Scarborough Southwest is old stomping ground for this Liberal. Those are our people the Toronto Star is toying with. Suggesting that (then) former Police Chief Bill Blair will want to run as a Liberal in that electoral district is a declaration of war against them. We are not amused.
First of all, Blair is no Liberal. He is the unindicted felon of the G-20 in Toronto in 2010. He was responsible for one of the most serious infringements on human rights in Canadian history when his police kettled innocent bystanders during a G-20 incident that can only go down in infamy with the events of the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike and the use of the War Measures Act against the FLQ in 1970.
And now we have speculation in the Toronto Star stirring the pot with a worthless survey that probably means nothing. You have to be something of a fool to ever believe one of those interactive voice-response surveys.
What interactive voice-response surveys try to do is substitute volume of calls to overcome the inability to qualify the respondents. When you have no idea who in the household responded, you have no clue as to the demographics, probability of voting and accuracy of your sample. Even back when you could get a decent sample, you still used other identifiers to qualify the response.
If it was not for Bill Blair’s ignoring his responsibility for the G-20 affair as well as his arrogance, his force’s carding, his poor leadership and his handling of the Mayor Ford affair, we would have an open mind on the question of Blair running for the Liberals. Frankly, he would be much more at home with the Conservative Party. His only problem would be that Stephen Harper’s ego might trump Blair’s.
But you also wonder about the Toronto Star editors who are stirring this pot. This type of manipulation goes far beyond an impish attempt to build news stories from nothing. This is a strong desire to cause trouble.
It can even cause more trouble for Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau. His deputy flack in Ontario, David MacNaughton, has already got his fingers burned enough interfering in local nominations. Trudeau has enough scars from breaking his promise of open nominations. To suggest that Scarborough Southwest is being held for any star candidate is a red flag to the Scarborough breed of Liberals.
Interfering in that riding would simply mean leaving it to the New Democrats.
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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry
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