Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Why Toronto votes Liberal

When asked why Toronto votes solidly Liberal, people from the ROC (Rest Of Canada) will usually say something about mental acuity.  Moronto is a term that has gained popularity the last few years.

This cannot be the case however.  Unless "They" are putting something in the water, 4 million people can't all be imbeciles.  So what's the deal?

Well here's a nice little article that talks about the situation.  From the National Post, h/t to NealNews.

Most amazing fact listed?  49% of Torontonians were born outside Canada.  Its like a foreign city-state parachuted into Canada.  While there is certainly nothing wrong with being born outside Canada, that major a concentration of immigrants does explain a lot about voting patterns.  They have different concerns than native-born Canadians, one of which is how they are going to get Grandma Jones into Canada from the old country. 

Obviously they are going to vote for the party with the most open immigration policy. 
They will be less concerned with the niceties of social policy.
They won't care a damn about The West because they've never been there and don't plan on going.
Excessive regulation of landowners, farmers not making it, high gas prices,blah blah, they don't care because they live downtown, ride the TTC and never see any of that stuff. 
Gun control?  What, trust these crazy white people with guns?  Are you nuts? 
Spend money on the military?  So they can come burn my house down?  Nuh uh. 
Quebec?  Where's that?

This confluence of interests also explains much about Liberal behaviour.  When in doubt, spend money in Toronto on issues popular with immigrants.  The West?  Why bother, they are all Conservatives anyway.  Make the Tamil Tigers a banned terrorist group?  No way, think of all those votes in Don Valley! 
Gun control?  Hell yeah, that's a winner downtown baby!  Screw the damn farmers!  Screw the military! 

What immigrants and native-born alike will notice though is the reek of Liberal corruption.  I wager the Toronto incumbents will have a much harder fight this time out than in previous years.  Nobody likes a thief, particularly people that came to Canada to escape thieves in the first place.

The Phantom

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