canada in the wake of this assault." He said any violence against the Muslim community or any community in a place of worship is "totally unacceptable. Our work to make sure everyone can pray in peace without fear, threats or violence must continue."
It should be noted that all these pols are all white, native-born Canadians, who, if not practising Christians, are not members of other "faith communities". The same may be said of Canuckistan's Prime Minister, Just In Trudeau, if you look underneath the blackface makeup.
Mr Socks was one of the first to raise the flag of virtue, calling the attack "incredibly disturbing. I strongly condemn this violence — which has no place in Canada — and I'm keeping the community in my thoughts today," he tweeted. "I also want to applaud the courage of those who were there this morning."
Imagine his embarrassment, and that of all those who assumed that the attacker was a whitey, like those responsible for attacks on Muslims in Québec City and New Zealand, when the cops announced late yesterday that the perp was 24-year-old Mohammad Moiz Omar.
He has been charged with assault with a weapon, administering a noxious substance with intent to endanger life or cause bodily harm, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, uttering a threat to cause death or bodily harm, carrying a concealed weapon, and mischief to religious property. Apparently no "hate crime" charges have been laid.
Mr Omar's ethicity and immigration status have not been disclosed, but it can safely be assumed he is a follower of the Prophet whose name he bears. The question is: what kind of Muslim is he? Is he Shia or Shiite or a member of some other branch of the "religion of peace"?
From here it looks like the Muslim civil wars, still raging in the Middle East, have been brought to Canada by some of the "refugees" the politicians welcomed with open arms. Is anyone surprised?
Yes, folks, it's Groundhog Day... again. Furry seers on both sides of the World's Longest Open Border have been dragged out of their burrows -- cages, actually -- to blink in the sunlight... or not. American readers will be familiar with Punxatawney Phil, the one shown in the eponymous movie. [No. You could only say "eponymous" if the movie had been named "Punxatawney Phil", not "Groundhog Day". Ed.] Bah! You know what I mean...
I just want to say that, having seen the animal in the movie, our American readers may think that groundhogs are brown. That's true, but the Canucks have their own polar groundhog, not tawny like Phil (geddit?), but white! The Weather Woodchuck of Wiarton ON is called Wiarton Willie, and here's what he looks like.
Wiarton Mayor Janice Jackson was joined by Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his "shadow cabinet" (geddit?) this morning for the announcement of Willie's forecast. The event was not without its share of excitement, however, when Ms Jackson misinterpreted the portent. She initially told the town crier that the rodent had seen his shadow, meaning spring was on the way. But by the time Willie was coaxed out of his den, the sky was cloudy, so, no shadow.
Punxatawney Phil also made an appearance this morning with his top-hatted handlers before a huge crowd at Gobbler's Knob PA, and likewise predicted an early spring.
There is another groundhog, colour unknown, further east, in Shubenacadie NS. They're on Atlantic Time there, so Sam is always the first groundhog in North America to make a prediction about how long winter will last, with Willie and Phil weighing in about an hour later. Sadly, the festivities at Shubenacadie Wildlife Park were cancelled this year due to a blustery snowstorm that hit the region last night.
[That's enough groundhogs. You're straining the spell-checker. Ed.]
Agent 3 is in Toronto this weekend, following the annual convention of the Ontario Progressive Conservative [sic] Party. One of Walt's favourite conservatives, Tanya Granic Allen, is there, making the more mainstream Tories uncomfortable by reminding them that many people who voted them into office last June did so because they expected a PC government to reverse the course set by the previous Liberal government on matters such as "progressive" sex education and gender ideology.
At the convention today, they voted in favour of a resolution to no longer recognize gender identity theory, which the resolution calls "a highly controversial, unscientific liberal ideology. The actual wording of the resolution is: Be it resolved that [the] Ontario PC Party recognizes "gender identity theory" for what it is, namely, a highly controversial, unscientific "liberal ideology"; and, as such, that an Ontario PC Government will remove the teaching and promotion of "gender identity theory" from Ontario schools and [their] curriculum.
Although the resolution was adopted as party policy, it is not binding on Mr Ford's Progressive Conservative government. However, Walt suggests to Mr Ford that he would do well to listen, as his government reconsiders the sex education curriculum, to the voice of the people who elected him. As a former PC prime minister of Canada once said, "It's a long road that has no ashcans!" [What does that actually mean? Ed.]
