Monday, February 26, 2018

Interesting Developments in Ontario Conservative Politics

Truth be told I wasn't quite certain how to best title this article and I'm still not sure that the title I have given it really addresses what I'm about to comment on.

When Patrick Brown resigned as leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, interim leader Vic Fedeli soon opted not to make a run in the race to make that leadership permanent. He further added that there was "rot" within the party which isn't exactly a ringing endorsement.

However, four people are currently running to become the leader of the party and, with the Progressive Conservatives leading in the polls, perhaps the next premier of Ontario:


Among those running are Caroline Mulroney, perennial leadership candidate Christine Elliott, Doug Ford (hey, if Trump could be elected president and Rob Ford elected mayor, both of who were known forces of bigotry, incompetence, and chaos, why not Doug?), and social-conservative Tanya Granic Allen:



Ms. Allen's name recently found it's way into the news when she received an endorsement, though likely not one that she sought:


Paulie's endorsement certainly isn't helpful though it was somewhat of a surprise given how much he supported Rob Ford as mayor. Ms. Muroney condemned Fromm and challenged Allen to disavow the endorsement:


Still, there were those who commented on Mulroney's tweet who appear to be the folks Paulie is really targeting:




Ms. Allen did eventually disavow Paulie's endorsement, though she also took the opportunity to slam the press for reporting on it:



In fact Paulie has been in the news a fair bit last week and during the weekend, which was probably his primary goal anyways since he isn't so stunned as to believe that anyone would seek the endorsement of a white supremacist.... well, there was a time when seeking such an endorsement would be political suicide, but all bets seem to be off these days. He was also involved in the disruption by bigots at the anti-racism Town Hall in Toronto that took place on February 22. Though he didn't make any noise himself, it became apparent afterwards that he was very pleased by the outcome:


Now this actually brings me to another interesting connection with Progressive Conservative politics in Ontario:



ARC discovered Patrick Tomaseweski when an activist commented on the recent antisemitic vandalism that took place at the the Leuty Lifeguard Station in the Beaches area of Toronto; Paulie doesn't appear to think it is a big deal. The activist also found that Tomaseweski had commented on the then upcoming anti-racism Town Hall and Meir Weinstein's call-out to people who he likely knew would disrupt the event:


Hmmm, seemingly acting as an apologist for Paulie and defending the JDL.

So, who is Patrick Tomaseweski?


This is:


Ah...

Interesting.









Now normally I wouldn't pay a great deal of attention to someone like Patrick Tomaseweski, but looking at his social media profile was rather interesting.

First, he doesn't seem to understand the difference between weather and climate....



.... and he definitely loves him some Donald Trump:


But these are sort of becoming more common on the conservative side of the political spectrum so big deal.

Other posts though are more concerning. For example, while he's in favor of moving the American embassy to Jerusalem and wishes Canada to follow suit....


.... he seems supportive of an increasingly authoritarian government's plan to outlaw political discussion regarding the involvement of some Poles during the Holocaust, something Israel opposes:



So.... would this be a bad time to mention the Kielce pogrom or other attacks targeting Jews in Poland who survived the Holocaust but died as a result of antisemitic hatred in Poland after the war?

In the wake of the most recent mass murder in an American school, his love of American-style gun laws also strikes this writer as somewhat concerning:



Related and also concerning his his apparent acceptance of conspiracy theories:



Uhm, nope. In fact those are two different men in the
 photo, neither of whom are David Mikkelson.
There's also the fact that he retweets folks like Bras Salzburg:

And finally, this:


Senior Consultant at the Ontario Legislature, eh?

Yikes.

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