“[Ford’s team] basically gave the finger to the traditional media.”
43 Replies to “Deep Impact”
The comments on that story are scathing.
Elites, be very very worried…The times they are a changin’ fast!
Like I wrote here yesterday, Ford will speak to Torontonians often in normal, honest english. He will report his issues and progress through local media…Beware the ones who will distort or simply omit to report his message…
The same thing happened with the Calgary mayor’s race. I was on right-winger Ric McIver’s team and everyone was pretty confident that he had a solid lead. In the week before the election the gap had narrowed between media darling Barb Higgins and Ric, but he still held the lead and no-name Nenshi was still far behind. Nenshi’s win was a complete stunner. Especially with the amount he won. It wasn’t really all that close. None of the polls we had seen or were public showed Nenshi even close to winning and yet he completely buried Higgins and McIver on the only poll that really mattered – election day. I’m still in shock, but McIver’s volunteer thank-you party is tonight so I’m hoping that maybe I’ll get some more insight there.
The MSM have the exact same bias as every other human being on the planet. They align and notice with that which they most closely believe to be true. Unfortunately, they have all been schooled by the left-leaning, “balanced” educrats.
Just like me, when I owned a corvette, and even now, when I am in traffic I look for, and see all the other corvettes on the road. I have a biased towards them and I will believe there to be more than there actually are. The bias will be more acute, especially when talking with a Mustang owner!!!
WOW, those comments really are blunt, direct in their attacks on G&M and MSM bias and hypocrisy. I’ll actually give the G&M a small morsel of credit here, not censoring those comments like the CBC and certain other lefty MSM routinely do.
“I think reporters have gotten away from trusting what they hear on the street because it’s considered unscientific,” Ms. Lindgren said.
Gotte love this because jounolisters are all so edumacated in that there scientific stuff.
This is about a culture change. While Ford has not slain the progressive multiculti shtick or group identity politics here in Ontario, they have taken a blow. Rob Ford has demonstrated that the weapon of political correctness has peaked in terms of campaigning usefulness. He has been a catalyst for that sea-change in a mirror image way that Obama and his NPR toadies have severely wounded political correctness as a campaign weapon in the US.
US politics are followed north of the border and have an impact here. In completely opposite ways, Ford and Obama have helped the middle class see the difference between clichés and viable ideas to fix things.
Agreed Nom, we have somewhat of a copy-cat political climate here.
Any yes, the comments are scathing. I wonder if the top brass at the G&M are even concerned. I suspect the feelings towards those comments are closer to resentment than embarrassment.JMO
In the Leftist Elitist Echo Chamber that is Canadian Mainstream Newsrooms, I have little doubt that that a conversation like this would be commonplace:
Person 1: “Do you anyone who voted for Rob Ford?”
Person 2: “Noooo! I can’t think of a single person who would vote for that guy. Do you know anyone?”
Person 1: “I don’t associate with anyone that dumb.”
Person 2: “Me neither.”
I understand that Ford dissed a CBC reporter during an interview after the election, by hanging up.
I can imagine the lefty media heads will begin a’sploding all over again over that.
And Ford’s popularity will gain even more 🙂
Yes, the comments are scathing – and I agree, that the editorial staff probably view them with resentment and disparagement. But it’s hard to overlook a massive set of people telling you to ‘stop telling us what to do and think and just report the facts’!
There’s another G&M article trying to explain away Smitherman’s loss; it’s a befuddled article trying to explain it as due to bad campaign management. It totally ignores not only Smitherman’s legislative history with the Liberals (disastrous) but also ignores that Smitherman had essentially no platform and was focused, not on a platform, but on power. He wanted the mayor’s chair and his interest was only in the tactics to get it. He himself had no agenda of dealing with city issues and problems.
Ford, on the other hand, was focused only on city issues and problems – and had a platform to deal with them.
I agree with nomdeblog that the grassroots surge in the US has crept up to Canada where citizens now feel emboldened enough to ignore and even challenge the progressives, the government elite – and think through things for themselves.
Canadian media are completely underestimating the culture change that is *finally* occurring in this country. We aren’t quiet anymore, we don’t have to rely on the MSM to get our news anymore and WE HAVE FINALLY FOUND OUR VOICE.
