Blame It On Nasty US Right Wing Populism!

Unable to make an intellectual argument as to why I  shouldn't vote for Rob Ford, or why I should vote for any other candidate, Rob Ford's opponents and his haters, including the editorial staff at The Toronto Star, and almost every major media and new media outlet, have done nothing more than resort to endless ad-hominem abuse, pleas to vote for anyone but Ford, and in what has to be one of the wackiest acts of desperation, have resorted to blaming the tea party movement in the US!

In The Toronto Star, on Sept 19th, Christopher Hume,  who can't articulate an intelligent reason not to vote for Ford, concedes that Ford will win the race, but not because issues surrounding "transit, traffic, economics, governance, the environment, even art and architecture matter to voters" but  rather  because this election is about " anger, anger at everything, but especially Toronto City Council and “Toronto elites.”

There you go folks. That's it. The issues don't matter. It's all about anger!  But wait....apparently this anger really isn't OUR anger.

According to Hume, Rob Ford supporters  don't care about the issues, NOR are they legitimately angry at the Toronto City Council or the Unions, or the mess created by big spending left wing Union coddling politicians like David Miller, or the fiasco that is Harbor Front, or the ever increasing crime rate, or the sad state of the Toronto Education system, or the NON STOP construction of Condos, Condos, and MORE Condos, or the myriad of transit issues starting with a highly mismanaged union controlled TTC system, or the never ending vehicular and pedestrian traffic;  nor are we angry about an infrastructure that is crumbling under the weight of an increasing city population, not only in our city core, but in the surrounding GTA.

According to Hume, Ford supporters are just caught up in the "nasty right-wing populism sweeping North America".

AS IF what is happening in the US with the tea party movement ( which is really what he means) has ANY bearing on a Toronto Mayoral Race. 

This is argument that Hume and his ilk, especially at The Toronto Star, and most Ford haters, have reduced themselves to simply because they can't make an intellectual argument for not supporting Rob Ford!

Nor can they understand why Ford has resonated viscerally with an overwhelming majority of Torontonians.  We must all be under the spell of that Tea Party Movement and the tsumani of right wing populism that has swept throughout the US and crossed the border into Toronto.

Provided all the Ford supporters show up and vote, Ford has won this race hands down and he deserves to win when the best his opponents and haters can do is stoop to ad-hominem attacks on him, on his supporters, and now on 'right wing' US populists.

O Canada!

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.


So many letter writers have explained how this land is made up of immigrants. Maybe we should turn to our history books and point out to people why today's Canadian is not willing to accept the new kind of immigrant any longer.

Back in 1900 when there was a rush from all areas of Europe to come to Canada, people had to get off a ship and stand in a long line in Halifax and be documented. Some would even get down on their hands and knees and kiss the ground. They made a pledge to uphold the laws and support their new country in good and bad times. They made learning English a primary rule in their new Canadian households and some even changed their names to blend in with their new home. They had waved good bye to their birth place to give their children a new life and did everything in their power to help their children assimilate into one culture.

Nothing was handed to them. No free lunches, no welfare, no labour laws to protect them. All they had were the skills, craftsmanship and desire they had brought with them to trade for a future of prosperity.

Most of their children came of age when World War II broke out. Canadians fought  alongside  men whose parents had come straight over from Germany, Italy, France, Japan, China, Czechoslovakia, Russia, Sweden, Poland and so many other places.


None of these first generation Canadians ever gave any thought about what country their parents had come from. They were Canadians fighting Hitler, Mussolini and the Emperor of Japan. They were defending the Freedom as one people. When we liberated France, no one in those villages was looking for the Ukrainian-Canadian or the German-Canadian or the Irish-Canadian. The people of France saw only Canadians. And we carried ONE flag that represented our country. 

Not one of those immigrant sons would have thought about picking up another country's flag and waving it to represent who they were. It would have been a disgrace to their parents who had sacrificed so much to be here. These immigrants truly knew what it meant to be a Canadian. They stirred the melting pot into one red and white bowl. 

And here we are in 2010 with a new kind of immigrant who wants the same rights and privileges. Only they want to achieve it by playing with a different set of rules, one that includes a Canadian passport and a guarantee of being faithful to their mother country. 
 

I'm sorry, but that is NOT what being a Canadian is all about. Canadians have been very open-hearted and open-minded regarding immigrants, whether they were fleeing poverty, dictatorship, persecution, or whatever else makes us think of those aforementioned immigrants who truly DID ADOPT our country, and our flag and our morals and our customs, and left their wars, hatred, and divisions behind. 
 

I believe that the immigrants who landed in Canada in the early 1900s deserve better than that for the toil, hard work and sacrifice of those legally searching for a better life. I think they would be appalled that they are being used as an example by those waving foreign country flags, fighting foreign battles on our soil, making Canadians change to suit their religions and cultures, and wanting to change our country's fabric by claiming discrimination when we do not give in to their demands. 

It's about time we STAND UP for our forefathers rights; we are CANADIAN lest we forget it.

I am a native of Canada and proud of it!

NO MORE POLITICAL CORRECTNESS!

NO MORE not saying MERRY CHRISTMAS in stores and our schools!  

I want MY Canada of birth BACK!  NOW! 

Hollywood Rag "Daily Variety" Shakesdown the Vandals

No --- I don't mean vandals with a little 'v' - crooks, thieves, do-badders --  I mean the band  "Vandals". 

And yes I DO mean 'shakedown' - as in Tony Soprano style - aka "extortion".

From Big Hollywood:

The biggest laugh is now that The Daily Variety has had to actually tell their story to the Court, they suddenly admit that the Vandals do have 30 days to cure any breach of the agreement. Even though they tried to squeeze the Vandals for tens of thousands of dollars by repeating this lie over and over about “no cure period” they couldn’t tell that to the judge, so they made up something even more ridiculous. This is their claim. They claim that although there is a cure period in the Settlement Agreement between the parties, the Vandals failed to cure the “breach” by not paying Variety the $75,000 they asked for and signing the promise to pay double next time.

Of course this is laughable for many reasons but the most blatant is that this would make the cure of the breach more expensive than just not curing the breach and giving them the $50,000 plus actual legal expenses that the original Settlement Agreement allowed. The Vandals believe that this is just a bald abuse of the legal system and that the Daily Variety and Reed Elsevier should wake up and realize that they are also being scammed here.

The argument was that if the Vandals are allowed to parody their precious logo, it would harm the Daily Variety brand. But what could harm the brand more is taking part in an illegal shake-down that is frivolous, abusive, and directed at members of their own artistic community.

Mafia Style Extortion.  Stay Classy Variety.


Show your support for the Vandals at their concert Friday Sept 10th at The Glass House. Details here.

  Click here to see the image Variety is all wee wee'd up about