In 1971, a Canadian politician could probably get away with snubbing the gay community.

In 1981? Probably then, too.

1991? Getting tougher. 2001? Getting a lot tougher.

2011? Pretty much impossible.

That’s why the decision of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford to skip the city’s annual Pride parade attracted a lot of attention last week. It’s the first time in a long time a Toronto mayor has snubbed the powerful gay community. Among other things, it’s kind of bizarre.

Ford’s excuse — he’s continuing a 30-year family tradition of gathering at the cottage in Huntsville.

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“In addition, the polling firm was the same outfit that proclaimed that Rocco ‘Benedict Baldy’ Rossi had rocketed to third place in Toronto’s mayoralty race. When, in fact, nothing of the sort had happened and Rossi finished dead last in a crowded field of candidates.”

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It’s boring when columnists write about other columnists. I mean, really, who cares?

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Jack won’t be riding one to Toronto, turns out. He’s bailed out of attending the Ontario NDP convention. What a disappointment!

I guess they should have told him their convention was being held in Vegas!

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…(see on page 25) except when it comes to their own platform, apparently! Throughout it, pictures they pass off as Ontarians are really pix taken of Americans, by American photographers!

 

HT to GritChik!

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Page 13 of her just-released platform: now she says canceling the HST “might cause problems.”

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…oh, and get this: they’ve got a rent-a-cop following us around. What a bunch of paranoid loons.

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It’s our fun Dipper bag! And the counter proving only 180 delegates are here – not the 1,000+ they’re claiming.

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“For a so-called advanced civilization – where we speed around in high-tech cars below skyscraping architectural marvels – people can be awfully uncivilized. And according to a Toronto etiquette expert, its only getting worse.”

I’m on my way to give a speech to a few trade unions, but the above story had me laughing out loud. Among other things, how do “experts” measure this stuff? “Day 15: Am in week two of scientific study of rude Torontonians in the wild. Just this morning, the team observed a banker loudly slurping a latte at bus stop in Leaside. Have captured and sedated the specimen. Could be a breakthrough.”

Anyway, my “expert” analysis is that (a) you can get a student loan for just about anything, these days and (b) the friendliest (and therefore most courteous) folks are in the Atlantic provinces. Least friendly place I’ve lived? Vancourver, by a long shot.

There, I have now impolitely set off an Internet stink bomb. What’s your view, O ye civilized wk.com readers?

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They’re just like the Tim Hudak’s Ontario PCs – they say one thing, and they do another.  Whiplash-inducing reversals don’t begin to describe either of them.

Hudak said he’d “stop the HST in its tracks,” quote unquote.  Now he has admitted he will keep it, in the unlikely event he is ever elected.

Horwath, meanwhile, is just as bad.  Remember her web site, www.unfairtaxgrab.com, which she promoted all over the place, including in slick commercials, and which was accompanied by a petition and whatnot?

Well, as the screen grab below shows, it’s now gone. It’s been airbrushed out of existence.  So, too, her previous opposition to the HST, which she said she’d “cancel,” quote unquote.  Now she’s all for keeping it.

 

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