MEANWHILE, in Australia, which now has laws enshrining a person's right to choose their "gender identity", a conservative senator is taking the heat for comments during a debate on a proposed Day of the Unborn Child, in which he "declared [his] gender" to be female in an attempt to shield himself from criticism over his stance on abortion.
National Party Sen. Barry O'Sullivan made the comments in Parliament on Wednesday, saying he was tired of being attacked for his beliefs.
Senator O'Sullivan’s motion to ban pro-abortion activists from the Day of the Unborn Child failed 32-12.
UPDATE ADDED 20/11/18: Ontario's Premier Doug Ford, elected in June on his promise to respect the wishes of voters who are sick of having gender ideology rammed down their throats (or some other orifice) by "progressive" governments and the lamestream media, wimped out on this one, annouoncing yesterday that he would use every means possible to NOT give effect to the resolution passed by members of his own "Progressive Conservative" [sic] party. Just another politician who says whatever it takes to get elected, and then turns his back on those who put him in office. The deporables -- see "Bernier's People's Party of Canada wows Toronto 'deplorables'", WWW 20/11/18 -- won't forget!
It's taken me a few hours to get going this morning, following a night of toasting [marshmallows? Ed.] but a small serving of Ma Nifkins' jellied gin has me almost back to normal, so let me share some thoughts from yesterday's provincial election in the Canadian province of Ontari-ari-ario.
To set the stage, and get our American readers up to speed, Ontario is one of the more "progressive" provinces in one of the most liberal nations on earth, outside of Scandinavia. For the last 15 years it has been misruled by the Liberal Party -- the party of Big Government and social justice for all (except for straight, white, Canadian-born males). For the last five years, the Premier (head of the provincial government) was Kathleen Wynne, pictured at left below, the image on the right being that of her sister.
Ms Wynne is proud to be a lesbian, and is largely responsible for the much-reviled dirty sex education curriculum imposed on Ontario schools (including Catholic schools) in 2015. See WWW passim.
After 15 years of the Liberal nanny state's social engineering and tax-and-spend mismanagement, the people of Ontario were crying, begging for change. But who would change what the liberal elites and the (((controlled media))) keep saying is the natural order of things? Could anyone promise to turn back the clock?
Two other parties -- three, if you count the Green Party -- said they would do things differently. The socialist New Democratic Party (NDP), led by Andrea Horwath -- another short, shrill lady (?) -- promised to tax more and spend more, to give Ontarians free drugs, free dental care, and the sun, moon and stars, all by making the corporations and the rich, pay for it. As part of that, Ms Horwath said she would declare Ontario a "sanctuary province", so the bounties of socialism would be available to the huddled masses entering Canada illegally, at a cost of a mere C$2.5 billion (about $1.93 billion in real money).
The alternative -- and quite a stark choice it was, according to Ms Wynne herself -- was the oxymoronically named Progressive Conservative Party, led by Doug Ford, brother of the late Rob Ford, the mayor of Toronto, famous for having appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Like his brother, Doug Ford portrayed himself as a tax-cutting warrior, a fiscal conservative who believes governments waste too much taxpayers' money. Over and over, he repeated a simple message: a Ford government will be a responsible steward for taxpayers' money, and that "help is on the way for hard-working families!"
Mr Ford said he would cut taxes, cut the price of gas, cut hydro rates, cut the price of beer and eliminate the deficit while spending billions on transit and infrastructure projects. He had a simple product, and he was selling it at a lower price than anybody else in terms of tax cuts and other commitments of reduced prices. Those are tangible things that people understood and -- after 15 years of liberalism -- very much wanted.
And guess what, folks? It worked! The simple small-C conservative message, delivered by a straight white male -- the kind of guy you'd like to have a beer with -- carried the Progressive Conservativess to a solid victory over lefties. Here's Doug Ford celebrating going to Queen's Park today as the head of a majority government.
Any resemblance to Donald Trump is purely coincidental, don't you think? Mr Ford's detractors say otherwise. They accused him of cultivating the same image to win the same voters -- the plain people of Ontario, ignored for so long by liberal chattering classes of downtown Toronto. Whether he did so deliberately or not doesn't matter. It worked! Don Guy, a veteran Liberal political campaign strategist and former chief of staff to Kathleen Wynne's predecessor, Dalton McGuinty, said "[Mr Ford] was the ideal candidate because he gave small-c conservative voters a very comfortable home, a very comfortable archetype and a very strong message."
