Our guy protects health care. Theirs – and their campaign leadership – hawk cigs to kids.

UPDATE: Oh, and this.

This is very impressive.  Kudos aplenty to the National Post.

Jim Flaherty popped down to Toronto to heap praise of Tobacco Tim Hudak, this afternoon.

By endorsing him, Flaherty’s just kicked-started the “hat trick” story again.

Hat trick, you ask?  The video the Cons tried to suppress?

It’s August 2, 2011: Stephen Harper calls for a “hat trick” – that is, for the same Conservative cabal to run the country, the GTA and Ontario.

Download this video, and share it with others before voting day on October 6!  You can download the file here.

Download also found here.

Tobacco Tim: Prove You’re a Man of Your Word and Fire Yourself and Your Friends

Toronto – - If Tim Hudak is a man of his word, then he’s about to “fire” his campaign manager, his deputy campaign boss, at least one of his candidates, and himself.

That’s the only conclusion one can draw from Hudak’s pledge this morning that “if anyone did that on my campaign they’d be fired.”

The public record is clear and indisputable:  at every point, on every vote, Hudak has sided with Big Tobacco.  And his PCs are the only ones who opposed legislation that keeps tobacco away from children and opposed rules to stamp out tobacco advertising.

• FACT: Tim Hudak voted against the Smoke Free Tobacco act. (Hansard)
• FACT: Mark Spiro is Hudak’s campaign manager and his lobbying firm tried to stop tobacco warning labels. (cbc.ca, December 9, 2010)
• FACT:  Hudak’s deputy campaign director, Chad Rogers, still lobbies for big tobacco. (Lobbyist Registry)
• FACT:  One of Hudak’s star candidates and spokesman, Vic Gupta, has been a registered lobbyist against anti-smoking laws. (Lobbyist Registry)

So, when Tim Hudak says he’ll “fire” people for joking about cigarettes, will he start with himself and his closest aides who make their living off fighting warning labels and helping big tobacco advertise to Ontario kids?

-30-

Toronto Star reporter: What price do you put on someone’s health though? Is it okay for somebody to work in a casino surrounded by smoke, is that okay?

Tim Hudak: Listen, we’ll have members of our…

Reporter: I’m sorry, is that okay?

Hudak: We’ll have members of our party that support the [Smoke Free Ontario] bill and we’ll have some members like myself from border areas that don’t.

(Hudak Scrum, June 7, 2005)

Quite a few of Tea Party Tim’s candidates and senior advisors (including his campaign manager) have been Big Tobacco lobbyists.  And Hudak, of course, voted against the Smoke Free Ontario Act.

Case in point: I got home late last night and found this on my door step, as it were.  It sure was an interesting read, so I thought I’d share it with y’all.

Reason 1,342 why I loathe these guys.

Open publication – Free publishing – More lobbyist

Rafe and I are big in Kamloops. Well, he is, anyway.