Thursday, July 03, 2008

Meet Michael Byers, or: Does The NDP Hate Toronto?

The New Democratic Party gets a "high profile" candidate. :

But another thing to remember is there is a lot of space between Toronto and the rest of the country and quite frankly, I hate to say this, Peter, but if there was a flash and a bang right now and Chantal and I were talking to two blank screens, it wouldn’t be the end of the world in the rest of Canada. It would be very unfortunate, we would be very worried, but it’s a simple fact that this is a big and diverse country.

You know, having lived in Vernon, Victoria, and Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary and Colwood, Winnipeg Manitoba, Stayner Ontario and Oromocto New Brunswick, and now finally settling in Toronto...

And after having a night in Hull, spent time in Regina, Ottawa, Yorkton, Theodore, Bancroft, Bobcaygeon, Harvey Lake, and Fredericton...After having survived the great St. John River flood of 1973, seeing the magnificent Magnetic Hill outside of Moncton, the somewhat less compelling Reversing Falls from a strip club in St. John, after being towed on a toboggan by snow-mobile across Lake Winnipeg, after hunting for Pachyrhinosaurus skulls in Drumheller, and watching the sun-rise from within the very jaws of Dino the Dinosaur (same place)...

After doing all these things, I cannot see how the "disappearance" of any of these places--with the possible exception of Colwood (where I went to Sr. Highschool)-- could not help but inflict a grievous wound on the Canadian nation.

And I wonder how Mr. Layton feels about picking up a candidate who is so sanguine about writing off 4,000,000 of his fellow Canadians.

Mr. Byers should apologize. Mr. Layton should demand it.

8 comments:

northwestern_lad said...

LOL!!!! Wow, is this going to be the Liberal attack line??? Too funny... The Cons accuse the NDP of being Too Toronto-Centric and now you're gonna accuse the NDP of hating Toronto... LOL!!!! The fact is that many people outside of Toronto don't have the fondest feelings about Toronto and you know that. Someone even made a very funny documentary about it. Does pointing that out make he or the NDP hates Toronto??? No, it just sounds like a simple statement of fact.

bigcitylib said...

The Cons accuse the NDP of being a joy to be opposed by.

Anonymous said...

Give it a break Mr.Murphy you liberals are just simply losing it. It's comments like this that makes Toronto look more and more out of touch with the rest of the country.

I'm from Montreal when I hear people criticizing Montreal or the Province of Quebec for what ever reason does this mean that they hate Montreal or the Province of Quebec?

If you're post was in french and you were from the Province of Quebec and saying the samething,but this time it was Montreal not Toronto I'd swear you were a separatist.

This is the way the separatist talk here to sell their salad.

So please hey get a life.

northwestern_lad said...

"The Cons accuse the NDP of being a joy to be opposed by.".... As opposed to the Liberals who just let the Cons have what they want.

Sean S. said...

yawn...and everywhere I have gone across this country one of the unifying things I have witnessed is a dislike for Toronto.....

Ti-Guy said...

and everywhere I have gone across this country one of the unifying things I have witnessed is a dislike for Toronto.

Really? You've been everywhere in this country?

Toronto's the city Canadians love to hate, but only because you have to hate something.

I find that the people who make a point of saying they hate Toronto are usually ignorant boors.

Anonymous said...

Fisking Prof Byers

http://www.climate-skeptic.com/2008/07/extrapolating-f.html

Ryan said...

I guess it is an unfortunate fact that the rest of Canada could indeed exist without Toronto. I'm sure the sentiment is the same in Toronto about Calgary, if not more so.

In fact, I suppose it's easy to dismiss western alienation when you don't need the west to secure your majority in parliament.