America and Canada are very similar…what’s happening there is also happening here (albeit in a more subtle way)
It would be nice to think that Ford’s victory was an affirmation that alternate media is eclipsing the dino-meda, but I think there is a larger more wide-spread trend at work here.
AFAIC the jury is still out on exactly what Ford represents aside from the fact he’s plain spoken and a fiscal conservative. What Ford did was tap into a growing wave of neo-populist voter sentiment which is sick and tired of elitism.
This was repeated throughout the Municipal elections, will repercuss in the Provincial elections and certainly be the unseen factor in the Federal elections (Ask yourself why Iggy’s stiff elitism has foiled his polling numbers – why Harper’s anti-populist aloof secretiveness is also damaging his image with party supporters) Neo-populism is also gathering steam in EU (populist nationalism) and the US (tea party).
People are seeing that the collective elite (the self-proclaimed experts, social engineers, socio-economic punditry,and the politicos who pimp these top down ideological agendas) are really screwing things up – particularly for middle class prosperity. We are beginning to see that those who pontificated their lofty utopian social experiments and lorded it over us are not only dramatically fallible but becoming intensely corrupt and abusive. WE are seeing that they are neither our moral or intellectual superiors and we are beginning to reject their pompous self-promotion reflexively. As a reaction they become more abusive and controlling of the public. This is evidenced in the Ford mayoral race by the elites and their media enablers spewing contempt for any kind of populist agenda or ideals Ford may represent.
A renewed democratic populism is on the rise. A wholesale rejection of political&media elitism is in full swing and any politician or editor who does not adopt populist leanings and policy will be swept into the ash can of elitist failures. That includes Rob Ford.
I second chip’s comment. The comments on the story reveal that the days of the legacy media telling people what to think are now over. Around the hospital, even from young colleagues I overhear comments about news stories such as, “Assuming the story isn’t completely made up . . .” But the battleship armoured plate that constitutes a liberal’s head remains as thick and impenetrable as ever. The legacy media will go to its grave like Hitler in his last days — moving non-existent armies across outdated maps in a completely isolated bunker.
I would not know if the MSM got their reportage right or wrong, simply because I ignore them, I have no desire to hear or read the ramblings of a lefty harridan (and that is the only kind of reporter that gets hired these days).
When the MSM finally realise they are there to report news without analysis or editorial comment they may recover their audience, though I doubt it.
Newspapers were cancelled three years ago, and the way things are going I don’t see much point in continuing with my TV subscription considering the juvenile shlock and biased reporting I witness.
Asking the court of public opinion their opinion is unscientific, really what the fork are telephone polls then? Urnalists don’t get it we the people are the voice of this nation not Liberal MSM, Liberal Media ala CBC CTV the Gob are nothing more than propaganda agents for the Leftwing parties.
Bacardi my daughter had him for a prof. at Mount Royal. She said he is one of the smartest people she has ever met. I have doubts but the man knows the Ivy League, knows business and knows the young professional mindset. He could be very good, he deserves a chance.
Interesting that even in this story, the writer cannot help but slip in the standard bias. According to the article, the Ford campaign was endowed with a “false sense of momentum” by some endorsements. Given the results of the election, I cannot see how the sense of momentum was false. Funny, I don’t recall any media referring to the Obama campaign as having a “false sense of momentum,” and Barry did not win with the type of margin that Ford did.
The Globe and Mail were downright obscene in
some comments about Ford. It seemed unwise at
the time …
The MSM has been kneejerk lapdog elitist since Trudeau’s glory days (1968 in case you’re senile or juvenile).
First Timer: “According to the article, the Ford campaign was endowed with a “false sense of momentum” by some endorsements”
No, the article states that the *Smitherman* campaign was endowed with a false sense of momentum.
This might be slightly O/T as it relates to Kate’s previous post on the GSFs and the media bias shown here.
I’ve been involved for about a year and a half with the local anti-GSF committee and one of the recurring themes has been a frustration with media, both local and regional to report our side of the story. Well, you just don’t deserve media, and if and when you get it, it is a proxy; the reporter’s filter is your message: “But…it’s green, what could be wrong?”
Early on, I was given a sage piece of advice, by a senior editor of the Toronto Sun no less, that if you want attention, you need to “get in the face” of your opponent and stay there. Do not waste your time with the media. Focus your efforts on the real target and eventually the media will notice. Ford’s political attention has always been his constituents, media be damned, and our priority has been our community.
