Doug Ford Shouldn't Let Andrew Lawton Run For PCPO Nomination in London

Andrew Lawton is running for  the Ontario PC party’s nomination in London West.  Doug Ford should not let him.

For many reasons, but this one is my favorite.  Back in 2010 Andrew and some buddies wanted to bring alt-right notable Mark Steyn to London (Ontario).  First to the  University of Western Ontario and then, when that fell through, to the London  Convention Center.  But it all went South on them at the LCC as well, and they blamed Islam.  From Andrew's old blog, which doesn't appear to exist anymore:

“The reason offered by the LCC [in a Tuesday morning phone call] was that they had received pressure from local Islamic groups, and they didn’t want to alienate their Muslim clients. It’s interesting to note that the LCC is owned by the City of London, and is therefore a government operation,” wrote Strictly Right’s Andrew Lawton at the website.

But as I argue here, Andrew's explanation doesn't work.  Basically, the site for Steyn's speech had already changed once, and it would have been impossible for any of these "Islamic groups" to have known which new potential venue to threaten.

Andrew actually responded to my argument in the comments, and pretty much admitted the major points of it.  As I wrote at the time:

Andrew,

So will you acknowledge that, whatever you might have been told by the LCC, it would have been impossible for local "Islamic Groups" to have had any real influence on their decision. This is not to say anything about the LCCs decision making processes, which may well have involved considerations about what how their Muslim clients might have reacted to Steyn's appearance.

So, in short, Andrew Lawton tried to arrange to have an alt-right lunatic speak at the LCC, bunged it up, and blamed Muslims.  If Doug Ford wants to convince Ontarians he isn't a Trump clone, one way to do it  would be to kibosh this nomination run.

Harper Hanging With Crazies (ie Andrew Lawton)

Prime Minister Harper went on Andrew Lawton's show?  To bash dark skinned foreigners and liberals? That's a pretty low move, even for this campaign.  Andrew's history of Muzzie baiting can be seen here, for example.  So it looks like Harper is using the Niqab thing to reconnect with his lunatic base. But its interesting that he thinks they need to be given such personal attention at this point in the campaign.  As I've said occasionally in the past, Harper and Co. have made efforts to distance himself from these people in order to be seen as fit to govern  Now suddenly he thinks he needs them all on-side.

Blast From The Past: What's Andrew Lawton Up To These Days?

He's having his show suspended from AM980 for Facebook posts like:

 "Emerging Leaders used a push poll to try to paint Londoners as intolerant of the LGBTQ community.   

Number of sexual-orientation motivated hate crimes in Canada per year: 185

Number of HIV/AIDS infections from men having sex with men in Canada per year: 1450 

Who is the real enemy?

And here's the grovellling apology.

As for Andrew, we met a few times on Coren's old show, and have  had a few run-ins otherwise. He is not a homophobe.  A pasty, pimple faced punk maybe.  But not a homophobe.  He may even, for all I know, be an avid cellist.

Are You Not Entertained?

Later this morning, I'm off to do Michael Coren's Tuesday blogger panel. Rob Silver and I are teamed up against a pair of teenage Libertarians. One of them has a heart condition and Mike Brock, well, he don't look too mobile. Since you can't kill what you can't catch, I think we'll do okay.