@Torontoist on the provincial election, and my response | #onpoli

Can’t really put it any better than this:

Why are we even bothering to make any sort of endorsement at all? The answer is simple: Tim Hudak and the Progressive Conservatives have run an ugly, ugly campaign, one of the ugliest in modern memory. 

…

In this election there’s really no voting for; there’s only voting against.

Luckily, the Tories provide us with whole reams of against to vote for, because this isn’t just about Tim Hudak: it’s about every last Tory running for office. The silence from the various MPPs and candidates on Tim Hudak’s bigoted, dishonest, and stupid campaign says all you need to know about them. They are either cowards or hold indefensible positions, and in either instance they are simply not worth your vote.

I wouldn’t honour this bunch by referring to them as Tories. When you say Tories, I think of people like Joe Clark, Bill Davis, Flora MacDonald, and even John Diefenbaker — people on the Progressive side of the Progressive Conservative tradition, people with a social conscience, people who despite their identification as “conservatives” carry a nice streak of red in them. As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t even debase the honourable tradition of conservatism by applying it to this lot.

Hudak’s so-called contribution to the conversation consists of little more than smudged photocopies from the Rove/Luntz playbook. Homophobia? Bigotry? Manufactured resentment? Insults to our intelligence? Misrepresentation? Cultivated stupidity? Thuggish behaviour? If you’re looking for evidence of teabaggery’s northward creep, you needn’t look much farther than this.

Other than that, what Torontoist said.

Related posts:

• Ontario PC Leader Hudak stands by ‘homophobic’ flyer – Toronto – CBC News
• On this week’s provincial election | #onpoli
• A dog whistle from Hudak | #onpoli #homophobia