It is the morning after the federal election and there are a series of thoughts to share. They are somewhat disconnected. They range from Peter Mansbridge’s tennis shoes to John Tory’s toupee. Maybe the excitement last night was too much for us.
John Tory’s toupee was new last year for his run for the Toronto mayoralty. It looked much better than the old one. His problem is that as mayor he does too many outdoor events and without a staff hairdresser, he is taking serious chances. There is nowhere near the interest in John Tory’s hair piece as there was in Stephen Harper’s. Since first writing about the famous Harper Hair in the summer of 2012, more than 15,000 first time visitors have come to Babel-on-the-Bay to check out the Hair.
The original comment about the Staten Island ferry and machine politics is somehow credited to Franklin Roosevelt. It was about the amount of floating garbage that washes into the shore when a large ferry docks. The point is that when you have a turnaround such as October 19, you get the bad mixed with the good. It is like getting a problem such as Bill Blair calling himself a Liberal and winning in Scarborough.
At the same time, an out-of-touch Olivia Chow had no concept of the difference all those condominiums made in Spadina-Fort York. Liberal Adam Vaughan had no problem beating the New Democrat icon.
Watching the sweep of the Atlantic Provinces last night gave us just a small taste of the evening to come. We expected the win, not the crushing of the vanquished.
But reality was our home riding. The carefully gerrymandered Barrie ridings did what the Conservatives wanted. In this writer’s new electoral district a highly qualified Liberal candidate was defeated by 110 votes out of more than 40,000 cast. The voters in Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte sent a non-entity to Ottawa to support a Conservative machine that no longer exists.
From the Ontario-Manitoba border on west, the election unfolded much more as we expected. It is nice to see a few Liberal seats in Alberta and Saskatchewan. And British Columbia did us proud with about half the seats going Liberal.
A reader sent an e-mail yesterday saying she expected a majority. So did Babel-on-the-Bay. We just did not want to appear pushy.
Flipping channels last night did not lead us to praise any network. We did notice the day before, when they were practicing for the big night, that the CBC’s Peter Mansbridge was wearing white tennis shoes behind that desk.
-30-
Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry
Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]