How has that worked out? Ford is the big kahuna Mayor. One of our team is now municipal councilor. The head of the MOE Approvals Branch has described our town as “the hot spot in Ontario”. Last visit of Mcguinty to our riding, he was ushered in the back door to avoid protests. We got in his face anyway and made the CFTO news. Our Youtube videos are not viral but have been seen at SDA, the OPP, Sunmedia, UofT Enviroscience, and Queens Park. Both plainclothes and uniformed OPP are now present at all local public events. Next week, a few of us have a private meeting with the Minister of Energy.
So now the media has started to taken notice. Articles in the past few days from Solomon(NP), Dentant(Sun), and Radwanski(G&M) have all mentioned wind turbines and growing anger throughout rural Ontario.
It helps in no small way that a looming provincial election and the huge increases in hydro bills have opened urban eyes.
But the media are followers. They occupy a world where their reality and your reality do not cross. They have never met anyone who ever voted for George Bush or Rob Ford.
You have to create your own agenda.
So much for blaming “the media” or “GTA Lefists” for Harper’s failure to increase vote share. If Ford can do it, why not Harper? Ford has shown that the excuses used by Harper fans to defend him are getting thinner all the time. Unlike what so many Harper apologists claim, it is possible to speak to the people over the media bias … Ford did it. So let’s put the garbage about Harper is stuck with a leftist central Canada and biased media to bed … that’s the arguement of losers.
humans are EGO centric, thusly viewing the world through the len of their own bias. Lefties being generally more narcissistic that cons will convince themselves that the mirror image that they see reflected by popular opinion has to be wrong.
Ok so now that so many in greater Toronto have seen the light of day in regards to the MSM, do you think they can move their minds far enough to see the lies and distortions that are printed everyday about PMSH? The Liberal friendly press refuse to write about all the good that our Conservative government has done and constantly tell lies about Stephen Harper,as a result we have Harper haters who see the coalition as an alternative. I doubt the voters there will put 2&2 together and see how the press crucifys Harper.
Ford promised accountability; Smitherman promised nothing of the sort. For a financially stretched and emotionally exhausted electorate, Ford was the guy.
There were media sources that plugged Ford just as there were media sources that plugged Smitherman. At the end of the day, people went with their gut.
There was some hippie lattee sucker interviewed on the TV about Ford’s win and she claimed he had no support in “Toronto Proper” (whatever the hell that means)and it was the suburbs that elected him. What I totally did understand was that snob tone in her voice…the same sort of tone that looks down its nose at rural Ontario and the support they give to the Conservatives. Maybe…just maybe the suburbs and the working class of the GTA will finally and I mean finally tune in that Liberals of any stripe are leading the province down the socialist path at an ever quickening pace.
I hope Stephen Harper was paying attention. The heck with political correctness. Tell the truth and screw the media. They’re not on your side and never will be. Oh and put on a few pounds, I guess. 😉
What do you know? Wishful thinking doesn’t work for liberal-leftists (or anyone else but we realize that).
What cjunk said!!!
PMSH should invest a few bucks in getting a new media advisor who knows the ropes.
Thank you Dave @ 5:55
I have learned that much today…. where “Toronto Proper” is. Not that you will ever see me there any time soon :))
More, please.
Because half a dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring with their importunate chink, whilst thousands of great cattle, reposed beneath the shadow of the British oak, chew the cud and are silent, pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field; that, of course, they are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the little, shrivelled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome, insects of the hour.
Many thanks, Dave, for posting that link.
A few observations come to mind in looking at it. First there is a clear backlash at least at the municipal level, at least at this moment, against the sort of left of centre governance that Toronto has had for the past two mayoralties. With the sole possible exception of Mel Lastman, Toronto has been governed by left wing elites since at least 1978 when John Sewell took over, and you could argue that it began with the election of David Crombie as the first elected mayor of the Toronto after its first amalgamation into Metropolitan Toronto in 1967. All through those years, the old City of Toronto has largely been able to impose its views on the rest of the city.
It appears at least for the moment that the rest of the boroughs aren’t buying it any more. They don’t care about folk festivals in Nathan Phillips Square; they care about garbage strikes. They don’t care about gay pride or Caribana; they care about transit strikes or anything else that makes the TTC unavailable to get them to work. They care about the host of taxes and levies that Miller dumped on homeowners. That puffed up bag of flatulence Sh*tty Smitty was just more of the same.
