Mark Steyn: Woe, Woe, Ontario

The Western Standard ^ | May 30, 2005 | Mark Steyn

[quidnunc]

What do the Liberals have to do to lose? The rule that there’s no such thing as bad publicity is supposed to apply to soap actresses and rock stars, but look at the polls: Grits 32.5 per cent, Tories 30.5 per cent. And, even when you find a national poll showing a Conservative lead, break it down regionally: Liberals 38 per cent, Tories 34 per cent. That’s Ontario, which is the critical battleground, as we psephologists say. “Yours to Discover,” as the licence plates say. And what one mainly discovers after the most cursory of glances is that Paul Martin could be captured on DVD giving a Quebec advertising agency $20 million to supply him with coke and rent-boys and there would be a political earthquake in Ontario resulting in the shock poll result: Liberals 37.5 per cent, Conservatives 34.5 per cent.

As I wrote in the very first issue of the Western Standard, the Grits must occasionally wonder: where did we go right? And, while I’m reprising haunting refrains, as I wrote in our last issue: “The minute an election’s declared, the CBC and the Toronto Star will come on side and we’ll stop getting features on Adscam and start getting in-depth investigations on Tory plans to bring back back-street abortions and mandatory readings of Leviticus in gay bath-houses. And then some of those wobbly Liberal voters will wander home, in Ontario’s riding-rich 905-belt, in Quebec’s West Island, in the Maritimes …”

Woe, woe and thrice woe. As it turns out, they didn’t even wait for the writ to drop. CTV and The Globe And Mail commissioned a poll showing that 63 per cent of Canadians do not believe Paul Martin is telling the truth when he denies any involvement in Adscam. Let’s be clear on that: they’re not saying just that they don’t believe his initial position — that he didn’t even know about any of this stuff; they’re saying they think he was actively involved in it. When polls showed that 58 per cent of Britons thought their prime minister was a liar, Fleet Street produced stories with headlines like “The Big Lie” and “The King of Duplicity” and “Blair in Thick of New Battle on Iraq ‘Lies.’” All for a mere 58 per cent? Sixty-three per cent of us think our prime minister’s a liar, which may be a G7 record, and a strong Commonwealth second-place finish after Robert Mugabe. And how does CTV headline its story on this stunning poll finding? “Cdns. Suspicious of a Tory Hidden Agenda: Poll.”

-snip-

[goldstategop]

Ontario is the Liberal Party's stronghold. The vote-rich province will never vote for the Western-based Conservatives. Where do you think the Liberal elites in Windsor, Toronto, Ottawa and Kingston get their funding? The Liberals need not fear being ousted from power as long as they can get the Greater Toronto Area in their column. And they're now English Canada's last defense against the Quebec separatists. That's their new election trump card - even before the writ's dropped. The Conservatives can be painted as the Bloc handmaiden and ON voters will buy it. If you love Canada - Vote Liberal.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[doc30]

I mujst say that this last week has proven to me, beyond a doubt, that my former countrymen are pathetic. Why does Ontario support the Liberlas? Canadians are so in love with what the government can give them that they don't care about how much abuse they suffer as long as they get stuff from the government. After all this corruption, people that support the Liberal party are government whores, just like Belinda. They let the government shaft them a dozen ways to sunrise as long as they get their two bucks.

[goldstategop]

I was born in Quebec. I hold no brief for the socialist slant of the separatists in my native province but it can be said of Quebecois, they reject the Liberal Party, period. English Canada does the contrary for the perverse pleasure of sticking it to Francophone Canada.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[Neville72]

Canada and Germany are great examples for this country of how populations become emasculated by decades of nanny-state government handouts. The majority of Canada's population are political eunuchs who are unwilling to throw out a mob of crooks because it might, just might, affect their government dole.

Be afraid, no, be terrified of the Hillary Clintons and the Ted Kennedys of the Left who still want to take us down this ruinous path.

[goldstategop]

Its already happened in Blue States in America. The Democrats have taken the same route as the Canadian Liberals and are well-entrenched. It would take an Act Of God to dislodge them from power.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[okie01]

The majority of Canada's population are political eunuchs who are unwilling to throw out a mob of crooks because it might, just might, affect their government dole.

Might I suggest that the phenomenon may have less to do with the Canadian voters getting "their government dole" than with a soft, flaccid compassion that the other guy gets his government dole.

Knowing that your tax money will take care of ol' Harold and Wilma down the street, as well as Uncle Marvin and Aunt Tillie out in Saskatchewan may be the ultimate in "feel good politics". Never mind that some of it sticks to the pockets of Paul and his merry band of liberals and leftists.

After all, their intentions are good!

[mdmathis6]

Shhhh....you'll let the cat out of the bag.

[NZerFromHK]

You don't even need to venture out of FR to witness this phenomenon. I have counted Canadian trolls, status-quo-Canada defenders, moderates-by-American-standards Canadian "conservatives" here. And they seem to represent a majority of Canadian FRers who come from the east of Manitoba.

And one American apologist of status-quo-Canada (I wouldn't name him here, but those of you around long enough will know who I am talking about) on this board is a medical doctor who spent time interning in a Toronto hospital. Perhaps this is not a surprise to us? ;-)

[youngtory]

When I was critical of the conservative party for not being conservative enough, acting like a conservative party I was flamed by those Canadians.

[NZerFromHK]

Absolutely, my guess is they treat the Globe and Mail as a conservative paper!

(Actually British conservatives are becoming even worse. If you read posts by Poms here on topics about Britain, most of them are quite wonky. Ask FRers Aussie Dasher and shaggy eel for details)

Ping!