VOTE FOR ME OR THE HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA WILL BE THWARTED!:

The fight for Ontario begins (LES WHITTINGTON, 1/20/06, Toronto Star)

Ontario is the final battle site in the federal election and it's turning into an epic Liberal-Conservative fight over sex, politics and religion.

Prime Minister Paul Martin, insisting he can still pull out a victory in Monday's election, is pinning those hopes on a whipped-up appeal to Ontarians to stave off the Conservatives' radical social agenda.

And he is accusing Conservative Leader Stephen Harper of getting ready to stack the courts with right-wing judges to make it possible to ban same-sex marriage and clamp down on women's rights to choose.

Citing Harper's statement that a Conservative government, even if it was a majority, would not have "absolute power" because of Liberal-appointed judges and senators, Martin said the Tory leader's attitude toward power is cause for grave concern. "Who talks that way? Who thinks that way?

"He (Harper) spoke of the courts as his political opponents, he described them as an obstacle, a barrier between him and his agenda," Martin said, describing his opponent's priorities "as the most socially conservative agenda that has ever been this close" to being carried into power in Canada. It is an agenda inspired by "the extreme right in the United States," he added.

This seems a high risk strategy for Mr. Martin even in a Blue nation. People notoriously lie to pollsters to make themselves seem more politically-correct than they really are.

MORE:
Smell of desperation (JOHN DERRINGER, 1/20/06, Toronto Sun)

[C]an somebody, for the love of God, please explain how any Canadian can step into a polling station and check off the name of the Liberal candidate in their party? Although it causes me a massive migraine, I can think of three reasons why people might do so, and they're all difficult to fathom.

First off, there's the "immigrant vote," which, according to many experts, is the main reason the Liberals have been able to dominate Toronto. The theory goes that folks who've come to Canada in the last 35 years feel they owe a debt to the Liberal Party for giving them a life they couldn't have dreamt of in their countries of origin. Strangely, this seems to apply even to those who entered the country during Brian Mulroney's tenure as prime minister.

What is clear to me is that those who feel that Canada has welcomed them, sheltered them and given them enormous opportunities have the people of this country to thank, not the Liberal party.

Secondly, there are those who've bought into the propaganda of the left-wing media (particularly the CBC). The mantra of such outlets has been simply, yet very effectively shifty and mysterious: Stephen Harper has a "hidden agenda." It's so well hidden, in fact, that nobody I've heard from can accurately describe it. [...]

There's a third reason, and it's plain laziness. There are plenty of Canadians who come home at night and say "Hey, my life's not bad, why rock the boat?" Incredibly, these folks are willing to overlook the rot of the Chretien/Martin Liberal regimes. This, to me, is like supporting the senior executives of the company you work for, even if they've been found to be stealing from the company, and by extension, its workers, because you're still getting a paycheque. In this scenario, it goes unnoticed by these folks that things at the office could be much better, that the bi-weekly cheque could be much bigger, the health plan better, if a new, accountable, management group were put in place.

It's amazing what people will put up with when there's food on the table and a hospital nearby that will admit them for free.

Not that amazing.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 20, 2006 7:59 AM