Kathleen Wynne had a mutual love affair (philosophical, not physical!) with Canuck Prime Minister Justin "Mr Socks" Trudeau. She shared Junior's "progressive ideals", and could be counted on to support his view of government as an agent for change. Doug Ford? Not at all! A price on carbon? He's against it. Asking the wealthy to shoulder a greater tax burden? He's against that, too. Free drugs for all? Social housing, especially for "refugees" and the idle poor? Gender-based analysis of government initiatives? Such entitlement programmes weren't at the bottom of Mr Ford's to-do list. They weren't on it at all! The priorities of a Ford government, he told voters, begin with "A" for "austerity".
A political scientist at Queen's University, in Kingston ON, said, "I think the fact that he came across as sensible during the debates really helped him a lot. He didn't get upset during them. It was a very controlled campaign. He was very much in control as well. He had his key messages. He stayed on point. He repeated them." Mr Ford's message that he would find "efficiencies" in government resonated with Ontario voters, she said. "People do see government as being wasteful in some ways. Everybody's got a story about that, so that kind of hits home."
As well as a warning to the libtards, progressives and SJWs, Doug Ford's victory -- and it's very much his, personally! -- is a good lesson for small-C conservatives everywhere. Keep the message simple, stay focussed on bread-and-butter issues more than ideology, and you will win. Next target for Canadians -- turf Trudeau in 2019! If I were "Mr Socks", I'd be quaking in my loafers.
Note from Ed.: For American readers who are wondering what's with all the blue in a conservative celebration... party colours in Canada are, like those of Britain, the reverse of what you're used to in the Excited States of America. Liberals wear red. Conservatives wear blue. The Greens favour green -- DUH! As for the NDP, who you'd think would be in the pink... their colour is orange. Go figure.
Ed. here. Walt is on assignment, as they say in the meeja, observing what looks like being an interesting election in Ontario (Ontario, Canada, not Ontario, California).
Kathleen Wynne, proud lesbian and Premier of the province until tomorrow night has already thrown in the pink towel, conceding Saturday morning that there's no way she and her Liberal Party can be returned to power. Walt says they will be lucky to hold onto two seats in the 124-seat legislature.
The real contest is between the socialist(ish) New Democratic Party, led by Andrea Horwath and the oxymoronical Progressive Conservative Party, which, under new leader Doug Ford (brother of the late mayor of Toronto) is emphasizing the second half of its name rather than the first. Walt has endorsed Mr Ford, but is more than a little unhappy with his decision to reject the candidacy of Tanya Granic Allen.
The latest polls show the PCs with a thin margin in the popular vote, but a substantial lead in the projected number of seats, enough to form a majority government, after 15 years of Liberal misrule. I expect a report from Walt on Friday, DV. Stay tuned.
Walt is dismayed -- make that pissed off in the extreme -- to have to report that the oxymoronical Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario and its newly-minted leader, Doug Ford, have caved to PC [not "Progressive Conservative" but "political correctness". Ed.] police and won't allow Tanya Granic Allen to run under the PC [not "politically corect" but "Progressive Conservative". Ed.] banner in June's provincial election.
The announcement comes after the Liberal Party of Ontario -- led by proud-to-be-lesbian Kathleen Wynne -- issued a news release Saturday afternoon, citing a 2014 video of Mrs Granic Allen criticizing sex education and gay marriage. Here's the clip from Toronto's CityNews.
If you didn't hear clearly, Mrs Granic said, in a speech at a Croatian-Catholic Youth weekend conference, "You know, now what I hear about Hrvatska (Croatia) trying to push radical sexual education on the young or gay marriage you know I almost vomit in disbelief. Just 20 years ago we were liberated from this communism but now we are embracing these lack of values, these lack of ideals."
In a statement posted to her Twitter page, the only true Christian conservative in the field said she was disappointed that she had been declared no longer a candidate, and will have more to say about the decision and Ontario politics in the near future. Walt will be listening!
For now, I withdraw my endorsement of Doug Ford and his PC ["Progressive Conservative" and now "politically correct" too! Ed.] Party. To get back in my good books, Mr Ford needs to ignore left-wing identity politics and address the wants and needs of the silent majority of Ontarians (outside the GTA). Trying to win over the elites of Toronto could cost him a majority, perhaps the entire election.
