Posted on 11/03/2004 6:08:48 AM PST by Ginifer
IT HASN'T been easy supporting George W. Bush's re-election bid in Toronto. Americans living in this city who wanted their president re-elected say they've been faced with vicious verbal assaults and belittling and fanatical accusations during the past few months.
"I've been hollered at and verbally attacked by lots of people. They yelled at me, 'How can you vote for him.' But it didn't intimidate me, I wasn't going to change my mind," said dual citizen Georganne Burke, a lifelong Democrat who changed her thinking, and her party affiliation, before this election.
"People who live here tend to be liberal in their thinking and they heavily identify with the Democratic party. They tend to think Bush is a fanatical right-wing nut job and I think they've misread him."
BETTING POOLS
Burke, who lives in Toronto, watched the election action last night at a party at a downtown condo that featured lots of betting pools on the hotly contested results.
Burke said many people in Toronto just don't understand Bush, who she said is a stable, straightforward politician. He's faced hard times in his life and grew out of them, she said.
It's John Kerry who she has had a problem with.
"I have watched him for a long time and it's my discomfort with him that caused me to begin supporting Bush," she said.
She doesn't believe most Canadians agree with liberal-leaning Torontonians. "If I was out west they would be patting me on the back," Burke said.
Last night's party, attended by about 50 people, was hosted by the Canadian Coalition for Democracies, a group formed last year to support a Canadian foreign policy that better supports the U.S.
Naresh Raghubeer, the group's executive director, said he has heard similar anti-Bush sentiment directed at him in Toronto and has tried hard to ensure it didn't affect him personally.
'MORALLY SUPERIOR'
"You can deal with it when you know you're on the morally superior side and you're morally correct," Raghubeer said.
Raghubeer said his group is "very pro-American."
"If America does not win this war the world will be a much more dangerous place," he said. "We will all be in dange
It's going to be very interesting to watch the world's reaction to this election. I think the Dubya attackers felt safe mouthing off about the US President when they thought he was not really elected, but I think they are going to back off now that it's quite obvious that the American people are behind their president.
Not surprising that it came from Morontonians. They were the one who gave these liberal bastards a win. I have no respect for that city at all.
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