01.16.2013 08:26 PM

Not actually ridiculous, not actually nonsensical

It’s funny, but I was coincidentally in rural Ontario, today, with about 100 Ontarians (and clients) who happily live in rural Ontario. So I didn’t see any coverage of a certain Toronto-based leadership contender’s speech, wherein she declared that it was “ridiculous” and “nonsensical” for anyone to wonder if Toronto-centric candidates are a liability elsewhere in the province.

I asked these rural folks what they thought.

“She is too Toronto,” one guy said. “Sorry, but you’ll lose if you pick her.”

7 Comments

  1. DT says:

    That’s what one guy said.

    What did the others say?

  2. kent says:

    on the bright side, she might merge the party with ONDP

    • dillon says:

      Wynne is a problem outside of Toronto. But that’s because of what she stands for and not where she’s from. If we knew what Puppatello stood for she would win hands down but we don’t and she won’t.

  3. Peter says:

    As Warren is featuring this theme this week (strictly out of academic interest, of course), it’s been on my mind, particularly how screamingly obvious the syndrome is to everyone except Torontonians. It’s about character and attitude and the naive conviction they know what is best for the rest of the province, the country and–hey, even the planet. We really need someone like Rick Mercer to do it justice. The rest of us poor little country boys know that, when Toronto gets into a lather about something, watch out. They are perfectly capable of ramming through a hefty increase in gas prices to fund a province-wide bike path programme without so much as a consultation process.

    The other day we touched here on sports and the Leafs. Our son is a hockey fanatic and so we watch a lot of TSN around dinnertime. I couldn’t believe yesterday. I watched two hours almost entirely given over to interviews, analyses, clips, etc. of the Leafs’ goddam scrimmage game and the underachieving Kadri’s hat trick. It’s even featured on the CBC today. A SCRIMMAGE GAME BY THE WORST TEAM IN HOCKEY!! It was interspersed with periodic half-minute clips of the other teams, but very quickly it was then back to what is really exciting and important. By the end, I suspected it was self-parody.

    • GFMD says:

      The consulation on a PROVINCE-WIDE cycling path system – examiningg an infrastructure to Quebec’s revenue generating one and exploring changes to the highway traffic act to accommodate cycling — will continue until Jan. 29th.

    • Mike says:

      I would never stoop to defending the Leafs, but I am from TO, and I do feel there’s one point that everyone misses when they complain about us: Our tax dollars fund the Province. Half of every road, bridge, doctor, teacher, school, hospital, everything outside of Toronto, is paid for by Toronto income tax dollars. We can’t afford subways, yet we foot the bill for everything else that everyone else wants. I can understand how TO media coverage gets annoying, and I can understand we have an annoying amount on influence. But honestly – it’s our money. We should have a say in how it’s spent. It’s annoying to have rural Ontario ragging us all the time while WE PAY THEIR BILLS. I would gladly give the rest of Ontario full and complete autonomy if we could keep the tens of billions of dollars that we spend on them every year.

  4. Rene says:

    She was one of the candidates I had a chance to meet in Northern Ontario during this run for the leadership. Out of those I’ve met and from what I’ve heard, she seems to be the one advocating for the biggest voice for Northern Ontario. I think she has a plan to listen to us rural folk and hear what we’ve had to say. Premier has never once set foot in my hometown of Timmins since being elected and beyond all the investment dollars flowing to Sudbury, anything north of that seems to have been stopped by an imaginary border which is probably located near Hwy 17 and 144.

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