Thursday, April 16, 2015

Wynne trying to brand PC Party as homophobic rednecks

Protesters gather on the lawn at Queen's Park to rally against the government's
new sex education curriculum on Tuesday April 14, 2015.
TORONTO - It’s the oldest game in politics.

A good offence is the best defence. Define your opponent before he/she defines him/herself.

It’s happening right now at Queen’s Park as the Liberal government of Kathleen Wynne attempts to brand the PC Party as homophobic rednecks.

The strategy became apparent last week, when Wynne showed up at Agincourt Collegiate in Scarborough to celebrate Pink Day — dedicated to a message of respecting children’s differences.

Who can argue with that message?

Wynne doesn’t hide her sexuality and it certainly hasn’t hurt her political career. Voters demonstrated in the last election that Ontarians are really past caring about a person’s sexual preference when it comes to electing a leader.

But observers were taken aback by her pointed reference to herself as a “lesbian premier” at the Pink event.

“I’m the first lesbian premier, the first woman premier,” she said in her introduction.

And she talked passionately about how she’s a role model for young people and how parents have thanked her for talking about being gay.

Later that week, she gave a bizarre interview to the Toronto Star, wherein she blamed federal Conservatives for generating opposition to the new sex-ed curriculum, suggesting the parents who raised concerns about it were somehow political tools of the Conservative Party of Canada.

She called the tactics “despicable.”

“Remember, part of this has taken on a very negative tone because I’m a lesbian. And there have been aspersions cast because somehow I’m connected to this curriculum, and somehow this is my agenda,” she told columnist Martin Regg Cohn.

All of which does a magnificent job of painting a picture of her as a beleaguered gay premier getting picked on by those big, bad homophobic Tories.

And it’s total baloney.  (more...)


No comments:

Post a Comment