Second, the vast majority of the middle class immigrant community, particularly the Asian groups, all live outside old Toronto. This suggests some bad things for the future of leftist politics in the big smoke.
Third, Tory strategy, either federal or provincial, has always been predicated on trying to separate out the various large satellite communities around Toronto: Mississauga, Markham, Pickering-Ajax, Vaughn. What this week’s results suggest is that, like the early 1980s, large parts of Metro Toronto may no longer be wedded to left of centre politics. Far from expanding into the rest of the province, the Libs and Dippers may find their last large remaining bastion under siege in the next election. If the Tories can come up with some policies for urban Canada which make some real sense to the urban voters in Scarborough, they may have a real chance.
It’s probably a better choice than playing footsie with a bunch of pequistes, as Brian Mulroney found to his cost when Bouchard and Co. sold him down the river.
As a final note, many in the MSM have been squawking about how Ford didn’t have any policies that made sense. His message was a simple “respect the taxpayer”. But of course none of them want to remind us about what got David Miller elected. He killed a bridge, which was just about the most stupid thing he could have done for downtown Toronto’s principal source of commercial revenue.
Just read the column’s *comments* section. Astute and substantial criticisms of the media louts! Kate, did you by any chance release the Schnauzers of War? 🙂
don’t be quick to forget or dismiss John Baird’s remark about “T.O elites”
The G&M election graphic tells the tale, with the city core voting Smitherman. Where else would Layton, Chow, Kennedy, et al get elected?
Yep Ford got elected cause he was the better choice and more people knew it.
After the press treated Ford is this any surprise?
The MSM is dead . Its become a Frankenstein. It moves & breaths, but has become empty flesh animated by avarice, with miss placed pride.
A danger to itself & others by its own ignorance.
JMO
Good for Rob Ford and for MSM getting a black eye. Hopefully nomdeblog is right that “US politics are followed north of the border and have an impact here”.
It does not appear to matter whether the Liberals, NDP or so-called Conservatives are in power provincially, we still get all kinds of incremental social engineering stuff rammed down our throats.
Possibly Wild Rose will be able to replace the “progressives” in Alberta and it is starting to appear, to me at least, that the “progressive” wing of the Sask Party has the upper hand of the government in Saskatchewan.
This is an election year, in various areas, but no one has pointed the connection with this very same blog.
Just as the results stun the pundits, and the polsters, a wave is sweeping the planet… “We are not gonna take it!”
Or as Kate puts it:
“Why this blog?
Until this moment I have been forced
to listen while media and politicians alike
have told me “what Canadians think”.
In all that time they never once asked.
This is just the voice of an ordinary Canadian
yelling back at the radio – “You don’t speak for me.”
And THAT sentiment is making itself felt, IN SPADES!!
If you look at the map of results by ward that Dave posted, I think among other things it reveals who the MSM writes for and talks to. Smitherman won big in the “important” parts of town, where the “in crowd” lives.
Ford won big everyplace else where people yell at the TV and hate the newspaper. Ford won big with IMMIGRANTS too.
I strongly think the CPC will do well to continue their stiff-arming of the MSM, and begin to focus on what’s important to immigrant families: taxes, family, reducing the power of government.
The massive joke at play is that the Left thinks immigrants are part of their plantation. Immigrants from India, China, they hate the Left. Their natural party is Conservatives. Personal freedom, personal responsibility, low taxes, and getting The Man out of their face.
Anybody think a Hindu guy from India is going to be happy about the land transfer tax and sorting his blue box into ten categories? Think he likes Gay Pride day? Think he’s concerned about the political leanings of his local public library’s collection?
Nuh uh. Lower taxes, less bullsh1t, that’s what he just voted for.
CPC, wake up dudes. Go hang out in the UN-cool parts of town.
cgh: He killed a bridge, which was just about the most stupid thing he could have done for downtown Toronto’s principal source of commercial revenue.
Are you suggesting that Toronto Island Airport – which was the only thing affected by the bridge – is “downtown Toronto’s principal source of commercial revenue”? If you are, that’s a remarkably stupid assertion.
The comments on that story are scathing.
