LP_468x60
ontario news watch
on-the-record-468x60-white
and-another-thing-468x60

Day: January 4, 2018

There are a few events during the year in which politicians virtually have no choice but to participate.  Canada Day.  Remembrance Day.  Their winter holiday of choice, and also Christmas.  The annual riding barbecue.  The Stampede.  Pride.

Yes, Pride.  In the 48 years since the first "Gay Liberation Marches" took place in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Atlanta, Pride parades have grown in political importance, to the point that non-attendance is essentially out of the question for elected officials with name recognition, or those looking to get some.

Yet one such person has announced his refusal to attend, nearly seven months before Pride Toronto.  Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer, branded early as a social conservative, says "Not everybody marches" to signal support for LGBTQ rights.  He says he has chosen to do so in other ways, such as condemning Russia for its persecution of LGBTQ Chechens.  And he has said repeatedly that he will not reopen debates on such contentious social issues.

All this might be enough for anyone paying careful attention to his announcements.  Most voters do not.  For those who may only skim the headlines, skipping Pride signals outright contempt for the LGBTQ community  which it may well be, in some cases.  In the case of moderate so-cons like Scheer, it signals too much discomfort with the parade itself to make the simple gesture of showing up.

In this, he is not alone.  My fellow Loonie Politics writer J.J. McCullough wrote about his own discomfort with the evolution of Pride in 2014:

Looking at photos of America's earliest Pride parades is a window into a different world.  The marchers of those days, calmly holding hands with their same-sex partners in sensible polo shirts and penny loafers, were certainly subversive, but only to the extent they were seeking to remind a society in denial of the unavoidability of their existence . . . Just as society is most eager to assert its tolerance, Pride redefines the deal.  Endorsing the acceptance of ordinary people distinguishable only by what gender they love now demands an additional stamp of approval for all-purpose indecency and licentiousness.

It's not hard to imagine that Scheer, he of the Moose Jaw honeymoon, might have a problem with public displays of anyone's sexuality.  Or perhaps, like last year, he is unhappy with how politicized Pride has become in other areas, most notably the controversy over police attendance.  Or perhaps he'd simply rather be fishing.  Whatever his reason for not wanting to go, he has a right to it.  I sympathize as someone who has not voluntarily attended any kind of parade since a trip to Disney World about 14 years ago.

Unfortunately for Scheer, politics often requires attendance at events you don't particularly enjoy or care about, especially for a party leader.  If he were still only the MP for Regina — Qu'Appelle, or even just the Speaker of the House of Commons, his absence might have gone unnoticed.  But he is running to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who never met a photo opportunity he didn't like.  If he's going to depend on disaffected Liberals for victory in 2019, showing up at Pride, even in only one city, may be the most obvious way for Scheer to assure them that he is not the rabid so-con the governing Liberals wish he was.

What message is he sending to Conservatives by turning down his open invitation to Pride this soon?  Should we interpret it as an intentional wink to actual rabid so-cons?  More likely, it's an accidental admission that Scheer hasn't learned how to pick his battles.  It's one thing to invite people to say you lack compassion for the working poor when you question the economics of a minimum wage hike.  It's also one thing to open yourself up to cries of misogyny when you believe in your heart of hearts that life begins at conception.  In either of these examples, you're at least standing on principle.  But this?  Scheer is saying that he is willing to face accusations of homophobia, however predictable and unfair, because Pride makes him feel icky for some reason.

If he can't suck it up for a few hours on a summer weekend, he's in the wrong business. Besides, nobody will ask him to take off his shirt.

Photo Credit: CP24

Written by Jess Morgan

The views, opinions and positions expressed by columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of our publication.

loonie-thumb

More from Other Columnists

Click here for more

In the last three days of 2017 I received no fewer than 22 electronic fundraising appeals from the NDP whose tone was so ghastly that, even if I were a potential donor, I'd throw my wallet into the ocean before I'd reward such stuff.  G.K. Chesterton once said descriptions of happiness under socialism didn't remind him of any happiness he'd actually felt.  And this blizzard of begging was a perfect example of how what all our mainstream big-government parties expect will excite me leaves me bored and disgusted.

