Tory, Tory, Tory
Ontario Progressive Conservative leader John Tory is dismissing polls suggesting he has handed the Liberals another majority victory with his call to fund religious schools. national post
So if you go whoring after minorities, big surprise, you end up in a minority. All the more so if you are a Tory.
The school funding issue was a classic unforced error. Other than a few zealots there were not gazillions of Ontarians dying to fund madrassas.
Had Tory gone with a voucher approach he could have achieved the same end without stirring up the growing resentment of particularist sects within Canada. While the ethnic vote may be important the truth is that the parallel school system constitutionally entrenched in Ontario does a pretty good job of dealing with the Canadian reality of a Protestant/Catholic split. Adding Muslims, Hindus and Lord knows who else to the mix was not going to be attractive.
Why Tory felt he needed to suck up to noisy newcomers in such a spectacularly suicidal fashion beats the Hell out of me. It is not as if his kids are likely to see the inside of a publicly funded school. Nope, this was just dumb.
Did, not does. The “Protestant” system is now secular.
I liked the tax credit proposal, myself. The right always gets accused of helping the rich anyway—there’s no way to defuse that criticism.
I am sufficiently liberal – sufficiently conservative – to be reasonably happy with the Catholic school board; the UN’s opposition to the system is a plus, too. But it will be a cold day in hell before I pay for madrassas. John Tory guaranteed I would vote for any alternative tot he Conservatives provided they opposed that scheme.
No vouchers for madrassas either. Not one cent for the forces of reaction.