Elites, be very very worried…The times they are a changin’ fast!
Like I wrote here yesterday, Ford will speak to Torontonians often in normal, honest english. He will report his issues and progress through local media…Beware the ones who will distort or simply omit to report his message…
The same thing happened with the Calgary mayor’s race. I was on right-winger Ric McIver’s team and everyone was pretty confident that he had a solid lead. In the week before the election the gap had narrowed between media darling Barb Higgins and Ric, but he still held the lead and no-name Nenshi was still far behind. Nenshi’s win was a complete stunner. Especially with the amount he won. It wasn’t really all that close. None of the polls we had seen or were public showed Nenshi even close to winning and yet he completely buried Higgins and McIver on the only poll that really mattered – election day. I’m still in shock, but McIver’s volunteer thank-you party is tonight so I’m hoping that maybe I’ll get some more insight there.
The MSM have the exact same bias as every other human being on the planet. They align and notice with that which they most closely believe to be true. Unfortunately, they have all been schooled by the left-leaning, “balanced” educrats.
Just like me, when I owned a corvette, and even now, when I am in traffic I look for, and see all the other corvettes on the road. I have a biased towards them and I will believe there to be more than there actually are. The bias will be more acute, especially when talking with a Mustang owner!!!
WOW, those comments really are blunt, direct in their attacks on G&M and MSM bias and hypocrisy. I’ll actually give the G&M a small morsel of credit here, not censoring those comments like the CBC and certain other lefty MSM routinely do.
“I think reporters have gotten away from trusting what they hear on the street because it’s considered unscientific,” Ms. Lindgren said.
Gotte love this because jounolisters are all so edumacated in that there scientific stuff.
This is about a culture change. While Ford has not slain the progressive multiculti shtick or group identity politics here in Ontario, they have taken a blow. Rob Ford has demonstrated that the weapon of political correctness has peaked in terms of campaigning usefulness. He has been a catalyst for that sea-change in a mirror image way that Obama and his NPR toadies have severely wounded political correctness as a campaign weapon in the US.
US politics are followed north of the border and have an impact here. In completely opposite ways, Ford and Obama have helped the middle class see the difference between clichés and viable ideas to fix things.
Agreed Nom, we have somewhat of a copy-cat political climate here.
Any yes, the comments are scathing. I wonder if the top brass at the G&M are even concerned. I suspect the feelings towards those comments are closer to resentment than embarrassment.JMO
In the Leftist Elitist Echo Chamber that is Canadian Mainstream Newsrooms, I have little doubt that that a conversation like this would be commonplace:
Person 1: “Do you anyone who voted for Rob Ford?”
Person 2: “Noooo! I can’t think of a single person who would vote for that guy. Do you know anyone?”
Person 1: “I don’t associate with anyone that dumb.”
Person 2: “Me neither.”
I understand that Ford dissed a CBC reporter during an interview after the election, by hanging up.
I can imagine the lefty media heads will begin a’sploding all over again over that.
And Ford’s popularity will gain even more 🙂
Yes, the comments are scathing – and I agree, that the editorial staff probably view them with resentment and disparagement. But it’s hard to overlook a massive set of people telling you to ‘stop telling us what to do and think and just report the facts’!
There’s another G&M article trying to explain away Smitherman’s loss; it’s a befuddled article trying to explain it as due to bad campaign management. It totally ignores not only Smitherman’s legislative history with the Liberals (disastrous) but also ignores that Smitherman had essentially no platform and was focused, not on a platform, but on power. He wanted the mayor’s chair and his interest was only in the tactics to get it. He himself had no agenda of dealing with city issues and problems.
Ford, on the other hand, was focused only on city issues and problems – and had a platform to deal with them.
I agree with nomdeblog that the grassroots surge in the US has crept up to Canada where citizens now feel emboldened enough to ignore and even challenge the progressives, the government elite – and think through things for themselves.
Canadian media are completely underestimating the culture change that is *finally* occurring in this country. We aren’t quiet anymore, we don’t have to rely on the MSM to get our news anymore and WE HAVE FINALLY FOUND OUR VOICE.
America and Canada are very similar…what’s happening there is also happening here (albeit in a more subtle way)
It would be nice to think that Ford’s victory was an affirmation that alternate media is eclipsing the dino-meda, but I think there is a larger more wide-spread trend at work here.