For those who don't follow Ontario politics, "PC" stands for Progressive Conservative, the oxymoronical name the province's centrist party chose for itself long before "PC" (Political Correctness) became the bane of true conservatives.
The very photogenic Tanya Granic Allen, last mentioned here in March, is defiantly un-PC, in the latter sense, but is now the official PC candidate for the riding of Mississauga Centre in the June 7th provincial election.
Yesterday she won the party's nomination, defeating three other candidate wannabes (including a Muslim), in the "ethnically diverse" riding. If you look closely, you might spot one of Walt's agents in the crowd of supporters.
A strong social conservative, Mrs Granic Allen is a past president of Parents As First Educators (PAFE), an advocacy group fighting against the Liberal government's pro-queer sex education agenda. She also advises various organizations including the Catholic Civil Rights League of Canada, and Campaign Life Coalition. In 2014, she was invested as Dame of Magistral Grace in The Order of Malta.
During the recent PC leadership contest, Mrs Granic Allen spoke out against the Liberals' sex education curriculum, once saying that the decline in elementary school students' math scores was the result of discussing anal sex in the classroom. This month she came under fire from the usual gang of "progressive thinkers" and SJWs for comments she made online in 2013 and 2014. Speaking about Québec's proposed Charter of Values, Mrs Granic Allen said she opposed the niqab and burka, saying people shouldn't "dress like bank robbers when going to vote" or "ninjas when going on an afternoon stroll."
She cited an attack on two teenage girls in Zanzibar "yet another reason not to vacation in a Muslim country." And in 2014 she tweeted in 2014 that the Queen should not allow gay marriage in England. The Queen's reply is not a matter of record.
Walt joins Doug Ford in congratulating Tanya Granic Allen on being nominated. But that's just the first step in making her strong voice for Canadian Christian values heard in the Ontario legislature. The second challenge is getting her elected in a riding where white, born-in-Canada Christians are in the minority. If you're a resident of Ontario -- of Mississauga Centre in particular -- and would like to help, visit her website or click here to send an e-mail to the campaign team. Good luck, Tanya!!!
Ontario is right in the centre of Canuckistan -- politically as well as geographically. Radicalism, either to the right or to the left, is for the other provinces. If you look up "moderate" in your dictionary of politics, you'll find, as Example No. 1, Ontario's oxymoronically-named Progressive Conservatives (aka PC party), who governed the province for 40-odd years from the middle of World War II until the mid-80s. The Premier, for much of that time, was a chap named Bill Davis, whose motto was "Bland works."
Since then, except for a brief fit of madness in 1990, when Ontario voters elected an NDP (read: socialist) government by mistake, Ontarians have elected a succession of Progressive Conservative (centre-right) and Liberal (centre-left) governments whose policies vary by no more than two iotas, combining big government, big business and social engineering into a stew of liberal progressive pap.
The present stirrer of the pap, and Chief Social Engineer of the "province of opportunity" is proudly lesbian Premier Kathleen No-Wynne, who has attempted in the last few months to push her Liberal party in a more leftward direction, particularly on "social justice" issues such as public safety (Police bad!) and education reform (Gender ideology good!).
Ms Wynne and her cronies in the Pink Palace at Queen's Park are up for re-election in June. Her approval ratings being as close to zero as to be within the margin of error, she looked certain to be defeated by the Progressive Conservatives, whose leader was a nebbish by the name of Patrick Brown. Having hoodwinked the PC's social conservatives to become leader, Mr Brown promptly flip-flopped on sex education and other social issues, so as to be seen as more "moderate" than Ms Wynne, therefore more acceptable to Ontario voters. He might have pulled it off, too, if he hadn't got caught in the #MeToo foofaraw, as a result of which he resigned on January 25th.
Patrick Brown's resignation threw the PCs into panic mode, since they needed a new leader to take them into the June election muy pronto. Four people their hats into the ring, including Tanya Granic Allen, endorsed by Walt on February 12th, whose goal was always and only to give a voice to Ontario's social conservatives, who hadn't had anyone to speak for them since... well, since forever!
