Thursday, August 30, 2007

Psst! John Tory is a CONSERVATIVE! Pass it on...

Apologies for the lack of blogging of late, I've had family visiting from B.C. and we've been doing the tourist thing around Toronto. Today was the Zoo actually, and while we were on the way back on the bus we passed by the campaign office of Gary Grant, the Conservative candidate for Scarborough-Guildwood in the upcoming provincial election.

At least, I assume he is the Conservative candidate. Having been taking pictures of elephants and what not at the zoo, I happened to have my camera in my pocket. Take a look at Gary's campaign office:

Take a closer look, see anything missing?

How about on the lawn sign?

You may be wondering why the word 'Conservative' appears nowhere on these signs. Even the phrase 'Progressive Conservative' is absent. If you look very, very closely, you can see the letters PC. If you look closely, that is. Of course, you need to know what those initials stand for. Politically correct? Prior convictions?

Indeed, if you didn't know better you'd think Gary was running for the 'John Tory Party'. After all, while you have to struggle to even find the initials PC, and the word Conservative is nowhere to be seen (if you say it three times, does it conjure Mike Harris?) John Tory's name is nearly as prominent as the candidate's.

Why, on this sign they made the PC initials crazy small and even skip the candidate's name all together, and just promote the messiah:

It seems clear that Conservative is a dirty word for the Ontario Conservative Party, and they're trying to run as far away from that name, and the Harris/Eves record/baggage, as quickly as possible. They have taken it to a pretty ridiculous extreme, however.

And what's with this John Tory cult of personality? I met Jack Kennedy. I worked with Jack Kennedy. And you, sir, are no Jack Kennedy. Seriously, is this guy really so popular to justify this idolation, and this campaign strategy? I seem to recall a prohibition about the worshiping of false idols...

Really, this is just lame strategy. I thought the whole 'Paul Martin's Liberal team' thing was lame, and the "Your John Tory candidate' thing is equally lame. I have to question their picking that campaign for inspiration, as it didn't work out overly well for Paul and Co.

And as for the banning of the word Conservative, and the pretending to be moderate, a phenomenon we've seen manifest itself in various ways at the federal level too, I have to wonder when do those people that are Conservative, and proud of it, start to stand-up and say hey, screw you, this is my party too so stop pretending I'm a leper?

I mean, if it was me I'd be pissed off, you know?

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10 comments:

Steve V said...

Jeff, lame indeed. Quite a brand those provincial PC's have, I'm surprised they still use blue. The emphasis on Tory is an admission of failed party, and sort of pathetic in a way, because I wouldn't describe Tory as a dynamic charisma machine. I suppose Tory's social stances might be a good showcase to distance from Eves and Harris, appeal to urban voters, but then he goes and picks faith-based schools as his signature issue- go figure.

Suzanne said...

I concur it's a dumb strategy. A lot of people in his base are mad at the way he's abandoned conservatives. One of the first rules of politics is to tend to your base.

Mark Richard Francis said...

This approach was test-driven at the Parkdale-High Park by-election last year. "I'm proud to be part of the John Tory team" was what the PC candidate said, over and over again.

I hope Tory gets hit with questions about that.

The PCs are very worried about branding with Harper and Harris.

Ironically, Harris avoided using the PC name as well to avoid being lumped in with Mulroney.

Skinny Dipper said...

I can't find the words Progressive Conservative anywhere on the Ontario PC website (http://www.ontariopc.com/). I'm not worried about that. I'll be busy today transfering money from the TD to the CIBC, RBC, and BMO. At lunch time, I'm going to KFC for a power meeting with some high profile executives. I gotta buy a shirt for my niece at FCUK. Later, I'll probably see her watching a PSA on a music station that tells young people to FLICK off (the lights).

Mark Timpson said...

Found a Video that says it all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xRCA0nYgnI

Mike said...

And yet its pretty clear where Tory stands...I heard one of his ridiculous radio ads this morning. He as admonishing McGuinty for not protecting Ontarians from crime...that is at a 30 year low. His plan is to interfere with the administration of justice, to hire more cops and fill the jails, none of which actually prevent crime, but merely deal with it after it has happened.

So his position is that he wants to spend our money on something that isn't needed to do something that wouldn't work even if it was needed.

Tell me again how the PC are supposed to be the fiscally responsible party when they want us to believe that nonsense?

Gauntlet said...

The party leader's name is "Tory." He's not going to be able to distance himself from s*$#.

Möbius said...

"So his position is that he wants to spend our money on something that isn't needed to do something that wouldn't work even if it was needed."

Yeah, like a gun registry?

JT is not a conservative. He's not hiding a right-wing agenda, because he wouldn't know the right-wing if it wrestled him to the ground, and bit him.

What the Ontario PC's have forgotten is that they lose elections when they try to move to the centre.

Mark Richard Francis said...

The gun registry was a federal project.

The provincial Tories tax cut us into a severe deficit, after preaching for years that the NDP were incompetent for leaving us with a huge deficit.

It's not Tory who is hiding an agenda -- it's his party, the JTT (John Tory Team).

Lord Kitchener's Own said...

"He wouldn't know the right-wing if it wrestled him to the ground, and bit him".

I loved that image! LOL

Mostly, because the right wing is the only political constituency in the province (or country) that I can actually envision wrestling someone to the ground and biting them!