AFAIC the jury is still out on exactly what Ford represents aside from the fact he’s plain spoken and a fiscal conservative. What Ford did was tap into a growing wave of neo-populist voter sentiment which is sick and tired of elitism.
This was repeated throughout the Municipal elections, will repercuss in the Provincial elections and certainly be the unseen factor in the Federal elections (Ask yourself why Iggy’s stiff elitism has foiled his polling numbers – why Harper’s anti-populist aloof secretiveness is also damaging his image with party supporters) Neo-populism is also gathering steam in EU (populist nationalism) and the US (tea party).
People are seeing that the collective elite (the self-proclaimed experts, social engineers, socio-economic punditry,and the politicos who pimp these top down ideological agendas) are really screwing things up – particularly for middle class prosperity. We are beginning to see that those who pontificated their lofty utopian social experiments and lorded it over us are not only dramatically fallible but becoming intensely corrupt and abusive. WE are seeing that they are neither our moral or intellectual superiors and we are beginning to reject their pompous self-promotion reflexively. As a reaction they become more abusive and controlling of the public. This is evidenced in the Ford mayoral race by the elites and their media enablers spewing contempt for any kind of populist agenda or ideals Ford may represent.
A renewed democratic populism is on the rise. A wholesale rejection of political&media elitism is in full swing and any politician or editor who does not adopt populist leanings and policy will be swept into the ash can of elitist failures. That includes Rob Ford.
I second chip’s comment. The comments on the story reveal that the days of the legacy media telling people what to think are now over. Around the hospital, even from young colleagues I overhear comments about news stories such as, “Assuming the story isn’t completely made up . . .” But the battleship armoured plate that constitutes a liberal’s head remains as thick and impenetrable as ever. The legacy media will go to its grave like Hitler in his last days — moving non-existent armies across outdated maps in a completely isolated bunker.
I would not know if the MSM got their reportage right or wrong, simply because I ignore them, I have no desire to hear or read the ramblings of a lefty harridan (and that is the only kind of reporter that gets hired these days).
When the MSM finally realise they are there to report news without analysis or editorial comment they may recover their audience, though I doubt it.
Newspapers were cancelled three years ago, and the way things are going I don’t see much point in continuing with my TV subscription considering the juvenile shlock and biased reporting I witness.
Asking the court of public opinion their opinion is unscientific, really what the fork are telephone polls then? Urnalists don’t get it we the people are the voice of this nation not Liberal MSM, Liberal Media ala CBC CTV the Gob are nothing more than propaganda agents for the Leftwing parties.
Bacardi my daughter had him for a prof. at Mount Royal. She said he is one of the smartest people she has ever met. I have doubts but the man knows the Ivy League, knows business and knows the young professional mindset. He could be very good, he deserves a chance.
Interesting that even in this story, the writer cannot help but slip in the standard bias. According to the article, the Ford campaign was endowed with a “false sense of momentum” by some endorsements. Given the results of the election, I cannot see how the sense of momentum was false. Funny, I don’t recall any media referring to the Obama campaign as having a “false sense of momentum,” and Barry did not win with the type of margin that Ford did.
The Globe and Mail were downright obscene in
some comments about Ford. It seemed unwise at
the time …
The MSM has been kneejerk lapdog elitist since Trudeau’s glory days (1968 in case you’re senile or juvenile).
First Timer: “According to the article, the Ford campaign was endowed with a “false sense of momentum” by some endorsements”
No, the article states that the *Smitherman* campaign was endowed with a false sense of momentum.
This might be slightly O/T as it relates to Kate’s previous post on the GSFs and the media bias shown here.
I’ve been involved for about a year and a half with the local anti-GSF committee and one of the recurring themes has been a frustration with media, both local and regional to report our side of the story. Well, you just don’t deserve media, and if and when you get it, it is a proxy; the reporter’s filter is your message: “But…it’s green, what could be wrong?”
Early on, I was given a sage piece of advice, by a senior editor of the Toronto Sun no less, that if you want attention, you need to “get in the face” of your opponent and stay there. Do not waste your time with the media. Focus your efforts on the real target and eventually the media will notice. Ford’s political attention has always been his constituents, media be damned, and our priority has been our community.