It's partly the familiar problem that the more cleverly manipulative political rhetoric becomes, the more offputtingly manipulative it becomes.  But it's also the strangely inept quality of the manipulation, filled with bogus urgency ("2018 needs to be our year, John") bogus optimism ("We're ready to take things to the next level in 2018") and bogus bonhomie ("John Do you have something planned for New Year's Eve yet?").  No wonder many people preferred the genuinely appalling Donald Trump to such insincerely appallingly chatter.

Shortly before the Christmas flurry, on Dec. 9, the federal NDP brazenly lied that "John, our biggest advantage is supporters like you."  If so I'd hate to see their biggest disadvantage, since I haven't given them a dime since the invention of money, and you'd think they'd know it, and know I knew it.  But I think I already saw their biggest disadvantage: Their horrible rhetoric.

For instance "Your support is helping to build the most ambitious NDP campaign in Ontario history" as if they hadn't always aimed high.  Or "A better Ontario is right around the corner, but we have to fight hard and work together like never before", as if they slacked off last time.  Or "If we get this right, we'll be able to inspire people with plans that offer hope in 2018".  You won't.

I even object to being told all about "Jagmeet".  As we haven't been introduced, he's Jagmeet Singh, Jagmeet Singh Dhaliwal or even Mr. Singh.  (And I'm "Mr. Robson" or "Dr. Robson" to all you political pesterers).  Then consider this Dec. 30 missive from Gurratan Singh: "John, Jagmeet's birthday is coming up soon on January 2 and I've been working on getting him the perfect gift.  I thought about a snowboard.  Or maybe a new bike.  But I know my brother and more than anything, he wants to build a better, more just Canada".  Ugh.

Tommy Douglas once told biographer Doris French Shackleton "You won't find me very interesting.  I never do anything but work."  But I would never entrust political power to people whose idea of fun is that grim and tedious.  Like Scrooge in his cold counting house until 7:00 on Christmas Eve, they're stuffing manifestoes into envelopes on "festive" occasions and would make us too if they could.

Hence the birthday message struck them as such a successful lark that a follow-up from "Nader" chortled "John, I know our team likes to have fun.  So when Gurratan said he wanted to send out an email for Jagmeet's birthday, I was all for it.  But now, I need to be serious for a minute because we're still $81,000 away from our crucial end-of-year fundraising goal…"

Frankly they might extort a few bucks from me by promising never to have "fun" in my presence again.  Especially this "poem" the federal NDP sent Dec. 21.

"To build a big, amazing team/ And fulfill our real, important dream/ We need support this time of year/ To cross the country with love and cheer/ We need your help to get ahead/ In parliament (and gingerbread)/ Will you donate?/ It's not too late./ To help us make Canada great!"

Whatever comic virtue doggerel can ever have depends on it rhyming and scanning.  This damp squib doesn't.

It's meant to go da-DAH da-DAH da-DAH da-DAH, the "iambic tetrameter" of such classics as "Stop that Ball".  (Other possibilities are Dr. Seuss favourites amphibrachic tetrameter: "there ONCE was a GIRL bird named GERtrude McFUZZ" and anapestic: "Now the STAR-Belly SNEEtches had BELLies with STARS".)  But the NDP's first couplet wouldn't work even without "real" because "fulfill" doesn't take a stress on the 1st syllable.  The second needs "land" not country.  And while the third, amazingly, is right, the fourth relies on the country being called CaNAda and for bad measure channels Donald Trump.  (The former would again be easily fixed: "To help make Canada be great.")

Of course not everyone enjoys doggerel.  But only someone with no idea what enjoyment is would send out this soggy mess to lighten the mood.  So here's a heads-up for politicians.  Canadians will happily work hard for a better future.  But precisely because we value genuine good cheer:

The more you show what you find fun, the more your parties we will shun.

Photo Credit: Toronto Star

The views, opinions and positions expressed by columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of our publication.

john-robson

More from John Robson

Click here for more

Here we are then, at the wind-blasted start to a frigid new year.  Twenty-eighteen has still got that new-mouth feel to it, so it's time to guess what's going to happen while we still struggle to write the correct date on our post-New Year's Snaps.

