It starts out pretty ‘vanilla’, but then it gets more colourful…
For those not familiar with Ontario politics: for the last 6 years, the community of Caledonia has been torn apart by violence as a native land claim had led to armed occupation, division of the municipality, violence and police response where law-abiding citizens were arrested for wanting to go home, because this might provoke a violent reaction from armed native occupiers. The non-native residents of Caledonia were not the only victims: as armed ‘warriors’ from across Canada flooded to Caledonia to flex their muscle, the law-abiding citizens of the 5 Nations Reservation were equally victimized as incidents of rape and other violence were swept under the rug while the armed thugs bullied the community…
Mr. Hudak himself is a bit of an enigma…
He is very charismatic in person – that much is undeniable.
Still, the last election was his to lose – and he did lose it, spectacularly.
On the same issue that his predecessor did: religion in schools.
Conservatives in Canada must learn to separate religion from their policies or they will never be trusted by voters enough to be voted into power. Mr. Hudak failed there and handed the despicable McGuinty the election victory.
Still, coming into conflict-riddled Caledonia took a lot of guts – and Hudak has raised my opinion of him both for going there and for what he had said.
Unfortunately, Mr. McHale – the man who has led the fight in Caledonia for equality before the law and against race-based policing – he behaved badly (in my never-humble-opinion).
Perhaps he was disappointed that a politician did not behave like an activist….just like his expectations that Mr. Hudak could rid us of the Ontario Human Rights Commission while he was a leader of the opposition were just a little outside of what was possible. He certainly did not come across as the reasonable warrior for equality whose speech in Ottawa I liked and whom I admired.
Merlin – the vet who was interviewed at the end of the video – he got the measure of the situation just right!
Xanthippa's Chamberpot 