Soft Bigotry

"It’s not only wrong to waste taxpayers’ money in this way; it’s doubly wrong to waste it so utterly pointlessly, since there’s every reason to believe the Liberals would have won those seats even without the cancellation, had they not panicked." -Martin Regg Cohn

A glimmer of truth from Mr. Regg Cohn amongst his attempts to spread blame for the power plant fiasco around. The Liberals had no need to cancel the power plant, because chances were good they were going to win anyway. It constituted overkill. It leaves a bad taste in one's mouth. A Liberal government should be able to win majorities without doing such disreputable things.

So when an ORNGE chopper pilot is suspended for speaking out, or funding is cut for a provincial agency that deals with improving women's health, you can bet that people like Cohn are going to register mild-to-moderate displeasure and then forget about it in a couple of days. What an annoyance. Now they have to write columns and newspaper articles about Liberals screwing up and doing stuff they wouldn't ever tolerate from Conservative governments. And on a day when Canada won its first gold medal at the Olympics, too! Le sigh.

Why did this chopper pilot have to be grounded? Couldn't we just go the usual Liberal route and compile a list of homophobic things he may or may not have said, and then have Steven Del Duca go nuts about it on Twitter?

Or maybe the Liberals could put that data from Elections Ontario that went missing the other week to good use and make it publicly known that this pilot voted for Mike Harris at some point in the past? That'd kill any credibility he had instantly.

Naaaah. We know the Liberals will do all of the above and more, but the fact is that nobody would report on it. Only for those rare occasions when the press gallery and Ontarians in general sit up and take notice do they go the extra mile. After all, wasn't it Chretien who said, "It's always good to keep expectations low?"