Even though I'm a really, really good prognosticator — I only got three guesses completely wrong last year!* — I think you all should know that despite the copious amounts of, uh, science I'm doing to make these predictions, they aren't guarantees of the year to come.  I'm not Nostrodamus.  If I was, I'd have a show on the History Channel by now.

But I think I've got a solid enough track record, on par with a decent-but-not-great batting average, that this is a worthwhile exercise.  So let's go on a journey, through the crystal ball, into the mists of the near future, and see what 2018 has in store for us.

  • Jetpacks will drop significantly in price this year, at long last.  Unfortunately we're talking those lame jetpacks that lift you using the power of lake water sucked through a big hose you see in those Facebook videos that get popular every few weeks.  Ah well, maybe the dream will come true in 2019!
  • There's an Ontario election this year, and as tempting as it is to rule out Kathleen Wynne and her Liberal party for being desperately unpopular, I just can't.  I don't think Ontarians like her or her government very much, but I don't know that they like anyone else enough to actually do anything about that dislike.  Patrick Brown seems like a decent alternative, but there's more than enough internal strife in the Progressive Conservatives to sink their hopes.  And the NDP? Andrea Horwath made such a hash of her last election — "dirty diesel trains" comes to mind — there isn't much reason to put faith in her this time around.  As absurd as it might seem, I'm betting on another Wynne mandate.
  • CBC will premiere another period detective drama.  Presuming there is more blood to be squeezed from this barren stone, the twist will be this show will take place in, say Calgary?  Vancouver?  Eh, it doesn't really matter, they'll film it in Toronto anyway.
  • Justin Trudeau will not take a phenomenally stupid vacation in the first couple months of the year.  Chastised by the ethics commissioner just before Christmas, the prime minister will have absorbed the lesson offered — accepting extravagant gifts from the very rich looks bad.  Come, say, April all bets are off.  Trudeau's shown very little agility when correcting his mistakes, so it's probably only a matter of time before he shows up in a nude kitesurfing pyramid with Richard Branson in the waters off the billionaire's private island.
  • Donald Trump will say something fantastically dumb.  So dumb, and so untrue, you will literally not believe what you've just heard/read.  Two days later, you will have forgotten this absurdly dumb-false thing when he does something even dumber and way falser.  And onward the clock will spin.
  • Canada will further bungle it's attempts to buy fighter aircraft and navy ships.  We've gone for years trying to replace our rotting ships and our rickety aircraft.  This government, like all governments before it, can't help but screw this up.  We're going to end up with so many F-35s at the end of this, and we're going to buy them in such a panic, we'll pay way too much for them.  It's the Canadian way.
  • Kevin O'Who?
  • This year, I'm putting my money where my mouth is and buying a 6/49.  So, this year's 6/49 second drawing in February will be: 02-11-18-23-34-42 with a bonus number of 09.  Looking forward to splitting the prize with all of you!  (Wait a second…)
  • Quebecers also go to the polls this year, and I don't see Phillipe Coullard's Liberal government sticking around.  Which is weird, because the economy is doing really well, and the province seems to have a renewed sense of confidence.  You'd think this would be good for the current government, but I have a feeling it's bad news.  Quebecers aren't so hung up on sovereignty anymore, so we might actually get an election about something else.  As good as things are going, people don't like Coullard, he's got an off-putting aloofness, that borders on arrogance.  People are tired of the Parti Québécois' constant separation drum beat, and Jean-François Lisée is way too keen to let everyone know how giant his brain is.  So, this might be the province's chance to choose the third-party Coalition Avenir Québec, led by François Legault.  I think this is finally his year.
  • Extra Terrestrials will land on this planet.  They will choose Elizabeth May to be humanity's representative in the Etherial Senate of the Fourth Dimension.  Why?  It's hard to be sure, these are aliens after all, but don't rule out something to do with WiFi.
  • Andrew Scheer's love of popcorn will become a major political scandal, when it's revealed he prefers American-made popcorn.  This clear act of betrayal — nay, treason, will see him fired out of a cannon across the St. Lawrence into Upstate New York.

There it is, your year ahead, laid out in iron-clad form.  What could go wrong?  Nothing!  Nothing at all!

*The three most consequential. Ahem.

The views, opinions and positions expressed by columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of our publication.

robert-hiltz

More from Robert Hiltz

Click here for more