In today’s Sun: on Hudak’s (and others’) big mistake

On the weekend, PC campaigns started to distribute leaflets that need to be seen to be believed. One was lifted entirely from an advertisement that ran in the Toronto Sun and the National Post. The ad featured a wide-eyed child under the banner: “Please! don’t confuse me.” It falsely suggested that the Ontario sex-ed curriculum taught children how to be “transsexual, transgendered, intersexed or two-spirited.”

To its credit, the Post apologized “unreservedly” for the ad after it ran, saying: “the ad exceeded the bounds of civil discourse” because of its manipulative use of imagery and “in the suggestion that such teaching ‘corrupts’ children.” The Post declared that it would donate the money it received for the ad to a lesbian, gay or transgendered cause.

(I strongly objected to the Sun running a variation of the same ad. Defending the ad as an expression of free speech, to me, is wholly unconvincing. The Sun has frequently refused to run advertising in the past, for all sorts of reasons. Therefore, I too plan to donate what I receive from the Sun this week to an LGBT cause).

Despite the controversy — or perhaps because of it — the contemptible ad was reproduced in its entirety by one PC candidate in Willowdale, complete with a statement indicating that the pamphlet had been officially authorized by the Ontario PC campaign.


“Ashamed to be a Conservative”

That’s what one PC is saying on Twitter, after seeing Hudak’s error-filled, disgusting anti-gay leaflet:

I have heard from other Conservatives who do not want to go public – yet. If you feel as Ms. Kent does, please speak out. Or, if you like, contact me confidentially at wkinsella@hotmail.com.

My reference to the “face ad,” below, was deliberate. In 1993, what mattered wasn’t so much what we Liberals had to say about that despicable anti-Chretien ad. What mattered is what partisan Conservatives said – people like Sinclair Stevens, who courageously called me to say that his party had gone too far, and that he wanted to speak out.

Speak out. On Twitter, on Facebook, wherever. This is one of those moments in election campaigns where people are measured by what they did do – and what they didn’t.


The Hudak PCs unveil their version of the “face ad”

Here’s the C.P. story that just moved on the wire:

Ont Elxn Conservatives
Source: The Canadian Press
Oct 3, 2011 10:54

AMHERSTBURG, Ont. – Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak is defending a piece of campaign literature that the rival Liberals have branded as homophobic.

He says the flyers on the Liberals’ sex ed curriculum reflects Premier Dalton McGuinty’s “out of the mainstream” policy ideas.

Hudak says Grade 1 students should be taught the alphabet, not sex education, and it’s another example of how McGuinty has lost touch.

The Tory flyer urges parents to vote against the Liberals for “keeping parents in the dark” about what’s being taught in schools.

It says the sex ed curriculum teaches “cross dressing for six-year-olds” and suggests that teachers allow students to hold their own gay pride parade in their schools.

The literature quotes from a handbook provided to Toronto teachers that was obtained by The Canadian Press.

(The Canadian Press)

The slick PC pamphlet in question says, for example, that page 19 advocated “cross-dressing for six year-olds.”

So, here’s page 19:

It’s a list of names of people whose words or histories were consulted for the study. Nothing about “cross-dressing for six year-olds” is on that page. Not a word.

The rest of the allegations in the pamphlet are similarly wrong.  Most of the things they allege come from the curriculum in 2002 – when Tim Hudak was a government minister.

What does it mean? Well, it means Hudak is prepared to lie, and to smear people who are different.

Why is he doing that?

Because, as with the Campbell Conservatives in 1993 (on whose campaign he toiled), he’s losing, and he’s getting desperate.  He hasn’t run ad yet that attacks people for their physical appearance.  But he still has three days, so who knows.


Benedict Baldy update

After one top-secret call, last night, Benedict Baldy had a top-secret gathering with various big wheels in the Toronto Jewish community. There, agog attendees were told that (a) BB is holding out for a Hudak PC loss so that (b) he can then run for leader.

Attendees thereafter rushed to the phones to relate the bizarro BB strategy to others, who were equally gobsmacked. More calls were made.

Benedict Baldy: he’s rarely smart, but he’s often entertaining.

We Ontario Liberals are delighted he’s all yours now, Team Tea Party. Good luck, etc.


Hudak-Hillier PCs: breaking the law again?

Hillier didn’t declare leadership expenses, he didn’t pay taxes on those expenses, and a far-right Conservative MP used his taxpayer-funded office to help Hillier incur the expenses.

When will Hudak finally fire this creep?

Hillier submitted the invoices from Reid — $7,933.40, primarily for printing costs — in an attempt to prove he had hired other people to do work Hall hadn’t. Hall ultimately won that case and was paid just over half the amount — roughly $2,750 — he was seeking.

However, Reid’s name is absent from two mandatory financial statements signed by Hillier and submitted to Elections Ontario that have been obtained by the Citizen. Elections Ontario requires all candidates to list suppliers paid more than $100.

That is “an integral part of the financial statement,” according to a leadership handbook for contestants and their Chief Financial Officers. Reid said in an interview that he mainly supplied photocopying services for Hillier.

The photocopier was run from a second-floor office in the same building as Hillier and Reid’s shared constituency office. The two Conservative politicians represent Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington in their respective legislatures.


Harper to come to T.O. to stump for “Hat trick?”

Hat trick is the video the Cons tried to suppress.

It’s also something that you may be hearing a lot about tomorrow – as rumours persist that Stephen Harper will be in town to stump for Tim Hudak. Why is that significant? Well, go back to August 2, 2011: on that day, 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.

[hana-flv-player video=’/wp-content/uploads/hattrick/HarperHudakFordHatTrickBBQ.flv’ /]

 

Download also found here.