The other three were: Christine Elliott, the widow of a former federal finance minister and darling of the party insiders; Caroline Mulroney, political neophyte but well-connected daughter of Lyin' Brian, a disgraced former prime minister; and Doug Ford, elder brother of Rob Ford, the crack-smoking (etc etc) populist mayor of Toronto until his untimely death in 2016.
Voting for the next PC leader and, probably, next Premier of Ontario was to be done online, all very modern and, errr, progressive. All you had to do was get your party membership by February 16th. Then they would mail you -- by snail-mail -- a "verification code" which you would enter online to send them a scan of your photo ID, after which they would e-mail you a PIN number which you would use to vote, online. The party bureaucrats would then print out your ballot, which would be counted by machine. The votes would then be adjusted -- weighted -- so that all the ridings (electoral districts) had an equal say. What could go wrong?
Yes... what could go wrong? Walt was in Ontario yesterday for the goat rodeo [leadership convention, shurely. Ed.] to find out. Of about 140,000 registered party members, only some 70,000 had received verifications letters. Of those, around 65,000 had actually been able to vote. The result was to be announced at 1500 EST. 1500 came and went. So did 1600, 1700, 1800, 1900 and 2000. Finally, at about 2025, a minion emerged from behind a black curtain at the Hilton Markham Convention Centre to tell the tired and emotional party faithful to go home! Seriously! No result tonight, they said, but we'll let you know "in the short term".
A couple of hours later, while those who hung around were still picking their jaws up off the floor, the party honchos, stung by speculation that the fix was in for Ms Elliott, relented and announced, very quietly, that the winner was... no drum roll... Doug Ford! They did not give any numbers, nor any explanation for the delay. Christine Elliott, who was rumored to have finished a close second, was nowhere in sight, and has refused -- just like Hellery Clinton -- to concede. An "investigation" is under way, and a court challenge is likely. Mr Ford made a short (and less than stirring) acceptance speech.
I've been following politics on both side of the World's Longest Undefended Border for decades and have never seen anything like this, north of that border. It was all so American! Here you had a sexagenarian woman, already a two-time loser running for the same position, who didn't get what she felt entitled to (in spite of the machinations of the party brass) and stormed off into the night. And the winner was a populist social conservative who campaigned openly against the party elites and the (((controlled media))), whom he accused (quite rightly, IMHO) of being out of touch with the needs and sentiments of the Real Ontario.
The lamestream media don't have their hair on fire over the Ford win. Being Canucks, their hair is just smouldering slightly. But already they're saying that Ford can't win, he's too right-wing, wants to turn back the clock, yada yada yada. Where have we heard that before! Doug Ford may not win Rosedale and Forest Hill -- posh parts of the Little Apple -- but Walt predicts he'll do well in "the 905" (the ring of exurbs around Toront) and sweep rural Ontario, just as President Trump swept America's "flyover country". Lifetime pct .989.
Final thought: I was pleased indeed to see Doug Ford give a special shout-out to Tanya Granic Allen, who was standing behind him and to his right (!), and stepped forward with a wave and a smile at about the half-way point of the video. Well done, that lady! Make her Minister of Education, Doug!
Cazart! Even as I was writing "Ontario conservatives! Vote Tanya Granic Allen for PC party leader" earlier today, Ontario Progressive Conservative [sic] leader wannabe Doug Ford was getting up on his hind feet at Don Bosco Catholic Secondary School, on his own turf in northwest Toronto, to call out not just Kathleen Wynne's Liberal government but his own party for the current state of education in the Province of Missed Opportunity.
For those who don't know, Doug Ford is the little brother -- perhaps "younger brother" would be a better phrase -- of the late Rob Ford, the crack-smoking and otherwise controversial mayor of Toronto, 2010-2014. That's Doug on the right, which is where he likes to be. My guess is that the announcement by Tanya Granic Allen that she was throwing her hat in the leadership ring (see previous post) served to warn Mr Ford that he was in danger of losing the social conservative vote -- there's a lot of them out there -- unless he spoke out against his party's liberal policies on matters such as abortion and sex education.
On the latter subject, Mr Ford said both the Liberals and PCs are to blame for the current unsatisfactory state of education in Ontario. "Educating our children is the most important job in the world," he said. "The next generation will inform how our country develops and contributes to issues facing society. Ontario needs to be a leader in the quality of education we give our children. This means that we need to arm our teachers with comprehensive and practical curriculum documents."
