Torontonians look at corruption and shrug
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TORONTO -- Welcome to the land of the "Belinda Bounce" and the GTA. This may not yet be the belly of the beast, but it has surely become the navel of the nation. The days are long gone since a visiting Albertan could rail against the political absurdity of all Ontarians. Or even all residents of southern Ontario.
The source of our frustrations can now be distilled, refined, to a much tighter geographical area - the GTA. The initials bring to mind a supercharged gas-guzzler from one's youth. Ah, if only. They actually refer to something called the Greater Toronto Area, the tail that wags the Canadian dog.
It has been Belinda Stronach Week here in the GTA, with the defecting Tory MP for Newmarket-Aurora being all the news all of the time. The car-parts heiress has managed to fire the previously undisturbed political interest of GTA residents.
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Adscam revelations and the Gomery inquiry have quietly drifted to the back of the Toronto papers. No one cares. Fuelled by half a dozen giant lattes a day, the average resident of the Canadian navel has the attention span of a gnat, and that really doesn't lend itself to thoughtful political analysis.
But Belinda's defection and a crushed Peter MacKay planting potatoes with his dad? Now that's the sort of dramatic non-confidence vote folks here can understand. You would, however, be mistaken if you assumed this translated into political capital for MacKay's Tory party.
Far from it. An opinion poll conducted by EKOS Research for the Toronto Star discovered something called the "Belinda Bounce." The number of Canadians who now believe the Grits will win the next election jumped an incredible 11 percentage points (to 58%), and in the GTA the response was off the dial.
I doubt any of those respondents could explain why they believe that, but this is how shallow and illogical Canadian politics has become. The Star poll found that fully 45% of Ontarians are now willing to overlook the federal Grits' record and support the party.
It gets worse. Among women and university graduates, and across all age groups, the Liberals are the preferred party among GTA residents. And if you imagined that some corner of Bay Street still clung to its traditional support for the Conservatives, forget it. The Liberals are the preferred party for Torontonians making more than $100,000 a year.
About the only bad news for the Grits in Toronto is that former city councillor Jack Layton is accounted the most trustworthy and statesmanlike national leader. No, seriously. Thirty percent named him their main man, compared to 30% for Paul Martin and 26% for Stephen Harper.
EKOS president Frank Graves says that, considering the latest poll numbers, he can't understand why Harper and the Tories want a election. How about the need to punish a seriously corrupted governing party that's hanging on to power at all costs?
Nah, says Graves. "It would just be deja vu all over again (another Liberal minority)," assumes the pollster. "And who wants that?"
Apparently folks here like the way Ottawa has been functioning (if that's the right word). "When people look about and see what sorts of alliances make sense, by far the most plausible, acceptable alliance is NDP and Liberal, particularly in Ontario," says Graves.
It's enough to make an Albertan take a one-way stroll into Lake Ontario - but not quite everyone here is nuts. While Alberta Conservative MLA Tony Abbott apologized for suggesting Belinda was "whoring herself" to the federal Liberals, Ontario provincial Tory Bob Runciman manfully refused to withdraw his description of her as a "dipstick."
"Like a lot of people, I was hurt by her decision (to join the Martin government)," he said. Well, that's the problem, Bob. Those people are a tad thin on the ground in the navel of Canada. The majority clearly take the Belinda approach: If the price is right, they can overlook corruption and spendthrift incompetence and embrace the Martin Liberals.
Better the status quo and the devil you know than a leader and party with a clean record but roots in the West? Enough of this navel-gazing. I'm going home.