He told a Globe reporter 36 minutes ago that he has never, ever said “foreign workers” to describe the targets of his race-baiting new policy. To wit:
Ladurantaye: Why do you keep calling immigrants foreign workers?
Hudak: I’m not.
Uh-huh.
Quote unquote, here:
“Words almost fail. A proposed Liberal tax credit to encourage businesses to give new immigrants a leg up in the Ontario economy “doesn’t fit the values of Ontario families.”
So says nativist/Teabagger Tim Hudak, leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives.
The proposed program would restrict eligibility to new Canadian citizens who have lived in Canada for at least up to five years.
Citizens, geddit?
But to Hudak, these Canadians are “foreign workers.” Not real Canadians. Not real Ontarians.
His minions have cranked out an attack ad entitled “Ontarians Need Not Apply.”
Which Ontarians, Tim? Why are you deliberately leaving out so many of them, perhaps a little duskier in hue than you and your angry yokel base?
That’s not a dogwhistle, old boy. That’s a foghorn.
[H/ts fern hill, Warren Kinsella and Terrence Watson]
UPDATE: Hudak’s rank hypocrisy.”
As I was lined up for another espresso this morn, a citizen said to me: “You know, it’s interesting that, in the same week you guys started running McGuinty front and centre in your ads, the PCs took Hudak out of theirs. Is it because women hate Hudak?”
How interesting.
The letter below is out on the wire. Minutes after it became public, a senior Ontario PC operative called me – I won’t say who he/she is – to say that, having read Morley’s letter, they are now ready to play “Let’s Make A Deal.” Quote unquote. He/she sounded unsettled.
So, it looks like they are backing off from the kind of thuggish tactics detailed in the letter below. If so, and if that holds, then we’re prepared to be liberal, as it were, too.
In any event, read the letter. There’s a reason we called Jason the “The Lie-taer.”
Ours, on top of theirs, which (a) came on a day when no one was paying attention and (b) repeats the Tea Party imagery. Happy.
It’s happened again. Yet another former Ontario PC Leader has slammed Tea Party Tim Hudak for his “righteous duplicity”.
This time it’s John Tory who said Hudak is “offering a menu of bologna” to Ontario voters.
Tory was referring to Hudak’s 180-degree reversal on the issue of getting skilled professionals living and paying taxes in Ontario, out of driving taxi cabs and mopping floors, and into the profession they are educated for.
Tory said Hudak is “pandering to the worst emotions of envy, jealousy and insecurity about so-called foreigners” while calling the Ontario Liberal plan “one of the best investments we [could] make… this is the right kind of thing to do.”
“Come on Tim – don’t put the brochures out stirring up envy and negativity about the exact same kind of program [you support] which does not come at the expense of long term Ontario residents who still have total access to the other Billions of dollars in training programs,” said Tory on CFRB Newstalk 1010.
Ouch.
I never said that.
Others might, however.
This is about growing our economy, and also about our values.
What you are seeing from the PCs is the politics of anger, the politics of fear, resentment and division. What you get from Ontario Liberals is everybody working to move forward, together.
This is a tax credit for businesses that hire skilled Ontarians already living here to help them achieve the training they need for Ontario certification. So we’re talking about professions like lawyer, accountants or pharmacists who need Ontario job-experience in order to be certified here. These are folks who are in Ontario, but might be driving taxis instead of working in a pharmacy helping patients.
And Tim Hudak had a very similar proposal last year. He introduced legislation for 10 per cent wage subsidy for any business hiring a skilled newcomer in Ontario – and there was no cap to the program. Now he’s changed his tune. If you want the politics of anger and division, then vote for Hudak. If you want to work together to strengthen our economy and create more jobs for everyone, then Ontario Liberals have the right plan for you.
That’s not all.
The PCs seem to have a real problem with all things “foreign.” They’re against businesses coming to invest here in Ontario. They’re against students wanting to come here to do their research and contribute to our economy. And now they’re against skilled Ontarians living here putting their education to work for our economy.
They’ve got a problem with all things “foreign.” But to those thousands of workers at Toyota, and Honda, and Samsung – there’s nothing foreign about the paycheque they’re bringing home.
This tax credit should help about 1200 workers get the training they need. That’s giving people a leg up, not a hand out.
We need to move forward, together. Not move backwards, divided.