"The way the sex-ed curriculum was rolled out was totally unacceptable. Consultations with parents were insufficient. Unlike the Liberals, I know that parents -- not the government -- are our first educators when it comes to our children." Did you catch that play? "First educators"! That's the name of Mrs Granic Allen's group -- Parents As First Educators.
The Liberals' new sex education curriculum was implemented in classrooms in September 2015. In accordance with the pro-queer agenda favoured by Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne (a lesbian herself), they start laying the gender ideology on Grade 3 students -- that's age 8 -- to get the kiddos to "accept differences". Students start learning about puberty in Grade 4, a year earlier than before. In Grade 6, when kids are 11, they are introduced to masturbation, which teachers were urged to describe as a "common practice". Then, in Grades 7 and 8, students are taught about consent, practising abstinence, and... wait for it... anal sex. In Grade 8. Can you imagine?
1000s of Ontario parents took to the streets around the Pink Palace to protest. But it was too late. The new curriculum was presented as a fait accompli. Parents weren't consulted beforehand, and certainly wouldn't be listened to after the curriculum -- the handiwork of a convicted pedophile, (((Dr Benjamin Levin))) -- was rolled out.
It's the kind of deviltry that is hard to undo. And unlike Mrs Granic Allen, Doug Ford didn't flat out promise to scrap it. He said the sex-ed curriculum should be about facts, not teaching "liberal ideology". But would he undo it? Well... errr... what he said was "If I’m elected leader, I will take this issue to the party, to parents and to the voters. I will remain firm on this issue. I will always stand for parents having the first say in what their children learn."
Mr Ford blamed not just the Liberals but his own party. "The Liberals have refused their insight, feedback and expertise by not consulting with families on changes to Ontario's sex-ed curriculum," he said. "But the Liberals have not been the only ones who have turned a blind eye to the concerns of parents. Our own PC party, under Patrick Brown, refused to even consult its own members on what we thought of this curriculum and stonewalled debate of the issue by forbidding discussion of this policy from reaching the membership during our policy development process."
Mr Ford was obviously trying to position himself to the right of the other two "serious candidates" for the PC leadership. Former MPP Christine Elliott said parents were "shut out" during the brief and fraudulent "consultation" held in 2014, but she hasn't said what, if anything, she would do about it. The third candidate, Caroline Mulroney (daughter of Lyin' Brian Himself) has said she will "revisit" the sex education curriculum. Only Tanya Granic Allen has had the courage to say she is against it.
Dear Ontario readers, it's the entry of Mrs Granic Allen into the race that has forced the "serious candidates" to say something. This proves that if right-thinking people are both vociferous and persistent, they can make themselves heard and, please God, put a brake on the runaway liberal freight train. Join the protest! Scroll down to my earlier post, and follow the link to register today for your membership in the Ontario PC party, so you can support Tanya Granic Allen. The membership deadline is February 16th, so do it now!
This weekend's bad news, for Jimmy Kimmel, is that Rob Ford is no longer running for mayor of Toronto. Last week he was found to have a tumour in his lower left abdomen, and is now at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital, awaiting results of a biopsy and other tests. Consequently, he withdrew his name from the ballot on Friday afternoon.
You would think that Mr. Ford's principal opponents -- the aptly-named John Tory and Olivia Chow -- would be rubbing their hands in glee when not dabbing at their crocodile tears, but you would be wrong. For lo and behold, Rob Ford's older (and meaner) brother, Doug, has entered the lists in his place. Deus ex Etobicoke.
A week ago polls had Mr. Tory comfortably in the lead, with over 40% of those asked saying they'd be voting for him. Rob Ford was in the low 30s and Olivia Chow trailed at around 20%. Now all bets are off. Although he doesn't have the experience and charisma [??? Ed.] of his kid brother, Doug Ford is tougher and arguably smarter when it comes to keeping himself out of political or personal trouble. He doesn't drink, eats less junk food (by the looks of him), and isn't likely to appear in any videos of crack parties with Jamaican gangstas.
Now Rob has passed the torch to Doug. Poor Len came up with a great idea for an editorial cartoon but was unable to get hold of Brian Gable at the Groan and Wail. It would show Rob attempting to pass the torch to Doug, and Doug would be saying, "No! No! The other end! The other end!"
Both Walt and Poor Len endorse Doug Ford for mayor of Toronto. Hey, we don't live there!