How has that worked out? Ford is the big kahuna Mayor. One of our team is now municipal councilor. The head of the MOE Approvals Branch has described our town as “the hot spot in Ontario”. Last visit of Mcguinty to our riding, he was ushered in the back door to avoid protests. We got in his face anyway and made the CFTO news. Our Youtube videos are not viral but have been seen at SDA, the OPP, Sunmedia, UofT Enviroscience, and Queens Park. Both plainclothes and uniformed OPP are now present at all local public events. Next week, a few of us have a private meeting with the Minister of Energy.
So now the media has started to taken notice. Articles in the past few days from Solomon(NP), Dentant(Sun), and Radwanski(G&M) have all mentioned wind turbines and growing anger throughout rural Ontario.
It helps in no small way that a looming provincial election and the huge increases in hydro bills have opened urban eyes.
But the media are followers. They occupy a world where their reality and your reality do not cross. They have never met anyone who ever voted for George Bush or Rob Ford.
You have to create your own agenda.
So much for blaming “the media” or “GTA Lefists” for Harper’s failure to increase vote share. If Ford can do it, why not Harper? Ford has shown that the excuses used by Harper fans to defend him are getting thinner all the time. Unlike what so many Harper apologists claim, it is possible to speak to the people over the media bias … Ford did it. So let’s put the garbage about Harper is stuck with a leftist central Canada and biased media to bed … that’s the arguement of losers.
humans are EGO centric, thusly viewing the world through the len of their own bias. Lefties being generally more narcissistic that cons will convince themselves that the mirror image that they see reflected by popular opinion has to be wrong.
Ok so now that so many in greater Toronto have seen the light of day in regards to the MSM, do you think they can move their minds far enough to see the lies and distortions that are printed everyday about PMSH? The Liberal friendly press refuse to write about all the good that our Conservative government has done and constantly tell lies about Stephen Harper,as a result we have Harper haters who see the coalition as an alternative. I doubt the voters there will put 2&2 together and see how the press crucifys Harper.
Ford promised accountability; Smitherman promised nothing of the sort. For a financially stretched and emotionally exhausted electorate, Ford was the guy.
There were media sources that plugged Ford just as there were media sources that plugged Smitherman. At the end of the day, people went with their gut.
There was some hippie lattee sucker interviewed on the TV about Ford’s win and she claimed he had no support in “Toronto Proper” (whatever the hell that means)and it was the suburbs that elected him. What I totally did understand was that snob tone in her voice…the same sort of tone that looks down its nose at rural Ontario and the support they give to the Conservatives. Maybe…just maybe the suburbs and the working class of the GTA will finally and I mean finally tune in that Liberals of any stripe are leading the province down the socialist path at an ever quickening pace.
I hope Stephen Harper was paying attention. The heck with political correctness. Tell the truth and screw the media. They’re not on your side and never will be. Oh and put on a few pounds, I guess. 😉
http://news.nationalpost.com/2010/10/28/graphic-how-toronto-voted-for-mayor-by-ward/
Glengarrian, here is the ward breakdown of voting. As you can see “Toronto Proper” i.e. the old city of Toronto is still solid leftist while the suburbs are solid Ford. Layton’s son even was elected so you can see how rotten the core of Toronto is.
What do you know? Wishful thinking doesn’t work for liberal-leftists (or anyone else but we realize that).
What cjunk said!!!
PMSH should invest a few bucks in getting a new media advisor who knows the ropes.
Thank you Dave @ 5:55
I have learned that much today…. where “Toronto Proper” is. Not that you will ever see me there any time soon :))
More, please.
– Edmund Burke
Many thanks, Dave, for posting that link.
A few observations come to mind in looking at it. First there is a clear backlash at least at the municipal level, at least at this moment, against the sort of left of centre governance that Toronto has had for the past two mayoralties. With the sole possible exception of Mel Lastman, Toronto has been governed by left wing elites since at least 1978 when John Sewell took over, and you could argue that it began with the election of David Crombie as the first elected mayor of the Toronto after its first amalgamation into Metropolitan Toronto in 1967. All through those years, the old City of Toronto has largely been able to impose its views on the rest of the city.
It appears at least for the moment that the rest of the boroughs aren’t buying it any more. They don’t care about folk festivals in Nathan Phillips Square; they care about garbage strikes. They don’t care about gay pride or Caribana; they care about transit strikes or anything else that makes the TTC unavailable to get them to work. They care about the host of taxes and levies that Miller dumped on homeowners. That puffed up bag of flatulence Sh*tty Smitty was just more of the same.
Second, the vast majority of the middle class immigrant community, particularly the Asian groups, all live outside old Toronto. This suggests some bad things for the future of leftist politics in the big smoke.
Third, Tory strategy, either federal or provincial, has always been predicated on trying to separate out the various large satellite communities around Toronto: Mississauga, Markham, Pickering-Ajax, Vaughn. What this week’s results suggest is that, like the early 1980s, large parts of Metro Toronto may no longer be wedded to left of centre politics. Far from expanding into the rest of the province, the Libs and Dippers may find their last large remaining bastion under siege in the next election. If the Tories can come up with some policies for urban Canada which make some real sense to the urban voters in Scarborough, they may have a real chance.
It’s probably a better choice than playing footsie with a bunch of pequistes, as Brian Mulroney found to his cost when Bouchard and Co. sold him down the river.
As a final note, many in the MSM have been squawking about how Ford didn’t have any policies that made sense. His message was a simple “respect the taxpayer”. But of course none of them want to remind us about what got David Miller elected. He killed a bridge, which was just about the most stupid thing he could have done for downtown Toronto’s principal source of commercial revenue.
Just read the column’s *comments* section. Astute and substantial criticisms of the media louts! Kate, did you by any chance release the Schnauzers of War? 🙂
don’t be quick to forget or dismiss John Baird’s remark about “T.O elites”
The G&M election graphic tells the tale, with the city core voting Smitherman. Where else would Layton, Chow, Kennedy, et al get elected?
Yep Ford got elected cause he was the better choice and more people knew it.
After the press treated Ford is this any surprise?
The MSM is dead . Its become a Frankenstein. It moves & breaths, but has become empty flesh animated by avarice, with miss placed pride.
A danger to itself & others by its own ignorance.
JMO
Good for Rob Ford and for MSM getting a black eye. Hopefully nomdeblog is right that “US politics are followed north of the border and have an impact here”.
It does not appear to matter whether the Liberals, NDP or so-called Conservatives are in power provincially, we still get all kinds of incremental social engineering stuff rammed down our throats.
Possibly Wild Rose will be able to replace the “progressives” in Alberta and it is starting to appear, to me at least, that the “progressive” wing of the Sask Party has the upper hand of the government in Saskatchewan.
This is an election year, in various areas, but no one has pointed the connection with this very same blog.
Just as the results stun the pundits, and the polsters, a wave is sweeping the planet… “We are not gonna take it!”
Or as Kate puts it:
“Why this blog?
Until this moment I have been forced
to listen while media and politicians alike
have told me “what Canadians think”.
In all that time they never once asked.
This is just the voice of an ordinary Canadian
yelling back at the radio – “You don’t speak for me.”
And THAT sentiment is making itself felt, IN SPADES!!
If you look at the map of results by ward that Dave posted, I think among other things it reveals who the MSM writes for and talks to. Smitherman won big in the “important” parts of town, where the “in crowd” lives.
Ford won big everyplace else where people yell at the TV and hate the newspaper. Ford won big with IMMIGRANTS too.
I strongly think the CPC will do well to continue their stiff-arming of the MSM, and begin to focus on what’s important to immigrant families: taxes, family, reducing the power of government.
The massive joke at play is that the Left thinks immigrants are part of their plantation. Immigrants from India, China, they hate the Left. Their natural party is Conservatives. Personal freedom, personal responsibility, low taxes, and getting The Man out of their face.
Anybody think a Hindu guy from India is going to be happy about the land transfer tax and sorting his blue box into ten categories? Think he likes Gay Pride day? Think he’s concerned about the political leanings of his local public library’s collection?
Nuh uh. Lower taxes, less bullsh1t, that’s what he just voted for.
CPC, wake up dudes. Go hang out in the UN-cool parts of town.
cgh:
He killed a bridge, which was just about the most stupid thing he could have done for downtown Toronto’s principal source of commercial revenue.
Are you suggesting that Toronto Island Airport – which was the only thing affected by the bridge – is “downtown Toronto’s principal source of commercial revenue”? If you are, that’s a remarkably stupid assertion.
Phantom, you are bang on!